The sun was shining as we visited some glorious sites; a PRIVATE visit to Michelangelo's extraordinary Laurentian Library, designed for...

At the end of our day we headed out of town to visit the lovely gardens of Villa Gamberaia. A Renaissance villa, created with the words...

Whilst I may be completely unaware of the glorious nightlife available to students in Florence, it's always so rewarding to see a good...

The John Hall Venice Course Venice & London section is over. Some of us are now in sunny Firenze whilst others are home, or at least en...

Since the inception of The John Hall Course in 1965, we have always had a friendly relationship with the great Peggy Guggenheim...

and who was missing?

A few of us had to bail out due to illness, but the course was superbly represented, and the party went on late...good fun and thanks to...

We set off (reasonably) early to get out to visit some amazing sites out of Venice, our final 'day out'. Our first visit was the...

The day started at Rialto Market, where Marika met the group to explain where the best places to source ingredients are to be found....

But it was delightfully cosy and snug on our first visit to the brilliant Zanetti fornace where we were greeted by Damiano, the...

Last night I bumped into a few of the 2010 alums having a classy drink at Bar Rosso. They reminded me that they had made a short film of...

Making fresh pasta should be so easy...we know that eating it is! - Thanks to Harriet and Saskia for the great photos

We spent some of our fourth week going around Venice and looking at more extraordinary art, from the glorious art of Paolo Veronese in...

It was a foggy morning, our first day without sunshine for the entire three weeks; quite amazing for a marine city in January and...

We ended our week in the brilliant sunshine that we have become accustomed to with a couple of fantastic trips away from the lecture...

Our new, lovely cookery teacher lives and works out of a big Liberty-style house on Lido, so we headed out across the lagoon, blessed by...

Whilst one group basked in the warmth of Palazzo Grimani the others were astounded by the glory of the church of Santa Maria della Salute...

This day was nearly three degrees below freezing, but everyone was warmed by seeing fantastic art and places as Louisa Warman and Susan...

This afternoon we were in the fantastic space of the Pesaro family mansion on the Grand Canal, built in the 17th century, designed by...

It was a fiendishly early start, but everyone impressed by being ready, and we headed off across a very foggy lagoon down to Ravenna. On...