Ciao Laura offers a weeklong Christmas cooking vacation in Sorrento, which includes three Italian cooking lessons, Christmas lunch, and opportunities to explore Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii, and Positano and other spots along the Amalfi Coast. To whet your culinary appetite, watch a demonstration on making Neapolitan pizza in a traditional wood-burning oven, and sample wine in Campania. Then, once you’re ready to start cooking, learn to make traditional Italian Christmas pastries, including zeppole and struffoli. The trip includes three cooking lessons, focusing on a special holiday menu, and Christmas lunch. The highlight of the trip is cooking an authentic three-course Italian seafood meal, under supervision of a professional chef.
Apple Languages combines Christmas cooking courses with Italian language courses of any level. Participants in this 12-day program, beginning December 20, will stay with an Italian host family in Sorrento while preparing traditional Italian meals, and will enjoy Christmas activities in Sorrento and excursions to Naples, including a visit to a Neapolitan church to see handmade cribs.
Spend four days on a country farm in Umbria, improving your Italian cooking skills and exploring the region of Umbria, whose Christmas traditions are sacred to the region. The four-day Christmas cooking session from Let’s Cook in Umbria is available from December 8, 2010 to January 6, 2011 and can be booked on any day of the week. The program offers participants the option of taking planned half-day trips to Perugia, Assisi, and Gubbio, and includes three cooking classes featuring traditional Italian Christmas recipes and dishes. — Elaine Murphy