My son-in-law loves cooking Italian and I would like to send him on a trip to Italy to stay in one of the local homes and take a few cooking classes. The ones posted on the internet are rather costly and I am wondering if anyone knows of any reasonable cooking establishments in the Tuscany area. Any information would be appreciated.

Your son in law should cook for H.J., who is looking for a cook in Tuscany. There, just killed two birds with one stone.

Suz, you may not want to use the phrase "kill two birds with one stone" when referring to cooking.. <BR> <BR>Marlene, I've done some researching on the web, because I'm interested in the same thing, so here are the sites: <BR>http://www.initaly.com/ads/lesson/lesson.htm <BR>http://www.cookitaly.com/page17.html <BR>http://www.theinternationalkitchen.com/lesson.htm <BR> <BR>I took classes in Paris, in the chef's homes, and count on about $200 a day/class.

Check out tuscanwomencook.com - great food right from the source!

Marlene, <BR> 5 years ago I attended the Cordon Bleu of Florence cooking school. It was a 5-day course, which cost about $350. We went to class each morning from 10:00 AM to 1:00PM. Classes were held in a kitchen with hands on. At 1:00PM, we ate our cooking, along with fine Italion wines. It was ALWAYS a fine meal. We then had afternoons for sightseeing and shopping. It was wonderful and we came home with many, many great recipes. It is in the center of Florence. Gabriella Mari and Cristina Blasi are the founders and they conduct the classes. I LOVED it!! <BR>Try http://www.cordonbleu-it.com.