THIS new company offers cookery and art holidays with local teachers in Fiesole and Maiano near Florence, and Bagni di Lucca near Pisa. There are also luxury packages at the stunning Hotel Villa San Michele in Fiesole, designed for those who know how to order Italian food, rather than cook it.

Or get away from Tuscany to the Le Marche region for three- or five-day packages with the Italian aristo Anna Maria Biondi at the Palazzo dalla Casapiccola. From £200 a day including accommodation, all meals, classes and wines, but not flights or transfers.

Taste Italia: 01268 711445, www.taste-italia.com.

Tasting Places

THE class act of Italian cookery classes, Tasting Places holds week-long courses in some of the most entrancing parts of Italy, including Orvieto, southwest Sicily, Arezzo and Verona, conducted by chefs such as Jeremy Lee of London’s Blueprint Café and Giuseppe Silvestri of Harrods. And there are tempting cooking/shopping long weekends that start with coffee and a truffle panini in Florence, and finish at the Prada fashion outlet, from £ 895pp. Week-long packages start at £1,350pp.

Tasting Places: 020-7460 0077, www.tastingplaces.com.

Diane Seed’s Roman Kitchen

BRITISH-born Diane Seed is a superb teacher who has lived in Rome for 30 years. Small week-long classes are held in her home in the Doria Pamphili Palace, also the home of a great art collection. This year’s dates include April 4, May 9 and June 6. Class only, £600. Or join Diane on her to-die-for Amalfi Coast cookery course, May 16-22. The cost, normally £1,260, is reduced for Times readers to £1,000.

Diane Seed’s Roman Kitchen (00 39 06 6797 103, www.italiangourmet.com).

Herein Italy

JOHN GARNER lives on a rambling farm in textbook Tuscany. Nice life if you can get it — and you can, for a relaxed and affordable week-long cooking course. Limited to ten people, the courses promise hands-on cooking, plus visits to wine, olive oil and cheese producers, shopping days in Siena and Montepulciano and lunches in local bars. One for those not scared of breaking a fingernail. From £735, April to Nov ember, excluding flights.

Herein Italy: 00 39 057 766 1400, www.herein.it

Cook-Italy with Carmelita

MALTESE-born and Bologna-based Carmelita Caruana’s simple, hearty but beautiful Italian food was featured in BBC Good Food magazine over three issues last year, whetting appetites for her hands-on cookery courses in Lucca, Bologna, and Sicily. Or grab five pals and head for the Tuscan sun July 25 or Aug 22 for three days of cooking at Il Rifugio, an old stone property near Cortona. From £1,077pp (less 10 per cent discount if you mention this article).

Cook Italy: 00 39 349 007 8298, www.cookitaly.com

The Italian Cooking School

HEIDI LASCELLES, the founder of London’s delightful shop Books for Cooks, runs week-long classes that will revitalise both your cooking and your love of Italy. Classes are held by the resident chef Olivia Greco in the 500-year-old farmhouse at Barberino, between Florence and Siena, from March to October. Prices start at £1,564pp for tuition, accommodation, food and wine, excluding flights.

The Italian Cooking School: 00 39 055 807 2231, www.theitaliancookingschool.com.

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