Party of four in Italy (Partial Repeat Guests)

Jennifer and Lin traveled with me before, this time they invite friends Ward and Karen for a 2-week adventure in Bella Italia. Highlights will include Rome (Arrival), the Amalfi Coast region centered around Amalfi and Ravello, Positano plus Florence, Pisa, Montepulciano and the Val d’Orcia, Montalcino and Pienza as highlights.

We Do Anything and Everything (Almost)

January 12, 2016 One of the advantages of taking a private, custom-designed tour in Europe is that you can shape the trip to just about anything you desire. What are your unique interests? Your passions? Let us build those into the perfect trip, which has been designed just for you and your alone (or your […]

Postcards from Tuscany

November 1 We just spent six nights in Tuscany with repeat clients Eric and Patricia from Sarasota, FL. Here are some reminders of the lovely time we had. Click on any image to get a larger view.

San Gimignano is the Medieval Manhattan of Italy

October 31 We spent three nights here recently with clients from Sarasota, Florida. San Gimignano is one of the most famous of the Tuscan hill towns. It once had 70 towers but today only 13 survive. These towers were built to show the status of various families who were usually in conflict with one another. […]

Just ‘Ri-Married’ in Tuscany

April 14 Our current guests Steve and Debbie had a dream to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a special trip to Italy. Not just any trip, but a renewal of vows in Tuscany trip. With help from the staff of a beautiful and romantic country inn just outside of Montepulciano we made it happen, and […]

A Day in Montepulciano, Tuscany

May 12 We’re on a slow ramble around Tuscany with two nights in Montepulciano, one of the prettiest of the Tuscan hill towns. Also one of the steepest, we’ve determined, after visiting others such as Siena, Montecchiello and Pienza. Montepulciano is famous for its palaces around the main square, its unfinished church (they ran our […]

Abbey San Salvatore in Tuscany, Italy

May 12 On our way from Orvieto to Montepulciano we took a diversion and drove high up into the mountains to the ancient Abbey San Salvatore in the town of the same name high in the mountains of the Val di Orcia, Tuscany. The abbey is small and not particularly impressive from the exterior unless […]

Jewish History in Pittigliano, Tuscany

May 10 There was once a flourishing Jewish community in this fortified Tuscan village. Kicked out of the Papal States (those areas immediately surrounding Rome) by Popes in the 16th century, a large settlement developed in Pittigliano where they were given protection by the local ruling family. In ‘Little Jerusalem’ there can be seen many […]