You can’t experience Italy through a bus window. You must taste, and smell, and feel it in your body.
Giuditta, our founder, personally selects the experiences that make up our tours. We bring you into the homes, farms, kitchens, and olive groves of the creators who make each region unique. You might find truffles in the oak woods with a hunter and his dogs, then shave them onto the pasta you made together. Or shape cheese with a father and his daughter who’ve kept sheep on the same hillside for decades. You’ll drink award-winning wine sitting at the table with the woman who makes it.
Our tours are never rushed—we make time for conviviality, for reconnecting with your friends and family. Our tours are small, with no more than twelve people. You’ll have a home base—a beautiful villa or farmhouse—that you’ll return to each night, to eat, talk, and just relax.
And we take care of everything—before, during, and after the tour.
Every place has a spirit—a layer of meaning, history, and practices—that imbues the landscape and its people. The ancient Romans had a word for this, numen. Numen was a quality of a specific place—of a grove of trees, or a hillside. So Ovid, in Fasti (III. 295–296), talks of a grove of dark oaks below the Aventine hill where you could feel the numen.
Numen is not of the mind—it is something you feel in your body.
It is the creators and makers of a place who guard its numen. The way to that spirit is not to watch, or to study—it is by doing. By kneading Pane di Matera with your own hands in a bakery carved into the stones of Basilicata. By digging up black truffles from the earth of the oak woods in Chianti. And your guides must be the creators who work the land with their own hands—Andrea who drives his olives to the mill at 3 am to ensure that they are processed first. Elena Fucci who chose to stay in Basilicata, on the black earth of the volcano, because she could not bear for her grandfather to lose his vineyard.
Our tours are not about museums. Yes, this land is ancient, and people have lived here for thousands of years following many of the same traditions. But the creators on our tours are not performing for tourists—they are adapting these traditions because they work, in a world that is rediscovering the importance of the local, the slow, and the sustainable.
Giuditta, our founder, grew up in the hills outside Florence. For our first tour in Chianti, some of our makers were people she knew personally. Diego Finocchi, owner of the award-winning winery Erta di Radda, is married to Giuditta’s sister’s best friend. We’ve since expanded to other regions—Val d’Orcia, Basilicata, and soon Sicily—but Giuditta’s approach hasn’t changed. She curates every experience herself, sitting down with the maker and trying everything with her own hands. She does the work, so you don’t have to.
Whenever she can, Giuditta co-creates her tours with someone who has a deep personal investment in the place. She co-created our “Return to Basilicata” tour—about coming back to Basilicata—with Adele Newton, whose family emigrated from Pisticci.
If you have an idea for a tour, we’d love to work with you to co-create it!
We take care of everything—before, during, and after our tours. Everything is included—private drivers, experiences, accommodations, meals (wine included). We want you to focus on the experience, not the logistics.
We’ll do our best to customize any tour to meet your needs.
We’ll let our guests tell you what our tours do to people:
“The goats, the goat farm, the natural surroundings, all the ancient buildings and traditions that are still in use, all together really went right into my heart and made me feel connected, as if I had belonged to that land in some past life.”
Golijeh — California
“Giuditta was the perfect host for six magical days in Greve in Chianti. Time slowed down for me, my wife, and two kids, as we had beautiful, hands-on experiences with the makers of Greve. The truffle hunt/exuberant dog chase followed by shaving the truffles we found onto the pasta we made was a standout. A truly regenerative experience.”
Anders — California
Pamela Sheldon Johns moved here from California over forty years ago. She chose to make this place her home. You'll pick produce from her organic garden, then cook a full…
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As a teenager, I hated truffles. It took Daniele, his truffle dogs, and the lunch we cooked together to change my mind.
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You'll make three cheeses with your own hands, then eat them on the terrace looking out toward Cortona. And yes, Lapo, Paola, Ilaria, and Laura's sheep are the famous flock…
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At Podere Somigli, you sit at a shaded table, looking out over the hills. It's the perfect place just to be.
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A 16th-century masseria in Pisticci, restored by the Giannone family — Lucani who emigrated to Toronto and came back to build something. Your home base on the Basilicata tour.
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Diego was twenty-four when he bought 5 hectares on the steep slopes above Radda. He's married to my sister's best friend, and his Chianti Classico has won Tre Bicchieri twice.
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Pina Caruso's family has been making gelato since 1956. Her signature Acheruntino — milk cream with vin cotto, toasted almonds, and Matera bread — won first place at the Gelato…
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Valentina left academia to make goat cheese in Chianti. She learned everything the hard way. "Milk talks," she says. "I just had to learn to listen."
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Nobody expects the flower farm to be one of the most moving experiences of the week. Three sisters, 200 species of organic flowers, and a morning in the fields with…
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Andrea was riding his motorbike across Italy looking for a place to start over. A country road led him to an ancient olive grove with a Vendesi sign. Some of…
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A family bakery in Matera since 1890. You knead, shape, and bake your own Pane di Matera with Patrizia, Sabrina, and master baker Enzo. In the Sassi, women made five-kilo…
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This is where we end every Val d'Orcia tour. Four generations of Tornesi, Mamma Renata's cooking, Nonna Renata's eggs, and a farewell lunch on the terrace looking out at Monte…
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Her family was about to sell the vineyard. Elena said no — and turned six hectares on an extinct volcano into one of Italy's great wines.
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Dr. Agata Chrzanowska is a Polish-born art historian. She showed me my city—Florence—as if I were seeing it for the first time.
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The Cipolla family's agriturismo — a working organic farm — is our home base for the Val d'Orcia tour. Luisa cooks a new four-course menu every evening from the garden;…
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