Our favorite cookbook author and friend, Domenica Marchetti, has teamed with Abruzzo Presto! run by Michael and Nancy Morizio, who live part of each year in Abruzzo, to create the kind of culinary and cultural tours we can recommend without reservation. Domenica is a serious student of Italian cuisine whose roots are in Abruzzo. Her award-winning cookbooks are among the most exhaustively researched we've ever read. She celebrates what's elemental and rewarding about food. Michael Morizio's roots are in Abruzzo and he and Nancy have been living in and visiting the region for close to two decades. They are serious students of history and art, with backgrounds in music. The tours they create are intimate (a maximum of 10 people), allow their guests to experience Abruzzo's singular cultural and georgraphic diversity, and permit the kind of experiences one simply doesn't find on a large package tour. With Michael and Nancy, personal relationships are constructed - not just between them and their guests, but more significantly with the people of Abruzzo: its artisans, sheepherds, farmers, wine and cheese makers and cooks. Domenica and the Morizios take as gospel our belief that cuisine is a window on culture, an enjoyable, rewarding way to plumb the profundity of a people and their way of life. They proffer something precious to us with the kind of care and respect that serves the region and its people.