I recently returned from a cooking holiday with a company 'Convivio Rome' and I must say it was fabulous and much more than I had expected. I was well looked after the whole time. An Australian wife and Italian husband run these holidays in a truly authentic and really untouched part of Italy, in Sabina, just north of Rome. Highly recommended!

Learn the bella lingua at Collina Italiana (CI) on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Signature Italian language and culture classes include Italian cooking and wine workshops and seminars in language and culture, such as learning the bella lingua through contemporary Italian film, Italian decorative painting, theater, cuisine of Northern Italy,etc.

Culinary tours seem to be a growing trend, with such specialized tours as the gelato tours in Italy, a host of wine-tasting tours around the world, and cooking classes welcoming foreigners more and more. A myriad of culinary tours are listed...

Blood libels are false accusations that Jews use human blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.Although the first known instance of blood libel is found in the writings of Apion, an early 1st century pagan Greco-Egyptian who claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in the Temple, no further incidents are recorded until the 12th century, when blood libels began to proliferate in Christian Europe. Blood libel accusations have often asserted that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically blood libel claims have often been made to account for otherwise unexplained deaths of children. In some cases, the alleged victim of human sacrifice, child or adult, has become venerated as a martyr, a holy figure around whom a martyr cult might arise. A few of these have been even canonized as saints.Although broadly discredited, these libels have persisted among some segments of Christians to the present time, and recently Muslims as well. In Jewish lore, blood libels were the impetus for the creation of the golem of Prague (a commonly known jewish legend) by Rabbi Judah Lowe ben Bezalel, the Maharal.Many popes have either directly or indirectly condemned the blood accusation, and no pope has ever sanctioned it, though the assertions are usually spread and promoted by local clergy.