While this year’s wedding season begins to slow down, preparations for next years celebrations start to hot up.
So, if you’re searching for honeymoon ideas and you want more than just another beach holiday, memories that outlast the hotel bill and a bit of an adventure, look no further. Ooh.com has an unending supply of inspirational trips and adventures; here are a few romantic getaways that have recently caught our eye.
Reindeer sledding in Sweden
Think saunas under the stars, a 2 day reindeer sledding tour in the beautiful Lapland landscapes, igloos, furs and the northern lights.
Since summer is officially here it’s time to highlight our favourite summer snack- the mighty ice cream. We’re expecting/hoping/praying for an appropriately hot summer and, should the impossible happen, we may require a refreshing gelato. But where to go for the best ice cream? Londoners, New Yorkers and San Franciscans gather around…
Where do you picture yourself in July this year? Sipping Pimms in the garden? A spot of rowing at Henley? Festivalling? How about summiting one of Italy’s highest mountains?
Starting July 7th in Chamonix, France, Cloud 9 adventure holidays has put together the perfect itinerary for a 7 day guided walking and climbing tour high in the Italian Alps to summit Gran Paradiso, which looms at a mighty 4061m (with an option to extend the tour to include the Mont Blanc Summit).
Enrica Rocca is known as ‘The Cooking Contessa’ and Gourmet Magazine rated her eponymous cookery school as one of the top ten schools in the world.
Born in Venice, The Financial Times has described Enrica as “an Italian cook of note and a flamboyant and passionate chef and restaurateur…She has Italian cooking in her blood and a contagious zest for life and food…”
The Daily Mail says the Enrica Rocca Cookery School is the best Italian cookery school.
The plaudits are as endless as Enrica’s passion for food and her pleasure in sharing this with others.
As well as running a successful cookery school in London, Enrica runs classes in Venice from her family’s palazzo dating back to the 1800s. Does cooking get any better? We wanted to find out more.
Enrica offers half day, one day and two day courses in Venice. Cookery takes place in her stylish modern, loft-style apartment within the family palazzo. As one of only eight students, you’ll start the day by accompanying her on a trip to the bustling Rialto market, one of the oldest food markets in the world, believed to have been trading since 1097. Enrica says, ‘I never have a recipe in mind before I go shopping,’ (but unlike me she clearly doesn’t end up with a basketful of food and nothing to make a meal out of) ‘I see what’s freshest and best in the market, and I start my recipe from there.’
The shopping trip will be halted briefly for a glass of prosecco in a typical Venetian Bacaro before heading back to the palazzo to start cooking. You will create delicious meat, vegetable, seafood and pasta dishes, learning how to use the traditional spices that are an important part of Venetian cuisine.
Watch Enrica’s video clip of her Venetian cookery lessons and you’ll see that her ethos is about using great ingedients to make great food, and ensuring people laugh a lot and learn a lot along the way.
For more information about Enrica’s classes in both Venice and the UK, visit her website.
Stumbling across Letizia Mattiacci first on Twitter (@MadonnaDP), then moving on to her blog and website, made me very happy (and hungry). I wanted to find people running cookery courses in inspirational and beautiful places, and Letizia does just this.
A cookery course taught by a passionate Italian cook in a restored farmhouse in the Umbrian countryside i n Italy – do cookery courses get any better?
Even the name of the farmhouse is alluring: ‘Alla Madonna del Piatto’. Letizia tells me that the cookery classes offer an informal, friendly blend of modern and traditional Italian cooking techniques. So what will guests cook? As Letizia started to speak, I could feel my mouth start to water, ‘We use whatever is fresh and in season. As an example, we love to cook ravioli with pears and balsamic vinegar, fried zucchini and artichokes, followed by honeyed ricotta mousse.’
Lessons start in nearby Assisi, visiting a local food shop to sample and buy a variety of traditional local cheeses and cured meats for an appetizer. Guests then use these and other ingredients picked up locally or from the farmhouse herb garden to prepare their authentic Italian meal. Oh, and did I mention that lessons take place in a professional kitchen overlooking the gardens and beyond to the Umbrian hills and Assisi? Surely cooking heaven?
I asked Letizia what drives her and keeps her cooking all year round, ‘The ingredients in the area we live in are sensational and cooking is my life. What could be a better job than preparing delicious food and sharing it with other people who also feel passionately about food?’
The cookery lessons sound fantastic, but to be honest, I’d go for the views from the farmhouse to the hills alone.
For more information about cookery lessons and staying at Santa Maria degli Angelli, visit www.incampagna.com.
One of us recently went skiing to the obscure (yet fantastic) ski resort of Super St Bernard in Italy. Yes, it’s true that the lift station and café look like a set from a 1963 “B” movie and that it only really has one lift. At the top one is required to traverse the mountain via a tunnel that looks like it was designed and built by a gang of enthusiastic 11 year olds.
However, it’s worth it. Our guide, Gilbert Hiroz, from Verbier was completely on the money: he predicted good weather and untouched powder and delivered on his promise.
Dammit, the man even produced a bottle of wine and some thinly sliced Parma ham at the bottom. To contact him email him at gilberthiroz@gmail.com.
