Meet Mama Margaret: Italy’s Culinary Tourism Maven

Vancouver- based Land of the Gods Voyages, specializing in Mediterranean holidays, has partnered with Margaret Cowan, otherwise known as ‘Mama Margaret’ of Mama Margaret and Friends Cooking Adventures in Italy.

The partnership, new this year with packaged itineraries now ready for sale, provide niche culinary and wine tours in Italy, home of some of the world’s most famous foodie – havens.

“We offer tours to food and wine lovers in Italy who want to eat and drink and cook and laugh- the cooking tours are an excuse to get to know the local people, in their homes and their kitchens and their farms and wine cellars and forge an authentic connection,” Cowan told PAXnewsWest.

Cowan, who has 19 years’ experiences leading culinary groups in Italy, said the tours are small- group immersive experiences, typically six days in length and created exclusively for Land of the Gods Voyages.

The tours take travellers into the heart of small-town Sicily, Piedmont’s Barolo wine country, Southern Tuscany’s Brunello Hills, the Amarone wine country near Verona, or the Amalfi Coast’s Paestum and wine country, to name a few examples.

“All of these tours have one common element: they take you to cook with people in out of the way places, like terraces above wineries and lemon groves -foodies are in heaven,” Cowan said.

Experiences include risotto and cheese-making classes, and olive grove and olive-oil making tours in Puglia, which is known as the California coast of Italy.

Pre and post cruise packages are also available out of Venice, with private transfers provided. The properties are rustic, boutique style hotels that don’t cater to large tour groups.

“Our hotel partners- you won’t find them anywhere online, they are so niche,” said Derek Legault, Land of the Gods’ marketing manager. “You can’t book these through any other tour operator.”

For more information, go to landofthegods.com.

Photo: Magaret Cowan, Italy Travel Specialist, Land of the Gods Voyages.