When I first started traveling, I never booked activities. I was on such a tight budget that paying extra to “learn something” felt indulgent — the kind of thing only people with huge amounts of spending money did. Then, eight years ago, someone gifted me an Italian cooking class on a trip to Perugia, and honestly, it changed everything. Kneading fresh pasta dough in a sunlit Umbrian kitchen, I felt so much more connected than simply turning up at a trattoria and ordering a plate.