Italy

Midway between Milan and Rome, Tuscany is bordered on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennines mountain range on the east.

The winemaking tradition in sunny Sicily dates back as far as four thousand years. Over those millennia the Sicilians, named for the settlers who introduced agriculture there, have raised wine grape growing to the level of the Italian Renaissance artist.

>One of three main Italian winemaking regions, Piedmonte lies at the confluence of the Tanaro and Borbera rivers, 45km (28 mi) southeast of Turin in northwest Italy. Moderately remote in this crowded modern world, it's braced by the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the south.

Stretching from the hills of the Apennines to the banks of the Po River to the shores of the Adriatic Sea is a distinctive Italian winemaking region called: Emilia-Romagna. Famed for its cooking, the area boasts some of the most fertile plains for grape growing in Italy.

Consider a wine tour in Tuscany as a cocktail of first-rate wine tasting, dramatic views, and a peep of Tuscan rural life, not yet corrupted by tourism.

There are so many different possible pasta recipes it might seem impossible to provide general guidelines. But all good pasta recipes have a few things in common.

There are more types of pasta than there are bathing suit designs. Ok, maybe not quite that many. But there are a lot, anyway. Fortunately for the newcomer to the world of pasta, they break down along two broad categories: long and short.

There must be more pasta shapes than electronic games -maybe not so many, but there are a lot- and each one has its own Italian name. It is impossible to remember them all. That is why we need a dictionary

There is a good reason pasta is high on nearly everyone's list of favorites. Pasta is versatile, healthy, tasty and easy to work with. It provides the base for hundreds of delicious recipes, whether drowned in sauce or chopped up plain in a salad, or even as an ingredient in a stir-fry.