Special-Interest Vacations

Academic Trips & Language Classes

Florence holds more foreign student programs than almost any other city in the world. The list of universities and programs operating there is endless. For adults interested in studying in Florence, the list narrows a bit. One good place to start looking is Education First (tel. 800/665-5364; www.ef.com), as they run a number of educational programs in Italy, including Italian language classes in Florence. Another private group with a Florence program is Academic Studies Abroad (tel. 888/845-4272; www.academicstudies.com), which works through the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai. (Keep in mind that students on these sorts of programs are traditionally in their early twenties.)

Food & Wine Trips

Most tourist boards offer guided tours of the vineyards in their province, as will a number of local tourist agencies. They're often sponsored by the vintners themselves. The producers at Donatella Cinelli Colombini (tel. 0577/662-108; www.cinellicolombini.it) even offer a "wine safari," in which they take visitors out in four-wheel-drive vehicles across dirt tracks to undiscovered corners of the region where small shops turn out top-shelf Tuscan art, wine, and cuisine.

Cooking Schools

It seems everywhere you turn these days someone is offering a cooking class. The most serious cooking courses in Tuscany (and there are a lot of them these days) in my opinion are at La Petraia (tel. 0577/738-582; www.lapetraia.com), for a simple reason: the simplicity of it all. The ingredients you use: the eggs, the chestnuts, the peas, the ham, the spices, almost without exception come from the very property where you are staying. And what a property it is. A few times a year, hostess and chef Susan McKenna Grant invites a well-known international chef or food author to the Chianti farmhouse in a weeklong series of discussions and cooking jams called the "Petraia Sessions." At press time, she was hosting food writer Michael Pollan.

One of Italy's most respected cookbook authors, and former TV cooking show star, Giuliano Bugialli [SS] shares his secrets in summertime weeklong classes, with lodging in Florence and classes conducted in a kitchen in the Chianti. One-week courses can run $4,500 per person, including first-class accommodations and most meals. For more info, contact "Foods of Italy" at 105 S. 12th St. Apt. 205/206, The White Building, Philadelphia, PA 19107 (tel. 215/922-2086; fax 215/923-3502; www.bugialli.com).

Another high profile school is the one started by Lorenza de' Medici, author of 30 kitchen tomes (including the coffee-table favorite Tuscany: The Beautiful Cookbook) and star of her own PBS cooking series. Unfortunately, she's hung up her apron and now leaves the lessons to an acolyte. May through October, her 1-week "The Villa Table"-brand courses take place in the 12th-century abbey and wine estate Badia a Coltibuono. The courses aren't cheap -- similar to Bugialli's prices -- but room and board in the late medieval abbey complex are included. The courses book up quickly. Another option is the half-day cooking course offered Wednesdays and Fridays from 10am to 3:30pm, which must be booked at least 36 hours in advance at tel. 0577-744-832 or www.coltibuono.com. For more info, contact Louise Owens, 3128 Purdue, Dallas, TX 75225 (tel. 214/739-2846; fax 214/691-7996).

April through October, Inland Services, 708 Third Ave., 13th floor, New York, NY 10017 (tel. 212/687-9898; www.cookeuro.com), offers a weeklong course, "Love of Italian Cooking," with visits to wine estates and cultural day trips, for about $3,200 per person based on double occupancy.

If a week's time or a $4,000 investment are too rich for your cooking-lesson tastes, check out Judy Witts Francini's La Divina Cucina (tel./fax 055-292-578; www.divinacucina.com) for 1-, 2-, and 3-day courses designed to teach you to cook as the Florentines do. You start off each class by shopping in Florence's large central market at 11am, and by 4pm you've put together a meal based on the freshest ingredients available that day. A single Monday at the market costs 125€ per person, or a 3-day Chianti and Florence program costs 770€.

The Castello Vicchiomaggio (tel. 055-854-079; fax 055-853-911; www.vicchiomaggio.it) may also be good for dabblers, offering a 1-day course for 155€ per person (minimum six people).

Bike Tours

The best way to experience Tuscany and Umbria just may be by bicycle. Bike-it-yourselfers should arm themselves with a good map and make use of the resources of the Club Alpino Italiano, Via E. Fonseca Pimentel 7, Milan 20127 (tel. 02-2614-1378; fax 02-2614-1395; www.cai.it). You can rent a bike by the week or longer at outlets in most cities.

Several operators specialize in setting up itineraries and making some of the arrangements for you or in leading fully guided tours. Ciclismo Classico (tel. 800/866-7314 in the U.S., or 781/646-3377; fax 781/641-1512; www.ciclismoclassico.com) is one of the best operators and has been leading bike and walking tours in Italy since 1988. A weeklong tour of Tuscany runs about 2,173€ per person. April through November, the outfit runs several guided tours through Tuscany and Umbria, always van-supported, and will help you arrange a do-it-yourself tour as well. Six- to 15-day trips usually include Italian-language and cooking lessons along with wine tasting and cultural itineraries. Groups average 10 to 18 people, with all ages and ability levels welcome.

Experience Plus (tel. 800/685-4565 in the U.S., or 970/484-8489; www.experienceplus.com) offers both guided (Sept-Oct) and self-guided (Apr-Oct) biking and walking tours through Tuscany lasting 8 or 9 days. Florence-based I Bike Italy (tel. 561/388-0783 in the U.S.; www.ibikeitaly.com) offers guided 1- and 2-day rides in the Tuscan countryside. The 2-day tour requires a minimum of four participants and ends in Siena. They provide a shuttle service in and out of the city, the bike, and a bilingual guide. The 1-day tour returns to Florence around 5pm. Tours cost around 70€ per person, lunch included. The same company leads less extensive walking tours in Tuscany.

Walking Tours

If you don't feel the need to cover so much territory, you can appreciate even more of the countryside by walking or hiking (called trekking in Italian). Italy's resource for everything from countryside ambles to serious mountain trekking is the Club Alpino Italiano. Many outfits run walking tours in Tuscany and Umbria. Besides Ciclismo Classico, you might want to try Butterfield & Robinson, 70 Bond St., Ste. 300, Toronto, ON M5B 1X3 (tel. 800/678-1147 or 416/864-1354; fax 416/864-0541; www.butterfield.com); or Country Walkers (tel. 800/464-9255 in the U.S., or 802/244-1387; www.countrywalkers.com), which has a rather refined, romantic outlook on Italy and offers several Tuscan tours, one of which divides your time between exploring hill towns on foot and taking cooking and wine appreciation lessons.

For walking tours in Florence, one of the better resources is Context Travel (tel. 215/609-4888; www.contexttravel.com), whose graduate students and other experts in their respective fields lead tours and seminars on everything from Renaissance art to ceramics to cuisine.