Planning guides: what is in season, which region to choose, and how to get there.
A flexible 3-day Florence food and wine itinerary: the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets and a food tour, a pasta or gelato cooking class with a Tuscan wine tasting, then a Chianti vineyard day trip. Suggestions, not a fixed schedule.
A flexible 3-day Istria food and wine itinerary: hunt truffles near Motovun, taste Malvazija and Teran wines and award-winning olive oil in the hill towns, then eat fresh fish on the coast at Rovinj and Pula. Suggestions, not a fixed schedule.
What to eat on Hvar: gregada (the island white fish and potato stew), fresh grilled fish and shellfish, lamb and octopus peka, and Hvar's own Plavac Mali and Bogdanuša wines - the dishes to order and where to eat on the island.
What is peka? Croatia's slow-cooked dish of meat or octopus with potatoes, cooked for hours under a domed iron bell (ispod čripnje) buried in embers until tender and smoky. The versions, how to eat it, why you order it ahead, and where to try or cook one.
How a Split cooking class works: cook Dalmatian classics like peka, black risotto, handmade pasta and fritule in a konoba or local home, often after a Pazar market shop, then eat it with local wine. What you cook, the market, how long, and how to pick a class.
A flexible Split-to-Dubrovnik food route down the Dalmatian coast: black risotto and a cooking class in Split, island wine on Hvar or Korčula, Ston oysters and Pelješac reds, then pašticada and rožata in Dubrovnik. Suggestions, not a fixed schedule.
A flexible 3-day Split food and wine itinerary: ease into the old town and Dalmatian classics, spend a day on the Pazar market and a cooking class with local wine, then take a day trip to Hvar or the vineyards. Suggestions, not a fixed schedule.
Where to take a Lake Como cooking class: Varenna's best-value home kitchens (about €100-110, an hour by train from Milan), Bellagio's panoramic terrace classes, and Como and Menaggio. What you cook - ravioli, risotto, tiramisù - how much it costs, and how to get there car-free.
Croatian dishes explained by region: peka, black risotto, pašticada, brudet and soparnik on the Dalmatian coast; truffles and olive oil in Istria; štrukli, sarma and sausages in the continental north - plus the wines and sweets.
What to eat in Zagreb: štrukli (baked cheese pastry), turkey with mlinci, sarma, ćevapi and kulen, and kremšnita for dessert - Central European Croatian cooking, plus the Dolac market and where to eat.