FORMER TV weather girl Ulrika Jonsson is to begin a crash-course in conversational Italian, she announced last night.

The Swedish-born mother-of-three has developed a sudden interest in the language and culture of Italy and has taken to greeting friends with 'bongiorno' and using the exclamation 'mamma mia!' up to 30 times a day.

She is also working on a new six-part cookery show for Channel Five. Producers say Ulrika's Italian Feast will be a "sensual odyssey that will make Nigella Lawson look like a fat plumber".

The spin-off cook book will be sold as a companion volume to her classic How to Get Into My Pants in Three Easy Steps.

Ulrika said: "All the ingredients are fresh, ripe and juicy. In no time at all you could be entering my underpants with ease."

The former presenter of Gladiators and Of Course I'm A Bloody Sex Addict also annouced that she was single again after her fiancee made an offensive comment about Italian mothers.

Jonsson said: "I love Italian mothers. They're the greatest people in the history of the world. I also love older, more sophisticated foreign men who wear designer spectacles and have their own goalkeeping coach."