Anna_Galea

cindyroo42 - It is great to hear that you husband's family is of Maltese origin, I am not the Anna Galea of your extended family for sure, there must be well over a hundred with that name in Malta as it is very common here.

Now about your holiday, (please bear in mind that I am the most adventurous in doing long drives in Europeon countrries in very short limited time, I test my poor hubby's driving skills to the limit, lol regarding driving long distances). I WOULD DEFINITELY NOT do that long drive from Barcelona to Venice and back in such a short time. You are talking over 2400km in less than a week, and that is taking the shortest route, and not visiting B&Bs off the beaten track

. That long driving distance in such a short time would be definitely done if somebody is driving overland like to buy a car and drive it, just stopping to rest overnight like my brother did when he bought himself a car from the UK, but for a holiday, no way!! You would barely have early evenings at place of destination, let alone doing cooking classes.

I am checking out the date you arrive in Barcelona, and the cruise departure date, and I notice you don't even have a week in between, but just 6 nights, and remember you also have to fit in sightseeing in Venice, since your husband insists that he wants to visit that wonderful city (us Maltese can be quite hardheaded lol).

You said that flights are expensive, but fuel is also expensive in Europe, so you would not really be saving if you take a low-cost flight to Venice. I checked Ryanair for you and they do flights from Barcelona (from two different airports) to Venice Treviso airport on 17th June and the fares are really good.

Which airport are you arriving at in Barcelona from USA? And what time will you be landing in Barcelona? If you do like the idea do not take too long to book as sometimes they go really up in just a few days, and anyway, I am assuming that you are doing this vacation this year, there is not really much time left.

So IF it were me, and I really wanted to go to Venice (don't blame your hubby, it is so beautiful and unique and your kids will love going on a gondola etc) - I would take a low cost flight from Barcelona to Venice, pick up hired car at airport (like Venice Treviso airport have extremely good rates since low cost airlines land there, (we rented Avis and we picked it up from there on our last holiday in December and dropped it off at Pisa airport),

I really do not know what regions you would like to go to in Italy for cooking holidays/ relaxing holiday besides Venice, but I assuming you would like to include Tuscany or to the west of northern Italy in Piedmont area.

I am calculating that you would only have six nights prior to the cruise departure, and I also presume that you would need to stay the last night in Barcelona. That would leave you with just five nights at your disposal. So if you want to savour as much as possible and do not mind quite some driving and having a one night stay, I would do two nights in Venice, two nights in Piedmont, and one night somewhere in between and take a flight from Turin to Barcelona (I just checked, till now flight on Ryanair is only 28.99 + check-in fees on the 22nd of June.

Alternatively, you can fly back from Pisa to Barcelona and take a B&B with cooking school in Tuscany, and also near Venice, and maybe even near Lake Garda as another Fodorite suggested and fit in two or three stops. The flight from Pisa to Barcelona on the 22nd June is 46.99 Euro plus check-in fee, which if I remember well is 10 Euro. Be also aware that they charge for baggage check-ins with limited weight allowance for each baggage checked-in as well, but you are allowed for free a flight bag per person, and since you are four in the family it would be easy to divide the weight between four baggages. So you have to decide whether you want to make 2 or three stops, and the regions you are interested in visiting, always of course including Venice, we can't leave that out!!!

Do take our advice, please, Sassafrass and Uhoh_busted gave you real good advice, with that mileage you have to drive going and coming back, and with just five nights available, you would be doing one night stops every time and arriving late evening every time. As Uhoh_busted said, not all highways even in Europe are multi-lanes and huge and flat, like many in Big Huge America, they might even lead you to mountainous areas, even more so if you go to off the beaten track B&B.

Please come back to us and tell us what you think about this, and we shall gladly research B&Bs for you and give our suggestions.

I repeat, since you have such big distances that you would have to travel to reach Venice and back, I would suggest you take a low cost airline, so that at least you would have the time to enjoy the holiday, and it would also probably be cheaper, considering toll roads, renting of car, fuel etc. Hiring a car from one airport and dropping it off in another in Italy involves only a small extra charge, but they do charge a lot if you hire from one country and deposit the car in another.

Sorry I am stressing this a lot, but I am trying to convince you since you seem to be quite determined to go for it, and my only aim here on Fodors is to do my very best to help people enjoy their holidays, maybe even more so for people with Maltese blood!!!! (joking). .

Enjoy your planning!!!

annhig

sadly cindy, you have [at least] 2 trips here.

1. driving holiday from Barcelona. 6 days pootling around the area between Barcelona and toulouse. lovely coast line, the pyrenees, Perpignan and Toulouse, loads to do.

2. Venice.

StCirq

You cannot drive from Barcelona to Venice and back, enjoying cute villages and pasta-making classes and country roads, in a week's time. You just can't.

cindyroo42

Yes! You have convinced me with the cheap flights. As you see, I am the one trying to make all happy. My hubby is away on business, but I am going to try to slip away from work early and try and book some flights : ).
Anna, thank you for honesty and willingness to help. We are traveling ( hubby and I) to Southern Italty and on to Malta in September. If you are from Malta we should take you to dinner! My hubby is a Pace which is also everywhere there : )
Once I get this sorted tomorrow, I will let you know. This last minute change has made me crazy!

Anna_Galea

You are welcom cindyroo42, everyone here on fodors I have found is helpful and want to do their best to give you good advice to their best of their ability, or preferences, then you do your own homework and you decide what may be the best for you. Some might be blunt, as I have noticed, but you get used to it, and all certainly want to help out, otherwise nobody would bother to write and give suggestions. Now even myself, I definitely am so happy to know that if I need any suggestions for any place that I have never been to, I am going to find friends to give their suggestions or advice to help me out.

So now before you book flight, and decide on your flight destination in Italy, you have to see that you have ample time for transit flights. I do not know, maybe other fodorites can give their recommendations on this, but if you have ample time I would collect luggage in Barcelona. and check-in with Ryan air to Ttaly, to make sure that nothing gets lost in transit. Try and find a flight on the same day so that you would not waste another night, especially if you want to spend the last night prior to the cruise in Barcelona.

Then I would choose 2 accomodations to stay in - 3 nights in a B&B/agriturismo close to Venice, but still in a village or small town that does a cooking class, that way you will have at your leisure one full day in Venice and another whole day to enjoy your cooking class and maybe wander a bit around the surroundings, and the other two nights in the region where you are taking your flight back to Barcelona, in another nice B&B/Agriturismo

JUST REMEMBERED Ryan Air also does from Barcelona to Bologna, I just checked for you it does a flight on the 22nd of June. I also checked Barcelona Venice for 17th June, and today price was only 23.99 (flights fluctuate every single day). It departs Bacelona at 3.40pm, don't know if you would manage to make the flight. So check these three destinations well and make your homework regarding prices, times of departure etc.

Last Christmastime we went to Italy and for Christmas Eve we stayed at a very small intimate relais hotel in Pietralunga. It is called Locanda del Borgo. The hosts are the best you can ever encounter, believe me, such a lovely family own this small country Relais. They have the most raving reviews on tripadvisor and I am one of them. They have family apartments which are so cute and Umbrian style, and the food is so good, genuine and abundant, we were really amazed. It was Christmas Eve and it is a tradition on that night that Italians serve fish for good luck, and believe me, a never-ending feast it was,(and I am not that easily impressed since as you know fish is so abundant in my country), plate after plate of pasta, shellfish, fish, desserts, accompanied by a full bottle of prosecco and three whole bottles unopened of local wine - amazing it was. The surroundings are so beautiful,close by, there is Citta' di Castello to visit, or Deruta Lake Trasimeno, or even Perugia etc, it is a pity you do not have at least another night available. If you take plane back from Bologna it is an easy drive on the autostrada, a bit over 2 hours, but plane leaves late afternoon, so you will have plenty of time. We had booked through booking.com, and then I contacted them personally to fix cost of dinner, and since we had booked late they had given us half price!! They had charged us only 120 Euro for the apartment for all of us, including breakfast, and 50 Euro each for Cbhristmas Eve dinner, (they did not charge anything for my youngest child who is disabled, so very nice of them). This country hotel is situated north Umbria, very close to the Tuscan/ Emilia Romagna border. If are interested contact them and ask the owners if they would do a cooking class for you, I am sure they would be more willing to oblige. Tell them I recommended them I am sure that they well remember our family from December and would do their very best to accomodate you, they are such a lovely family, that is.if you are interested in that place.

Prior to our holiday, I had made a lot of research in Citta di Castello area and I am checking them out right now, and I am seeing an Agriturismo which specifically does cookery classes and pasta making classes. Have a look at it, it is called Agriturismo Ristorante Calagrana, even on their website they are seen making pasta.

We had Christmas day lunch (even I like to change dining/lunch options) at L'Antico Forziere, and even another accomodation you might want to look at is I capricci di Merlon. I had shortlisted to all these and then had chosen La Locanda del Borgo to slee, but each to his own, maybe you would prefer Agriturismo Ristorante Calagrana for the pasta making - or maybe you can sleep at one place and visit the other the next day, I would do that myself. They are all in the same area of course. We had wanted to go there for a couple of days as on Christmas Eve in Citta di Casello a group of canoeists all dress up as Father Christmas and with lit canoes they row down the river, and when they reach Citta di Castello they disembark and hand over sweets and gifts to children waiting for them. I just love local Italian tradition at Christmastime, particularly the Presepe Vivente, the live cribs in so many towns and villages.
So if you choose these areas, maybe you can do 2/3 nights in a B&B in Veneto or surroundings, close to Venice, and 2 or 3 nights in another B&B, maybe the one I just recommended (on the way you can stop for a lovely meal in Emilia Romagna, maybe in a small town or village. If you decide to take this route, I would strongly suggest you take plane back to Barcelona from Pisa or Bologna, or else leave Venice for the last and from there go back to Barcelona. So you would definitely use Venice airport, and Bologna or Pisa airport, so that you would lessen travel time. Check which times/prices are best for you. I hope I am being clear enough with my suggestions. You will have some driving to do, but it is close to nothing compared with the long driving route you were going to do. Get back to us on what you decide.

Yes Pace is also a common name here.

annhig

cindyroo - hooray. I'm sure you won't regret it.

Yes, we can be blunt - but it's because we want YOU to benefit from OUR mistakes. and Barcelona to Venice and back in a week would have been a HORRIBLE trip.

hope you have a great time planning your week in Italy.

cindyroo42

Hi again! We are behind and will just visit Barcelona where we land on a Sunday. Followed by French or Spanish villages on the south western side. Carcassonne has been mentioned as a must see, but rolling hills and beauty are things we desire. The Basque region interests me as I understand it is very pretty. Is there a little circle or plan anyone could recommend. We will hire a car.

annhig

sounds like a great plan.

i suggest that you buy or borrow the relevant Coadogan guides to the places you want to see. I have looked on amazon, and there is a brand new one on Northern Spain, plus rather older ones on the pyrenees and the Langedoc. they have excellent ideas for touring and vey reliable recommendations for restaurants and lodging.