About our Tours
I moved to Germany in 1998 for a year of work and European living. Whenever I had enough free time I found myself heading to Italy to “live the Italian life”; eating, drinking, visiting friends and watching life happen. After moving back to the US, I continued to escape to Italy for holidays and whenever I could spend a week or two. Having been there many times, I started to travel off the beaten trail and entertaining myself traveling the regions I love, Tuscany and Umbria, randomly, getting lost, meeting people, getting suggestions from locals telling I must explore the local secret sites. People recommended places to visit where many locals and most tourist never visit. My tours were launched when friends begged me to take them to Italy and share these off the beaten trail jaunts. Today every tour produces more suggestions about local new restaurants, tiny museums, thermal baths, local organic cheese makers, and on it goes. Hence, my tours change, grow and produce more unexpected gems, many I have driven past for years before discovering!
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If you wish, you are welcome to arrive in Florence a day or two early (or stay a few days after the tour) and take some time to see the cities of Florence and Siena on your own, neither of which is included in this tour. The tour is LAND ONLY. Each person is responsible for their own flights to and from Florence. The hotel we suggest and can make reservations for you in Florence is not luxurious, but clean and reasonably priced. Breakfast is available at the hotel for small fee or eat at one of several small places in the neighborhood. It is short distance from the airport, less than a 5 minute taxi ride. City buses stop about a 3 minute walk from the hotel, and the bus ride to city centre takes less than 10 minutes. See Detailed Itinerary for each of the different tours and What’s Included/Required for more specific information.
This tour is comfortably paced – you will go home feeling refreshed and more familiar with real life in Italy, not exhausted from hurrying from place to place, bus to bus, and hotel to hotel. All meals are included, although we will make our own breakfasts and some dinners at the farm with food provided. Other meals will be at small restaurants. The two stone farmhouses at Maridiana each accommodates 5-6 people, and each has 2 bathrooms, a common living room, dining room and a full kitchen. Views from the farm are spectacular, and the resident peacock will keep you amused. I will be our tour leader and have traveled to Italy many times, and I have found the best of small, out-of-the-way villages with craftspeople to talk to and get to know. Sit back and enjoy the wine, food, and the good life in rural Italy.