Bologna, Italy - 6 nights
Available May and October - Sunday to Saturday

Join Mary Beth Clark, award-winning cooking teacher, chef and founder of The International Cooking School of Italian Food and Wine, for an incredible six-day journey into the essence of Italian cooking in magnificent Bologna.

If your passion is Italian food, join us for our extraordinary six‐day immersion in La Cucina Italiana. From the outdoor market to our palazzo kitchen to our dining table, you will experience the delights of Italian food, wine and culture with award‐winning chefs and culinary artisans ~ cooking, traveling and sharing many memorable meals together in Emilia‐Romagna ~ it’s a sensuous treat!

You’ll participate in six cooking classes including four hands‐on classes, one gelato‐making demonstration and an incredible Michelin‐star demonstration class. You’ll learn outstanding Italian dishes, classic La Cucina Tradizionale and light La Cucina Nuova. We build your culinary repertorio with solid foundation: fundamental preparation and cooking techniques making full Italian menus from lʹantipasto through il dolce, finishing with multicourse food‐and‐wine pairing meals. Excellent wines are served with each course so you enjoy a wide range of Italy’s wines. Rounding out the culinary experiences is in‐depth travel in Emilia‐Romagna.

* Wonderful Welcome Dinner at Bologna’s best traditional restaurant.

 * Shop in Bologna’s famous outdoor food market and specialty stores for authentic regional products for ingredients for our class. We’ll introduce you to the best Italian cookware and tabletop shops, where you are sure to find kitchen utensils and lovely pieces for your table.

* In our modern, professional restaurant kitchen you cook side‐by‐side with Mary Beth and professional Italian chefs, learning authentic techniques while making dishes ideal for casual meals or for entertaining. Just wait until you taste the delicious dishes we make together in class ~ you’ll love every bite you make! You will easily recreate every dish in your own kitchen. Our professional preparation and cooking techniques are unique and easy, and are proven to make you an even better cook.

In our palazzo, each hands‐on class is about 6 hours long ‐ we want you to use your time wisely and enjoy this culinary experience by learning as much as possible. During this time, we prepare and cook a variety of dishes, have our tastings of specialty foods and conclude with our multi‐course luncheon paired with excellent wines. Usually we finish about 3:30‐4:00 p.m., just in time for museum hours and late afternoon shopping.

* Make la pasta fresca, fresh pasta, by hand using a wooden matterello, in class with our incredible sfoglina, pasta chef. This fresh pasta we make in class often become benchmarks for future dishes, they are absolutely beyond compare. Special gnocchi lesson, too!

 * Great cooking includes knowing what ingredients to use, when, how and why they make a recipe special. How to select the best ingredients, store them to maintain quality and quick tips for emphasizing their unique flavors. You will taste a range of young and aged balsamic vinegars and cured prosciutto from different regions, special rice for risotto, and other products. What an amazing difference each one contributes to making a dish taste even better!

* Make thin‐crust pizza in a wood‐burning oven with our professional pizza chef, called a pizzaiolo. During our 2‐hour private class, you’ll learn how to make tender, flexible yeast dough that stretches to almost paper‐thinness, the type of wood best used for enhancing the dough while baking, even the trick for a flavorful yet light tomato sauce. Even if you bake pizza in your own indoor oven, these techniques are universal and using them really makes a difference. One‐on‐one with the pizzaiolo, you’ll make your very own pizza ~ you’ll stretch it, sauce it, bake it, slice it. It will be the best pizza you ever tasted, and you made it yourself!

* You’ll love our excursion in Emilia highlighting world famous Parmigiano‐Reggiano and aged balsamic vinegars. These exceptional products are hand‐crafted and made only in Emilia‐Romagna, Italy. You’ll have an exclusive lesson with a renowned cheese master on how Parmigiano‐Reggiano is made and aged for years. You’ll see the entire process from copper cauldrons, called caldaia, containing 1000 liters of simmering milk to the aging of golden wheels of this prized cheese. Near Modena, we’ll have our exclusive visit at one of the few existing traditional vinegar attics, called acetaia. Not only will you meet our Italian friends, these gold‐medal award‐winning producers and taste on‐site with them, you can extend this wonderful experience by bringing home this exceptional cheese and vinegar to share with family and friends.

* Another excursion not‐to‐be‐missed is our day in Romagna! Today combines historical art with culinary art. We’ll drive east through the Romagna countryside to Ravenna, located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Ravenna is a little treasure filled with 8 UNESCO World Heritage sites and world‐renowned mosaics dating back to 5th and 6thcenturies. After our visit, we drive along the Adriatic Coast, called La Riviera del’Adriatico, to our next fabulous experience...

 Concluding this memorable week is our exclusive demonstration cooking class at two Michelin‐star Ristorante La Frasca. Only for our school ~ the Executive Chef and his staff demonstrate signature dishes with recipes given for our stellar celebration of Italian cooking!

* To really learn and understand Italian cooking today, and to learn to cook this well in your kitchen, you must give yourself the opportunity to experience La Cucina Italiana in its many forms. We immerse you in cooking and dining experiences with the pros. You’ll become a better cook because we don’t just teach recipes. We teach professional techniques that make sense. And combine it with the five senses.

Please consider the significant culinary range of our Basics Course: From our great food‐and‐wine pairing luncheons we make together in our private palazzo to making pizza in a wood‐burning oven, making gelato, al fresco dining at Bologna’s best traditional restaurant to our spectacular two‐star Michelin restaurant demonstration. It’s guaranteed to make your culinary dreams come true! We hope you can join us.

Day One (Sunday)

Private Tour of Bologna’s Medieval Historic Center, Special Welcome Dinner

Check into your hotel. Meeting in your hotel lobby between 3:45‐4:00 p.m., we’ll get acquainted during a late afternoon Insider’s Walking Tour (2 hours) and see what makes Bologna so special with its beautiful basilicas, palaces and museums adorned with Romanesque and Gothic art. Al fresco dinner at Bologna’s best restaurant. Specially prepared for us are many traditional signature dishes.

Day Two (Monday)

Seasonal Harvest in the Outdoor Market, Hands‐on Cooking Class, Aged Balsamic Vinegar Tasting, Multi‐Course Food‐and‐Wine Pairing Luncheon, Gelato Indulgence!

Shopping in Bologna’s outdoor food market for fresh produce and the best stores for Italian cookware and products is fascinating! Onto our palazzo and cooking in our professional kitchen with Italian chefs and Mary Beth...Ready to become a fabulous cook?

You’ll learn important classic and new‐style techniques making our delicious luncheon today, a luscious antipasto, creamy risotto, a seasonal main dish with vegetables. In our Tasting of Aged Balsamic Vinegars, learn how to select the best, plus storage tips and terrific serving ideas. We’ll cook with them, too! A talented chef teaches us gelati artigianali, how to make creamy gelato and fruit sorbetto. This private class concludes with a childhood dream coming true ‐ have as much as you want. Any flavor or all flavors, and there are more than 20 to choose from. With chocolate sauce, with whipped cream, even a cherry! Evening at your leisure.

Day Three (Tuesday)

Our first visit is at a caseificio, watching a cheese master stir milk in copper cauldrons, then transform it into golden wheels of Parmigiano‐Reggiano. Tasting aged cheese with him on‐site is memorable! We continue our travels near Modena for our private visit at the award‐winning acetaia, learning the process for aging balsamic vinegar in heirloom wooden barrels. Return to Bologna in early afternoon with the remainder of the day at your leisure.

Day Four (Wednesday)

Cooking Class, Pasta Class, Prosciutto Tasting, Wonderful Multi‐Course Luncheon

Enjoy an experience of a lifetime ‐ making fresh pasta by hand with our sfoglina, our professional pasta chef. Learn her secrets for rolling‐out using the traditional wooden matterello. You’ll make spinach pasta and Ragu Bolognese for our Lasagne Bolognese. Learn special techniques making exceptionally tender, delicate cuts of pasta ‐ scrumptious!

After this class, we continue with our Regional Prosciutto Tasting learning new ways to include prosciutto in our cooking and some great entertaining ideas. We’ll conclude our luncheon preparations by making more antipasti and a winning dessert! Evening free for Bologna’s nightlife and jazz clubs.

Day Five (Thursday)

Sensational Mediterranean Class and Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

Imagine Mediterranean breezes and an azure sky...You’ll learn easy techniques from a remarkable chef who specializes in Mediterranean cooking. (With many years experience cooking along the Mediterranean Coast of Italy, he has prepared dinners for President and Heads of State! Together, we’ll make fabulous dishes ‐ light gnocchi with seafood sauce, a dish that is sure to become a favorite of yours, a quick main dish ideal for work week dinners as well as informal entertaining and a fabulous dessert everyone is going to love! All paired with Italian wines for our memorable Mediterranean lunch.

Hands‐On Cooking Class ‐ Pizza class and dinner with our pizzaiolo, professional pizza chef. He’ll reveal tricks for making really good thin‐crust pizza. Standing next to him, you’ll shape, sauce, top and bake your pizza in a traditional wood‐burning oven, while enjoying a leisurely dinner.

Day Six (Friday)

Full‐Day Excursion to Ravenna to view Byzantine mosaics in an UNESCO World Heritage site, then drive along the Adriatic Coast to our Exclusive Michelin‐Star Cooking Class & Grand Finale

In our private pullman, relax while we drive east through Romagna to Ravenna, a beautiful little town near the Adriatic Sea. Rich in history and art, Ravenna has been pivotal throughout Italian history. It was the point where Julius Caesar gathered his troops before crossing the Rubicon, and its harbor was an important station of the Roman imperial fleet. As the last capital of the Western Roman Empire, Ravenna is home of many mosaics, considered crowning achievements of Byzantine art. We’ll visit a world‐renowned historical site to view the 6th‐century artwork.

We’ll drive to a small seaside resort along “La Riviera del’ Adriatico” for our final cooking class, our behind‐thescenes full‐menu demonstration class at two Michelin‐stars Ristorante La Frasca, rated among the best in Italy. Renowned for their fabulous La Cucina Nuova and wine cellar, they open their kitchen exclusively for our school. The Executive Chef privately teaches you spectacular signature dishes for our food‐and‐wine pairing Grand Finale ‐ it is fascinating!

Day Seven (Saturday)

Stock up with special ingredients, regional olive oil or your very own Italian wooden rolling pin for making pasta in your kitchen. Check-out by noon. Grazie e arrivederci!

* For our meals, if you prefer a beverage other than wine, we are happy to accommodate your taste preference.

Nota Bene: Every Friday and Saturday in Bologna’s Historic Center, Piazza VIII Agosto, is an outdoor flea market that goes on for blocks, offering almost every imaginable item of clothing. Shoes, dresses, jeans, jackets, handbags, sweaters, sunglasses, T‐shirts, belts, vintage clothes mostly from Central and Western Europe, sometimes Asian silks. Home and table top accessories. Cash, negotiable with some vendors. With a little patience, you could find some great bargains. Open from about 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

HOW TO ARRIVE

Airport: Bologna's Marconi International Airport has multiple daily connecting flights available through Milano or Roma; direct flights from any major European city including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Vienna, Barcelona, and Madrid. Airlines include New Alitalia, Air France, American, British Airways, Delta, KLM, Lufthansa and US Airways. Luggage carts are waiting by baggage claim. It is a 15-minute drive from the Bologna airport to either hotel in the Historic Center, cost will be about 20 euros.

Trains: Trains from almost every Italian city as well as major European cities arrive several times daily, and are fast and easy, too. (There are no baggage carts in the Bologna train station, and porters are scarce, fyi.) It is a 5-minute drive from the Bologna train station to either hotel in the Historic Center, cost will be about 8 euros.