Italian Breaks offers self-catering accommodation in a converted farmstead outside Lamezia, where guests can pick their own ingredients for southern Italian suppers. Flights and car hire can be arranged. Flights are not included but can be arranged. This is an important year for Italian opera with next month's centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's death and November's bicentenary of Vicenzo Bellini's birth. Travel for the Arts has put together a special three-day tour starting March 16 with a visit to Verdi's birthplace in Parma followed by a performance of Bellini's Norma at the Teatro Regio and La Traviata at La Scala in Milan.
Liaisons Abroad can arrange packages and concert tickets .
Parlare Italiano Euro Academy, with bases in Siena, Florence and Rome, combines language tuition with special-interest courses such as cookery, wine, art history, and Italian cinema. The courses are suitable for all levels and age groups, including intensive courses for business travellers. Flights are not included. Citalia still has availability for packages throughout the carnival. If it does, the fortunes of the city are assured, or so the legend goes.