For my 40th birthday my dad and step-mom sent me to cooking school in Italy. It was like adult food camp, with my own two-bedroom place and roosters along the Val d’Arno to awaken me at sunrise. The grapes and olives had just been picked, and the Italians leave the grapes on the row beside the road so it looks pretty.
We stayed for a week at a 16th century Domenican monastery where the fathers made legendary Vin Santo (literally holy wine).
The course was run by Peggy Markel at La Cucina del Focolare (cooking by the fireside) and the 18 of us in class were ensconced on a property 19 miles south of Florence at Fattoria dei Usignole (Farmhouse of the Nightingales).
Chef Piero gave us nearly daily participatory lessons in the kitchen, and every day we ventured to an herb farm, farmer’s market, or bakery with lessons. We spent one day touring Greve, Siena and San Gimignano, and another visiting Florence and going to Cibreo for dinner.
I made friends with whom I’m still in touch and it trumped my cooking school experience in NYC only because it was a treat and there were no knife skill tests or making puff pastry.
Peggy Markel plans these trips with the big picture in mind as well as all the details, and her staff is spot on. She also runs a school on the Ligurian coast and in Morocco. Check out http://www.cookinitaly.com or http://www.peggymarkel.com.
Make sure to say that Dee sent you! Happy cooking.
Cooking with Dee 
Cooking camp! That’s wonderful. My husband sent me to piano camp for my 40th; that was an amazing experience, too. I made great friends there, and we’re still in touch. The “piano babes” thought about going to cooking school in Italy together a few years ago, but husband said that I’d have to cook when I got back, and it’s not my favorite thing! I love reading about food on your blog, though.
Go to Peggy’s with a girlfriend, then try cooking with your husband, showing him your new recipes, when you get home from Florence.
I played piano and violin years ago and don’t miss the violin. In third grade they didn’t call Melissa and me “the squeaky sisters” for nothing! But I loved choir through mid-high school. Keep up the music but there are so many short-cut dinners that you can have your family around for that precious hour every evening and enjoy it.
Keep up your knitting and blogging! Dee