Culinary Vacation Through Groupon...Who Knew!

If it were not for the Fodors travel boards I never would have thought to consider a Groupon vacation deal.....

In the fall of 2012 I read a trip report on the Fodors Message boards titled "Top Chef Abruzzo!  A Week in an Italian Cooking School".  Here is the link to that trip report:
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/top-chef-abruzzo-a-week-in-an-italian-cooking-school-rome.cfm

I was intrigued by the whole concept of purchasing a vacation through Groupon, which I had only ever used for things like restaurant and car wash coupons!  The Fodor's post really sounded like just the type of vacation mom and I were looking for.  Over the last couple years, we have been "scouting out" possible culinary/cooking vacations in Italy.  All of the ones we were interested in taking had fairly steep price tags.

In mid January I was surprised to see the Fodors trip report rise back to the top of my Fodors thread list, so I opened it and scrolled to the bottom.  I was happy to see the original poster made a new entry saying Groupon was having this deal again.

I immediately jumped over to the Groupon website to check out the deal and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price was nearly 50% less than the normal price.  I called mom right away and asked if she was interested in doing this vacation.  Her answer came back to me in a "nano-second" and it was "YES"!
Here is the link to the vacation package provided by Epitourean that we purchased through Groupon:
http://www.epitourean.com/master/345/A-Taste-of-Abruzzo-Culinary-Vacation

I will admit, if I had not read the great account of this cooking vacation, written by a fellow Fodorite, I probably would not have been so quick to buy this Groupon.  But based on what I have read, this is a terrific deal and it's to the region of Abruzzo, which neither mom nor I have ever been too.

We are thrilled to be taking advantage of this opportunity, which includes transfers to and from the airport in Rome and all the transportation during the week in Abruzzo. This is a plus for me, since I'm scared to death to try driving on my own in Italy.

And we decided since we were already going to be in Italy, and flying into and out of Rome's airport, why not stay on another week in Rome, to do what you may ask?  Eat and drink and explore more of the eternal city of course!

Ahhhh....all is good in my little world now that I have firm plans to return to Italy this year!