The Way to Sicily Is Through Its Cuisine

Experience Sicily while learning about its cuisine on the “Cucina del Sole” Sicilian cooking tour April 4 and Oct. 4. The tour combines five half-days of cooking instruction with one of Sicily’s top chefs, cookbook author Eleonora Consoli, with an exploration of the island’s historic sites and landscapes.

Classes are conducted in Consoli’s 18th century home, focusing on Sicilian specialties including pastas, risotto, fish and meat dishes, all featuring local Mediterranean products.

Travelers will also have an opportunity to explore Taormina, Catania, Siracusa, Piazza Armerina and Mt. Etna. Visits and demonstrations at a local cheese farm, a winery, a pastry shop, farmers market and more are also included.

Cost: $1,995 per person, including accommodations at a villa, daily continental breakfast, four specialty lunches and four full dinners, and guides. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Amelia Tours; telephone (800) 742-4591.

Wine by the Barrel

Join other wine collectors for a wine-tasting tour March 5 to 8. Guests will explore Sonoma County wineries and purchase futures at a discount. Wines can be sampled directly from the barrel and compared with current releases.

Cost: $995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, ground transportation, hotel, breakfasts and guides.

Contact: Gurnham Group; tel. (800) 475-0004.

Service in Ireland

Service-minded travelers can personally assist efforts to mediate regional conflicts in Northern Ireland through a new partnership with Global Volunteers. Participants pay for the tax-deductible program and travel costs and donate their time to work at Glencree Center for Peace and Reconciliation, outside Dublin, or the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland. Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are needed for two-week programs beginning in March. No previous experience is required.

Volunteers will get lodging and will assist staff members with routine maintenance work and building projects, or help serve meals. At the same time, volunteers will meet adult and student participants and gain firsthand insight into the current issues of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Cost: $1,695 per person, including ground transportation to and from Dublin airport, food and lodging at the site, and project expenses. Air fare is not included. The first two teams are scheduled for March 7 to 21 and July 11 to 25. Free time in the evenings and on the weekend allows volunteers to enjoy cultural attractions near both areas.

Contact: Global Volunteers, 375 E. Little Canada Road, St. Paul, MN 55117; tel. (800) 487-1074.

For Theater Lovers

Join James Blackman of the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities on an 11-night cruise/tour to London and the Mediterranean aboard Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. The trip begins July 20 in London at a hotel in the theater district. Participants will receive orchestra seat tickets to two London shows. They will take a full-day tour of the English countryside to visit such historic spots as Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Cambridge and Blenheim Castle.

Then passengers will be flown from London to Barcelona, Spain, for the seven-night cruise. The ship calls at Villefranche on the French Riviera; Ajaccio, Corsica; Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy; Messina, Sicily; and Valetta, Malta.

Cost: from $2,799 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, cruise and some meals. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities Cruise/Tour Information Desk, P.O. Box 1157, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; tel. (310) 568-2040.

Russia, With Love

A 15-day tour and cruise of Russia, from St. Petersburg to Moscow, plus an optional eight-day extension on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk/Lake Baikal, departs June 27. The tour will be led by history professor Robert Blackey. OdessAmerica’s ship Lenin will be the base the tour stops at Kizhi Island (famous for its open-air Museum of Architecture and its wooden onion-domed churches), Petrozavodsk (capital of the Karelian Republic), the tiny picturesque village of Irma, Yaroslavl (with its 13th century monastery and 17th century cathedrals) and Kostroma (with a 14th century monastery).

Cost: $2,898 per person, double occupancy, which includes round-trip air fare from L.A., 13 nights on the ship with meals and entertainment, shore excursions and sightseeing in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and airport transfers. The extension trip is $1,989, and includes first-class train accommodations, hotels, meals in Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk, entrance fees and return to Moscow by air.

Contact: Robert Blackey; tel. (909) 880-5550.

Down South

The Women’s Travel Club invites women to join the tour called “Deep South: Ghosts to Gospels” from Feb. 11 to 15. The group will travel through northern Louisiana to Natchez, visiting Cajun country and antebellum Historic Register Towns. The trip includes plantation visits and city tours of Baton Rouge and Lafayette. New Orleans may be added on either end of the trip.

Cost: $770 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, some meals and sightseeing. Air fare is extra.

Contact: The Women’s Travel Club, 21401 N.E. 38th Ave., Aventura, FL 33180; tel. (800) 480-4448.

Berlin Airlift

Specialty Tours is offering a historical tour to Berlin, Frankfurt and Weisbaden, Germany, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. The tour, endorsed by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, will be led by retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Bowman, who has a doctorate in military history. Dates of the tour will be June 22 to July 5.

Special focus of the tour will be on the pivotal role of the Berlin Airlift and the city of Berlin during the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Allies. Participants will tour the site of the Potsdam Conference of 1945, and visit Tempelhof, Tegel and Gatow airfields.

Highlights include participation in commemorative events, such as the opening of the new Allied Museum and the fly-in of historical aircraft to Tempelhof on June 28, representing the first planeload of civilian goods flown into the city in 1948. Among the aircraft will be the Spirit of Freedom, a former U.S. Air Force C-54 transport that flew in the airlift. The city of Berlin will honor Veterans of the Berlin Airlift with several ceremonies.

The group will then visit the Rhein-Main, Wunstorf and Wiesbaden airfields in western Germany, all sites connected with the airlift.

Cost: $3,250 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York, hotels, some meals and sightseeing fees.

Contact: Specialty Tours, 6535 Copa Court, Falls Church, VA 22044; tel. (888) 868-7706.

Maya History

Educational tour organizer AmeriSpan, which specializes in travel to Latin America, is offering a trip to important and recently accessible ruins of the Maya Feb. 1 to 14. Participants will tour Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, stand atop pyramids and learn about the history of the Maya. Guests will stay in historic pueblos.

Sites included: Palenque, built 600 to 900; Chichen Itza, where one can see the famous red-painted jaguar and the image of Quetzalcoatl atop pyramid El Castillo; Merida, founded by Spanish conquistadors in 1542; and Izamal, a town once at the center of the conquistadors’ attempt to convert the Maya to Christianity.

Cost: $1,995 per person, double occupancy, including in-country transportation, accommodations, entrance fees to all ruins and bilingual guides.

Not included: optional Spanish language classes in Merida, Mexico; most meals; and air fare to Mexico.

Contact: AmeriSpan; tel. (800) 879-6640.

The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with cruise lines, travel agents or tour operators.