• Transfer from Lamezia Terme airport to the hotel.
• Gala Dinner
  • Why wait until the last night for a gala dinner!? To make this evening noteworthy, we will be serenaded and entertained by four extremely talented ICI alumni.
    • Wilson Leywantono: composer, pianist, saxophonist, gastronome Master of Italian Cuisine 2018
    • Mark McDonald: vocalist, restaurateur, chef, sommelier, host of Splendor’s of Italy Tours. Master of Italian Cuisine 2006
    • Carmen Ricciardi: saxophonist, pizzaiolo, gelatician. Master of Italian Cuisine 2007
    • Amanda Russ Cifaldi: vocalist, guitarist, restaurateur, chef. Master of Italian Cuisine 2011
• For the first time ever, ICI will also present a special wine pairing for this 5 course feast. Vincenzo Ippolito, co-owner of Ippolito 1845 – A wine, a story, one of the areas most renown wineries, will present a unique wine and music pairing. Each dish will be perfectly paired with Ippolito wines and each wine paired with a song. Never before have so many senses been touched as during this incredible epicurean adventure!
• Dancing and after dinner digestifs on the ICI terrace overlooking the Ionian Sea.
• Overnight at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Late morning departure to nearby Guglielmo Caffè.

Most of the ICI family doesn’t just like caffè, we thrive on it! Whatever your preference: macchiato, cappuccino, latte or a traditional ‘ristretto’, here you will be in coffee heaven.

Born out of the rubble from WWII, Guglielmo Caffè represents one of the greatest entrepreneurial stories of south Italy. Although it’s one of the biggest coffee companies in Italy, Guglielmo still custom blends caffè for its most discriminating clients.

We will learn about the volatile coffee market where acquisitions are made by buying and trading futures in the commodity market. Then we will see how our prized espresso beans are roasted to perfection as we tour Guglielmo’s ISO 9001 certified plant. Finally, we visit the Italian Coffee Museum and participate in a professional caffè tasting.

• Lunch at a beachside restaurant.
• Free afternoon for rest, the beach with an open prosecco and wine bar or on the ICI terrace with a full open bar with the Evangelos Triantafyllopoulos.
• “International Apericena”

An apericena is an Italian cocktail party consisting of aperitifs, wines and vibrant gourmet finger foods.

An important part of the ICI experience has always been our international clientele turned family. Our participants represent practically every country on the globe. This evening we will have ten volunteers from ten countries to each prepare a traditional delicacy from her/his part of the world. It’s not a contest (of course not!) but there very well may be a prize for whosoever dish is the crowd’s favorite..

• Our guest chefs will cook alongside the ICI masters who will be preparing modern interpretations of regional Italian Cuisine.
• Dancing and after dinner digestifs on the ICI terrace overlooking the Ionian Sea.
• Overnight at the hotel.

Evangelos Triantafyllopoulos..no introduction needed..

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Today we are divided in three groups and everyone will attend each two hour segment on a rotating basis.

Italian Cuisine..the Benchmark of Sustainability

Part of food sustainability is a combination of using the freshest and closest products available and, if necessary, preserving them for future use. No other country produces a wider variety of cheeses and cured meats and in Italy sustainability is delicious!

For years ICI courses have been developed to include this myriad of preserved delicacies. Rarely is a dish prepared that does not use at least one if not several products that have been designed for long conservation.

ICI president John Nocita presents this unique insight on how Italy has maintained the important ideology of sustainability centuries before the rest of the world even considered it..

Exploring the Past for a Creative Future

Don’t let food trends define you and your cuisine: understand them, control them and forage a new path forward.

Dr. Bill Schindler is both an experimental archaeologist and primitive technologist. His research and teaching revolve around a comprehensive understanding of ancient technologies including prehistoric food acquisition, processing, storage, and consumption.

Through an audio visual presentation, Dr. Bill shows us how our connection with our dietary past is a powerful new way to identify our future with food!

The Forgotten Pastas

ICI has always prided itself with the variety of traditional and innovative delicacies that we present during every program. But even so, we often say that a week, a month or a year isn’t enough time to show a fraction of what Italy has to offer.

Therefore we’ve selected to share 12 of our favorite dishes, some of which are virtually unknown outside the tiny towns they come from.

Pasta alle Patelle, Stracioni con Abalone, Busiate agli Sparacogni and several more of Italy’s least known pastas are revealed during this tasting intensive hands-on program.

• Lunch: Pasta, pasta, pasta!
• Dinner at an Agriturismo

An agriturismo is owned and operated by farmers of both livestock and vegetation. Settings range from chalets, to centuries old villas, to the stalls that once housed animals. Here we dine on truly local delicacies, all of which are produced by the proprietors. Each item on the menu is made on the premises offering a unique insight into Italian artisan gastronomy and flavor and true farm to table dining.

• Overnight at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Late morning departure for Cirò, the most famous wine region in Calabria.

We will have a walk in the vineyards at Ippolito 1845. With over 160 years of history, the Ippolito estate is situated on one hundred hectares overlooking the Ionian Sea.

We’ll then have a wine tasting at the estate with Ippolito co-owner Vincenzo Ippolito and ICI sommeliers Mark McDonald and Fabio Riolo. The extended tasting will be enhanced with the centuries old stories of how these wines came about and is accompanied by local delicacies.

• Free afternoon for rest, the beach with an open prosecco and wine bar or on the ICI terrace with a full open bar.
• Dining and Dancing on the Beach.

The ICI Team presents you with a uniquely wonderful evening: a fairytale occasion with an exquisite multi course feast and paired with the best wines from Italy. The night continues with dancing on the beach..

• Overnight at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel

Special ICI Preview: ‘la Gastronomia Accelerata’

How long does it take you to make a salame and cheese sandwich? Normally if your making your own salame and cheese (which is the only way it should be), it could take months depending on how long the products need to be aged.

Usually great foods take time but using unprecedented techniques developed by ICI we will create a cured salami, an ‘aged’ cheese and a sourdough bread in three hours. For each item accelerated fermentation techniques will be applied. As usual following ICI’s philosophy, no chemicals will be used.

All products are created without the loss of nutritional value, can be made in your professional or home kitchen and, most importantly, are delicious..

These groundbreaking fast curing methods will be included in every program beginning in July 2021 and will be debuted for the first time today during the 25th anniversary celebration!

• Lunch: Favorite Dishes

Early in the week we will ask everyone to write down their three favorite ICI dishes. We’ll tally up the count and prepare them for today’s lunch!

• Free afternoon for rest, the beach with an open prosecco and wine bar or on the ICI terrace with a full open bar.
• Evening cruise to no where on the pristine waters of the Ionian Sea with cocktails, wines and, of course, fabulous food.
• Overnight at the hotel.

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Transfer to Lamezia Terme airport or stay for Part II and continue the festa in Sicily!!!