I love Italy, for many other reasons. But I hate that many Americans plan their trips there. Poll after poll, it shows that it’s the number one dream destination for American recreational travelers, but those travelers get their data and recommendations give me nightmares.
Over the years, I’ve heard other people say over and over again, “I was told to do this in Italy” or “I was told not to do this in Italy. “Who? A friend. I have close friends who recently planned their entire 12-day vacation based on another couple they knew and had recommended to them after their first visit. I’ve heard of many other people who have avoided Rome because “we heard it was too crowded, just a big city like any other. “Or he left out Venice, one of the most magical destinations in the world, because “I’ve heard it’s touristy. “
It happens again and again, but suffice it to say that I’ve been to Italy about two dozen times, summer and winter, in search of food, wine, skiing, walking, hiking, biking and much more, from north to south and east, in the west and on the islands too, and I know a lot about Italian food, but I ask real experts for recommendations every time I pass by. Specifically, I ask for recommendations on where to eat, what to see, and who to choose as guides. And by experts, I mean other people who live in Italy, specialize in specific travel spaces, and know what they’re doing.
“Every year we get several stopovers who want to fly,” says Cherrye Moore, owner of My Bella Vita travel. Moore moved to Calabria twenty years ago after falling in love with the domain, made a stopover and opened a bed and breakfast, finding what his scale agents were looking for. His company now specializes in vacation planning, especially gastronomic and ancestral vacations, to the southern region of Italy, where many Italian-Americans hint at their heritage. “They say, ‘My neighbor just came to his circle in my relatives’ hometown and they did very well’ or ‘Our friends went to Italy last year and said we don’t want a driver. ‘Drive and travel to your relatives’ hometown, but this experience is very different from having a committed, heritage specialist driver who has researched your family’s history, gotten to know the area in which your grandfather was born, and made appointments with the locals upon arrival.
I have just returned from an exploration of Turin followed by a week-long hike around Piedmont, Italy’s most prestigious wine region, which included several wine tours. For restaurants, guides, and sightseeing tours in Turin, I enlisted the help of a Travel Specialist discovered in Italy who is the selection of many of the most productive luxury travel agents/advisors in this country (the most productive travel agents are smart enough to know what they don’t know and rely on local experts). For the hike, I enlisted the help of an active travel specialist discovered in Italy who does nothing else and does so with a diet-centric approach. It was another fantastic vacation in Italy, day in and day out, with lots of foods, wineries, and experiences that I would never have figured out on my own, even by asking random friends or watching YouTube influencer videos created by other people with far less experience in Italy than me.
“We don’t focus on stars or diamonds, we focus on really special and exclusive reports and hotels that allow you to get to know our Italy,” says Heather Dowd, who lives in Turin with her Italian husband, Beppe Salerno. They run Tourissimo, the active company we use. We had several friends walking with us who were on their first or second vacations in Italy, and when we checked our reports at the end of the vacation, one of the places we stayed, an 18th century house. A castle converted into a boutique hotel, it was the big favourite. There was no hot tub or Frette linens, no concierge or room service, but there was wonderful food and beautiful gardens in which we had an epic dinner. There were cooking classes, a wonderful location, a fun late-night snack, and most importantly, amazing charm.
Everyone needs the best food in Italy, but not everyone knows where the locals will find it.
It was precisely what my first dreams dreamed Italy would be, and it was a position we would never have discovered online. It was perfect, and even in Italy, not all places are, but the truth is that Heather and Beppe and their guides spend a lot of time visiting small hotels and checking them out, much longer than other people who rate their stays on booking sites. A friend of mine was so enthusiastic that he is already making plans for a long family hike in Sicily with Tourissimo next year.
If you want to have an insider’s experience in Italy and get to know the places where the locals go, you need a local expert for you.
“Our purpose is for consumers to enjoy Calabria as we do, that’s why we’ve created delights that can’t be enjoyed online,” said Moore of My Bella Vita. “Nowhere else will you find a multi-course lunch arranged through Zia Pina or a picnic ready and delivered through Signora Francesca. Lunch at our friend Chef Massimo’s house can’t be found on Google. When I’m creating or reviewing activities, I think of my sister in Texas. If she was visiting, would he take her here? If the answer is yes, I know we have a winner. This is precisely the popular one through which I would like my travels to Italy to be judged.
A vacation in Italy is a beautiful, special, and almost sacred experience, so don’t ruin it by following bad advice. I don’t know all the local specialists (and I hope to keep locating more), but I do know several experts I would. proposed for other types of vacations. Or hire a savvy travel advisor, which I propose for every vacation (read my article Why You Need a Travel Agent Now More Than Ever here at Forbes), and reach out to them to make sure they’re on the same page in terms of locating those types of vacation local experts. If they’re smart, they’ll already know about several of those companies.
Italy has long been a dream destination for cyclists, with Tuscany topping the list of global destinations for road cycling. But in recent years, the fastest-developing cycling sector has been the gravel sector, and with plenty of miles of amazing unpaved ‘white roads’. , Tuscany has also become the world’s number one destination for gravel enthusiasts. There are also many other amazing places to ride in Italy, such as Piedmont, Sardinia, Puglia, the Lake District, and many more. World-class hikes abound, especially in the enchanting Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have unparalleled beauty in most other mountainous regions of the world. Beyond that, there are the Alps to the east, Cinque Terre, Sardinia, and many other attractive options.
Italy is so well known for cycling and hiking that all the major travel agencies active globally organize trips there. But for my last two active trips, one on foot and one by motorcycle, I chose an excursion operator really founded there. Founded by an Italian fan of cycling and gastronomy. Tourissimo may be Italian, but it caters to the U. S. market, and founder Beppe Salerno worked as a consultant for an American cycling company before he knew it could be the real deal, too. — For me, the best justification for a startup. Over the years, Tourissimo has expanded its library of offerings, with a diversity of scheduled organized trips and traditionally designed personal options. Although they basically practice road trips, they are notably one of the only tour operators that plan gravel trips and can also set up traditional mountain routes by motorcycle, with years of experience in biking and hiking.
Superstar chef Mary Sue Milliken has led around a dozen motorcycle tours of Italy to. . . [ ] Tourissimo.
In addition, Tourissimo has also pioneered the “active culinary journey” section, a new and highly sought-after category that I’ve written about here at Forbes (and for other magazines and newspapers). Annual series of six organizational walks (and one walk), each led by celebrity chef like Mary Sue Milliken, award-winning chef, restaurateur, cookbook (five!) and co-host of the popular PBS cooking show Two. Hot tamales. . She is also an avid cyclist and has led Tourissimo Chef Bike Tours for several years, along with other big names. These trips are an exclusive option for foodies who also ride bikes, while the other trips cater to almost everyone. It will offer various styles of rides, from Bici Basics for new riders to Ambitious Tours for the more experienced.
Tourissimo emphasizes the local, opting for small, historic hotels they’ve chosen and reviewed (like the castle I just stayed at in Piedmont), places you’ll never be able to distinguish from many other off-chain online options. for restaurants, wineries, and all other tactics, they take you behind the scenes and to your genuine Italy. Your project statement? We don’t need to be the biggest adventure travel company. We need to design and organize the most productive trips in Italy. We try to be as original and favorable as possible for the local communities. Fantastic!
Bellagio on Lake Como is one of Italy’s most prominent destinations and the best location for a food-focused motorcycle tour.
Ride a motorcycle! Bellagio offers another cycling experience started on a very different scale, offering a good day out for visitors to Italy’s most famous lake town. This motorcycle shop on Lake Como is run by a former professional racer and his wife. They rent motorcycles (road, mountain, and electric motorcycles), but will also offer full-day guided tours with several stops for food and drinking. Since the owner grew up here and knows everyone, it’s no surprise that restaurants and bars are preferred options. The shop is close to the emblematic climb to Madonna del Ghisallo, the most famous of the Giro di Lombardia, a race that is more than a century old, and several days a week the shop offers guided and organized rides with climb to the pass, on the road or electric motorcycles: Bianchi motorcycles, of course!
Tours are scheduled Monday through Saturday, as well as a wide variety of customizable personal tours. These are done with families of other ages, but for more competitive riders, they will offer longer road tours, mountain biking and gravel, as well as a wide diversity of tours on less difficult electric motorcycles, some of which are even more focused on food and wine. They’ll also offer a handful of multi-day tours and can customize them on demand, regularly for groups, adding an iconic coastline. -Crossing the coast of Italia. Si you’re a guest at one of the many ultra-luxurious (and expensive) hotels around Bellagio and you ask the concierge to schedule a motorcycle tour, chances are they’ll call that store anyway. (and rate it), do it yourself.
From fully planning your itinerary with flights, hotels, and transfers to simply booking the most productive tours, guides, and VIPs (often to private highlights), it will be worth hiring a leading local specialist.
Last year I attended the annual Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, dubbed “the Oscars of industry. “Virtuoso is the world’s leading luxury consortium, owned by many of the world’s most sensible advisors, as are nearly every major hotel and resort. , safari lodges, cruise lines, and luxury tour operators. Virtuoso’s CEO, Matthew Upchurch, was explaining the many benefits of hiring an advisor (I couldn’t agree more) and everything he said really stuck with me. He explained that with all the new excursion for online e-booking corporations, it’s less difficult than ever to book a tour or consultant for almost any destination in the world, but harder than ever to judge its quality. The warning was, “You can book a consultant, but I can’t book my consultant. “
Turin, one of Italy’s greatest hidden gems, the country’s first capital and host of the Winter Olympics. . . . [ ] It’s worth having a smart advisor if you’re visiting.
The Vatican is the Vatican and the Colosseum is the Colosseum, so when you opt for an advised tour, what topics and what makes it good, bad or wonderful delight is the advice and its special access, like an excursion to the Vatican when no one else is there.
For my recent vacation in Turin, I called Imago Artis Travel, a luxury specialist founded in Italy. This is what’s known in the industry as a destination control company or DMC, the same corporations that luxury agents call in to set up major local points. for your customers. There are proper DMCs all over the world and local wisdom is valuable everywhere, yet many of them do not deal directly with the workers, while in Italy the most productive ones do.
I searched for a personal vacation day in Turin and the surrounding attractions for my wife and I, especially the Reggia di Venaria Reale, also known as the “Italian Versailles” (one of only two places in Italy with that lofty but accurate moniker). The one she introduced me to was a licensed consultant, a lifelong resident of Turin and spoke perfect English, which was wonderful, but she was also an architect, which was wonderful in a city where so much is based on architecture. It’s not that simple to locate on the Global Tour Aggregator website. Imago Artis also gave me a list of their recommendations of favorite places to eat, which were perfect, and then made my reservations for me. At the very least, it removes the language barrier from calls or generation. Barrier of booking through complicated (or non-functional) Italian dining place booking websites, however, in many cases it also allows you to get a better table and instant VIP treatment, which in fact is not the case.
Italy is rich in top-notch craftsmanship and companies like Imago Artis can take you to the stage to meet the creators.
Imago Artis Travel is a Virtuoso member, which means that when you book electronically through them, if you e-book your luxury hotel, you get extras like room upgrades, late check-out, spa credits, and more, one of the wonderful benefits of working with Virtuoso Travel Advisors. If you have a bigger budget than mine, they can take care of all kinds of luxury transportation, personal jets, helicopters, boat rentals and also offer VIP meeting facilities at almost any and all airports in Italy. They can even set up personal safety details. At a more available luxury point, they specialize in exclusive experiences, unlocking historic buildings and art collections not open to the public, and taking you to scenes with many Italian artisans, from shoemakers to sculptors. jewelry designers. They know the food, they know the guides, and I especially like their project statement: “Our project is simple: take you to the center of Italy. “That’s what it’s all about.
Another luxury DMC that is also a member of Virtuoso and that I have used in the afterlife with wonderful luck is IC Bellagio. They offer a similar diversity of luxury and are very well connected, but they also specialize in villa rentals and five-star hotels. Differentiating villas in Italy is perhaps the biggest challenge, even more so than restaurants, with so many features and so few clever reviews. IC Bellagio has also boldly identified the problems of overtourism facing some of Italy’s most popular regions and encourages “off-season travel,” which varies in each of the country’s 20 regions, but in which they are experts. Last winter I went to Venice in the low season and it was spectacular, and I just traveled in the low season to Piedmont. It was so much more wonderful than fighting the crowd.
Skiing in Italy is still a bit unknown to Europe, especially compared to France and Switzerland. Well, let’s let the crowds head to other countries, because Italy has two other major skiing regions, either of which has hosted the Winter Olympics and the Olympics. return to Milan and Cortina on 2026. La interconnected network of ski lifts and slopes Dolomiti SuperSki in the Dolomites is arguably the largest “ski resort” in the world and one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes on the planet. The cities are beautiful, the food is excellent, there are stunning hotels ranging from independent off-chain hidden gems to world-class luxury (Aman, Mandarin Oriental, Relais
I first went to the Dolomites for hiking and was so inspired that I thought, “I have to go back and ski here. “I went back the following winter and skied, and the next year I got an organization of friends in combination and I came home. I’ve skied all over the United States and all over the world and never had the same preference to immediately go back to the same place. That’s how smart it is to ski in Italy (for more information, read my article on skiing in Italy). Italy here at Forbes).
I’ve only used one company for my ski trips to Italy and I don’t see any explanation why to transfer equipment, especially from local logistics (a wonderful guide/instructor, transfers, the best meals on the mountain and a few nights). In the exclusive environment of the domain (huts in the mountains) it is very difficult to install it alone. The company is Dolomite Mountains, which specialises in hotel ski holidays and off-piste trips (using alpine trips or masks and AT equipment). a U. S. -oriented company with a predominantly American visitor base.
Like many active agencies, they offer scheduled departure features for organization and personal vacations custom-designed to suit your desires. The organization option is called Dolomites Ski Safari and it is made up of a 7-day vacation that combines stays in amazing refuges with hotels in the city (4 and five stars according to the Italian system) and comes with all breakfasts and dinners, full-time guide, ski pass, luggage transfers and much more. Custom features come with the same kind of vacation for your own organization. or whatever you want, and while the call suggests a local experience (which is surely true), the Dolomite Mountains also offer ski holidays to the rest of Italy, such as Courmayeur, and the connected French border regions, in Switzerland and Austria, because many of the lifts here know no national borders (ski with your passport!). They are also members of Virtuoso.
My Bella Vita Trip focuses on this area, adding small-group trips and custom-designed personal trips. Their specialties include “heritage tours” for those interested in their ancestry and a dining technique for the rest of us. For example, Taste del Sur is a 12-day gastronomic adventure through Calabria, Basilica and Naples, the birthplace of pizza! Food
These are some of the scheduled small-group tours on offer, but the rest of their business is making personal plans and custom-designed options.
“Italy is a deceptively large position and travelers think two weeks is enough time to see it all. It’s not like that,” he insists Moore. Ni you can even notice Calabria’s total in two weeks. Our team collectively spends about six months a year researching new hotels, restaurants and reports in Calabria and we are re-evaluating and adjusting our recommendations.
There are other specialists in Italy that I haven’t met personally, but who are doing very well thanks to some of my other experts:
Cherrye Moore of My Bella Vita says, “In Sicily, I introduced Lucia Davies from Sicily Tour, one of three British expats who have lived in Syracuse, Sicily, for decades. A family-owned tour consulting company founded in Syracuse, they have nearly 40 years of experience on the island and create trips that promote cultural exchange between Italy and English-speaking visitors, specializing in customized and small-group tours.
Beppe and Heather Dowd of Tourissimo introduced Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures, a company that has also earned praise from other people in the travel industry I know. Owner Francesca Montillo grew up in southern Italy, where her father was a greengrocer. An Italian-American. A cookbook author, she started the business a decade ago and personally leads the tours. It runs scheduled tours in other regions each year and also offers custom-designed personal itineraries.
Bye!