Trips we'd love to experience

Learn 'La Cuccina D'Italia' while you experience Tuscany Tuscan Way, the travel company for combining Italian countryside vacations with lessons in authentic cooking styles, has announced a new vacation site La Locanda del Prete. This medieval home was once owned by the local matchmaker, thus the translation, "The Inn of the Priest." And, as Tuscan Way's fifth vacation site, La Locanda del Prete offers visitors a more independently structured vacation, with opportunities for exploring the nearby villages and towns using detailed suggestions from Tuscan Way. The price for the seven-day package is $1,890 per person, double. Another jewel to explore Located in the region of Grosseto, La Locanda is in easy distance of Florence, Siena and the coast. Guided tours take guests to Pienza, one of Italy's best planned Renaissance towns, known for its Duomo, built in Montepulciano. Montepulciano, where guests will visit a family-owned winery, Santa Fiora, a charming medieval village, and Abbadia San Salvatore, home to immensely powerful Benedettine abbey. Free days can be spent relaxing in the comfort of the five-bedroom family inn. Of course, there's cooking! Participants are taught in the style of "La Cucina Povera Toscana" the Tuscan peasant's cuisine, in the same intimate nature of its four other locations Casa Innocenti, Villa Castelletti, Villa Gaia and Villa Poggiarello: small groups, comfortable surroundings and a member-of-the-family atmosphere not found in more formal schools. Following the cooking class the group will sit down to enjoy their efforts. Your vacation includes . Included in a vacation at La Locanda del Prete are all lodging, breakfasts, dinners, transfers from Grosseto, guided tours, a hands-on cooking course and suggested self-guided itineraries for the three days of non-guided tours. For more information, reservations, and brochures contact: Tuscan Way, 2829 Bird Ave., PMB 242, Coconut Grove, FL 33133; telephone (800) 766-2390 or (305) 598-8368, fax (305) 598-8369, website: √. Norwegian Costal Voyage offers new Expedition Cruises Norwegian Coastal Voyage (NCV), known for a century of navigating some of the most challenging maritime environments along the Norway coast, is fast becoming a dominant player in the field of Expedition Cruising. New adventures await! By developing fascinating and extensive programs that visit the world's most remote areas Antarctica, Greenland and Spitsbergen NCV passengers join an elite group of world travelers. A new 32-page brochure details the adventures the company offers its guests; sailing on a new ship through cities of icebergs in Greenland, standing amongst thousands of penguins on the White Continent's Neko Harbor and close-up views of Spitsbergen's polar bears and massive glaciers. "These programs are perfect for the adventure traveler who looks to be awestruck by the destination and return home with a solid understanding of its culture, geography, natural attractions and importance to the rest of the world," said Hans Rood, president of Norwegian Coastal Voyage. All the Expedition Cruises include roundtrip flights from New York, all transportation as detailed in the brochure, accommodations at first-class or deluxe hotels with breakfast, cabin category selected and three meals daily aboard ship, services of naturalist guides, and in many cases expert lecturers, specified walking tours and PolarCirkel excursions, ship transfers, air taxes and port charges. Add-on airfares are available; AARP members save $100 to $150 per cabin. For more information Norwegian Coastal Voyage Inc. is at 405 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022; 800-323-7436 or (212) 319-1300; fax (212) 319-1390; for brochures (800) 582-0835, 24 hours a day; www.norwegiancoastalvoyage.us.