New York, Nov. 16, 2009 - Ready for some hearty, authentic flavors of Italy? Select Italy announces its new line-up of specialty cooking classes in Florence, Venice and Rome, and they're sure to leave no traveling foodie hungry. The Taste of Italy Specialty Experiences each focus on an essential component of Italian cuisine, such as homemade pasta, seafood, real Roman pizza and gelato. The new offerings include Pizza Romana and La Dolce Vita in Rome, Pasta Fiorentina in Florence and, in Venice, Seafood in the Serenissima.
Exploring the Roman Forum and Colosseum is bound to work up one's appetite - and the four-pizza lunch that follows the three-hour Pizza Romana experience is hands down the most savory way to satisfy it. Even better, participants will learn how to make the thin-crust, hand-tossed pizza alla Romana for themselves. Delicious gelato plus three Italian desserts figure prominently in the La Dolce Vita course, which also lasts three hours and, like the Pizza Romana and Pasta Romana courses, is held in an established culinary school in Rome's Prati neighborhood.
In Florence, the city of ultimate Renaissance refinement, now there's a cooking class commensurate with its reputation for exquisite tastes: Pasta Fiorentina. Participants learn to make tortellini, ravioli and other pastas, from making the dough to pressing and cutting pasta shapes and creating fillings and sauces. Then they test their cooking skills on a pasta dish of their choosing. The home-style experience takes place in the private kitchen of local gourmand Francesca di Leonardo in Florence's San Frediano quarter. Di Leonardo leads the three-hour advanced class, and an all-pasta feast follows.
The charms of Venice are too myriad to mention, but you'll unlock some of the city's most succulent secrets on Select Italy's Rialto Market tour and restaurant cooking demonstration: Seafood in the Serenissima. Tour the Rialto fish market - one of Europe's oldest outdoor markets, and possibly its most atmospheric - with a seasoned guide before traveling by gondola to the Il Fontego del Pescatore restaurant for a three-hour seafood-cooking demonstration by Chef Massimo. The menu varies by season, but expect the likes of homemade tagliolini with scampi and peas or asparagus sauce, and potato gnocchetti with Venetian scallops and diced zucchini. Massimo also dishes on the best way pair wines with seafood. A tour of the Cannaregio neighborhood comes next, followed by a four-course seafood feast.
"With the debut of our Taste of Italy Special Experiences, Select Italy builds on its core of already popular cuisine-driven classes in the Big Three cities of Florence, Venice and Rome to offer travelers some truly tantalizing choices," says Select Italy President, Andrea Sertoli. "Whether making hand-tossed pizza in Rome or savoring scallops in Venice, they'll get the kind of hands-on, insider knowledge that can make their trip even more memorable, and keep the taste of Italy going strong once back home," he adds.
The new Taste of Italy Specialty Experiences start at $175 per person and are additions to Select Italy's current range of culinary classes and guided market visits, which include Cucina Romana, Cucina Fiorentina and Market Classes. Further details on all the company's culinary offerings are available on the company's Website, www.selectitaly.com.
Press contact:
Anthony Grant
Tel. (646) 379-0767
tony@selectitaly.com
Dream trip to the Amalfi Coast and beyond? Done. Opening night at La Scala? Check. Tuscan villa rental to remember? Presto! Based in Chicago with an office in New York and support staff in Italy, Select Italy has been a trusted ambassador of Italian travel expertise since 1997 and is the ultimate source for travel to Italy. The company offers a wide array of products and services, including customized itineraries, wedding/honeymoon and other vacation packages, culinary tours, a complete pre-departure ticketing service for museums and musical events, private guided services, yacht charters, transportation, hotel reservations and villas bookings, and more. All of these are available by calling (800) 877-1755 or by visiting the company's comprehensive Website, www.selectitaly.com.
