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Why do you travel? What motivates you to pack your bags, voyage for miles, and explore new places? Is it learning about other cultures… tasting new foods… meeting new people… or simply getting out of your everyday comfort zone in general?

I recently stumbled upon a blog that sums up, for me, the reasons many people travel:

“Every day was a new adventure (and often a challenge), but I learned so much during that time I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I learned more about myself, about the world, and about humanity. With all the newness we face each day abroad in a foreign place it’s hard not to come away with more than a souvenir.”

Our interest in your reasons for traveling is not simply idle curiosity. We ponder this question regularly because we are always working to make our culinary travel adventures, or “Culinarias”, the best they can be.

We started taking trips to promote traditional diets more than twenty years ago, and we know that our series of in-country Mediterranean Diet Symposiums for journalists, chefs, cookbook authors, and food retailers in the 1990s was an essential ingredient in popularizing olive oil and the Mediterranean Diet in America.

Today, we believe that our culinary travel programs still have a profound impact — on those who attend, and also on their friends and family. This point made itself very clear to me at our recent reunion of attendees from our Madrid Culinaria: judging by the creative Spanish flavors and foods each person contributed to the table, the trip did its job.  And just as important as the learning that takes place, the Culinarias bring new friendships and lots of joy.  

Add a comment below and let us know what makes travel special for you.  We’d love to know.

And, we’d love to help you bring home the souvenir of new and exciting and delicious ways to cook and eat.  Join us for an upcoming Culinaria — Umbria in March 2014 or Turkey with Ana Sortun from Oleana Restaurant in 2015!

Bon appétit et bon voyage!  Buon appetito!  Buon viaggio! 

-Sara

 

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