Course Description
This exciting class combines the history and customs of food, olive oil, and wine in Perugia and the surrounding region, with food writing and travel. We start by exploring the history of Italian food and wine, but with a specific focus on Perugia and the wider Umbrian area. Each week is a different concentration/combination of historical moment and type of food, such as the history of pizza, the origin of the aperitivo, the arrival in Italy of coffee, tomatoes, chocolate, and more. In conjunction with this historical approach, the class includes visits to restaurants, vineyards, cheese-makers, and olive groves in and near Perugia. You will keep a food blog, and will have the opportunity to do a book review for a local magazine.

Course Objectives
The purpose of this class is to introduce you to the intricate and surprising history of regional foods in Italy as you learn the importance of food as a mode of identity-formation in Perugia, Italy, and, by extrapolation, your own families. Our focus on writing and the analysis of others’ written word will teach you how to become not just great food writers, but informed and discerning writers in general.