There we were on a sunny morning during our tour, on the Italian Riviera cooking with Fausto in his restaurant set among olive trees on terraced hills. His gardens overflowed with basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, vegetables and roses, his trees were loaded with lemons, his olive, fig and fruit trees, awaiting their seasons, surrounded his restaurant.

Side by side with Fausto in his kitchen, we were making focaccia, breads, chick pea polenta, pesto, rack of lamb buried in fresh sage and rosemary, pear and chocolate torte, and much more.

As one couple was kneading bread in front of the window in the kitchen, the woman looked up and said, "Here I am in a restaurant in Italy with the sun pouring in the window, looking out at roses and lemon trees, and making bread with the man I love. What else could I want in life?"

On a cooking tour in Italy you go back to simpler, sweeter times of long ago. You slow down, have time to talk, laugh, and share fun experiences with family and friends. To eat genuine food lovingly made of fresh, local ingredients. To drink wines right with the producers in their cellars. To immerse yourself in beautiful, peaceful nature and real Italian life with local people. To rediscover what your heart really values.

What do you experience on a cooking tour?

Most days you learn to cook hands-on for about three hours with a chef and dine on your creations, accompanied by good wines. Back home at your dinner parties, you'll impress even your fussiest gourmet friends.

For the rest of your day, you enjoy food, wine or sightseeing excursions, or free time. Tour big and small wineries in Umbria to discover how wines are made and taste them right with the owners. Visit a Tuscan artisan olive oil producer who shows you how he makes oil using a traditional granite wheel. Follow a balsamic vinegar producer in Modena through his cellars and taste his 25-year-old balsamic vinegar. Go fishing with a local fisherman on the Amalfi or Cilento coasts. Lots of fun in refining your palate!

Sightseeing excursions take you to explore and shop in medieval towns like Dozza, famous for its murals, in Emilia- Romagna or historical sites like Pompeii. You get a feel for town life and learn about history and art. Sometimes you walk along wine country roads or pathways so you escape to beauty and peace and go home weighing the same.  

Where to go in Italy?

Surfing the Internet, you'll find an overwhelming choice of types of cooking tours from north to south in Italy.

Ever popular Tuscany is just one of 20 Italian regions. Do you love red wines? Piedmont's Barolo 2000 vintage rated 100/100 in Wine Spectator. Do you love fish? Venice and the Marche on the Adriatic coast and Sicily offer you an incredible range of seafood.

When to go?

If you like warm weather, go in May, June, September or the beginning of October. July gets hot and crowded, and August even more so. In August, especially around Ferragosto on August 15, most city dwellers go on holidays, flocking to the beaches where they jam under rows of umbrellas like canned sardines or to the mountains. Businesses close, so cities like Florence empty out, leaving their streets to the tourists.

Want to walk through vineyards or olive groves at harvest time? Grapes get picked around late September through October, but wineries are busy so their staffs have less time to spend with you when you visit. In November you can watch people picking olives and taste new olive oil.

Love white truffles? You can enjoy truffle fairs and truffle hunting with dogs in October and November in parts of Piedmont, Tuscany, Romagna and Le Marche.

Want to escape the Christmas rush? Naples is famous for its incredible array of Nativity scenes so a cooking week in Sorrento becomes even more special in December.

Ever dreamed of joining the flamboyant, wild party goers at Venice at Carnival time? On a cooking week in Venice in early February, you indulge in cooking and carnival adventures.

Which Italian cooking tour is right for you?

First, what is important to you on your cooking holiday? Cooking lessons? Great wines? Local culture? Make sure your tour contains good doses of what you want to do. How many cooking lessons? Some six-night tours give you five lessons, while others give you three. How many wine visits? Some tours offer one winery tour while others offer several.

Where to stay – country or town?

Some tours base you in the country at a farmhouse or villa while others offer an historic hotel or B & B in a town.

In the quiet country, you'll feel yourself unwinding as the beauty and tranquility seep into you.

In a town you just step out into the piazza to drink espresso or go shopping. You experience local life, since most Italians live in towns.

In warm months, do you need air conditioning? Check with your tour operator. Four-star hotels must have it to qualify for their stars. Few other historic hotel properties have air conditioning; their thick walls keep rooms cool.

Cook with one chef or many chefs?

Do you prefer cooking with one chef at your home base or with four chefs in four different restaurants and homes?

Most six-day tours give you four cooking lessons at your home base with the same chef, so you and your teacher really get to know each other and you can just walk to your room after dinner.                               

Some tours take you to four different homes and restaurants for lessons, so you cook with everyone from a grandmother on her farm to a Michelin-star chef in a famous restaurant. You learn many styles of cooking, and see a variety of kitchens, restaurants, homes and towns. You meet lots of locals you'd never have met otherwise and feel Italian!

Travel with a guide or on your own?

Would you like a guide to take care of you and the tour details so all you have to think about is having fun? Or would you prefer to explore independently in your rented car with no guide?

Most guided tour groups have up to eight people, so you bask in personal attention from your local guide. She takes you to visit her favorite people and places, many off the tourist track, and tells you about local life. Your fellow travelers love food, wine and the good life as much as you do. Soon you all feel you're traveling with old friends.

If you prefer to rent a car and explore on your own, some tour companies offer itineraries with cooking lesson, restaurant, winery and food producer appointments, and free time set up for you. You just follow the directions in your tour package and discover Italy at your own pace.

Don't see the experience you've always dreamed of on tour companies' web sites? A few companies can custom design a guided or non-guided tour just for you.

What's your price range?

Cooking tours start from $649 U.S. for a "drive yourself" three-day experience at a country inn in Umbria with three cooking lessons at the inn with meals and accommodation.

An eight-day guided tour in Piedmont's Barolo wine country, Cinque Terre and Tuscany's Brunello wine country with lovely historic hotels, five cooking lessons in five restaurants, five winery visits and many country walks includes everything for about $4,700 U.S.

Celebrate with those you love!

Whatever Italian cooking tour you choose, it is a fabulous way for your group to celebrate long time friendships, "significant" 30th, 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays, and big 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th wedding anniversaries with those you love. Your cooking tour in Italy lasts just a few days but your memories last a lifetime.