Anyone who has hiked with us before, in Europe or Australia, will know how interested we are in wine. Of course our meals on tour are always matched with wines showcasing a great selection of regional grape varieties but occasionally our routes enable us to...
Anne Heuperman has been teaching Pilates to Jackie in Bright for many years and Jackie swears by the exercises for maintaining core strength and flexible movement. Starting to think about getting fit again for hiking, we asked Anne for help in preparing a range of...
The Verdi Festival - Parma Each year in October the small city of Parma marks the anniversary of the birth of one of it's most famous sons, composer Giuseppe Verdi. A series of performances of selections of his work are organised at the town's Teatro Regio, and...
Autumn is a great time to visit Italy, not only for its colourful landscapes and cooler temperatures, but because this is a season full of Sagre. A Sagra is a local festival, the origin of the word coming from the Latin word sacrare, (to consecrate), because in...
It is coming up for two years since we were last in Italy and our cravings for the flavours of La Bella Italia are getting stronger. Living in Italy as we normally do for much of each year we take for granted how easily available delicious food is at any time, from...
Most people of course associate the Italian kitchen with pasta but what you learn as you travel around Italy is that each region has a very different approach to pasta, making the most of traditionally available ingredients and keeping to time-honoured recipes handed...
Even if you know very little of ancient Rome, Nero is probably one of the Emperors that you have heard something about. Described as a tyrannical monster by the historians who came after him, he stands accused of horrific murders, incest, setting fire to...
You may think that finding a tourist-free region of Italy is improbable, or even impossible. Think again. The Abruzzo, situated to the east of Rome, is one of the country’s true hidden gems. Gloriously green and bordered by the long sandy Adriatic coast, this is...
Last month saw the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte: Emperor of France, arguably one of the most able military leaders in history, and famous resident of the island of Elba which we visit on our Lucca, Volterra and Elba tour. Born...
The one thing you probably do know about Tuscany is that it’s one of the most visited regions in Italy, topped only by the Veneto, and also one of incredible beauty. Most visitors leave with memories of art-filled cities and medieval hilltop villages, and of...
Our new tours in the Grampians in central Victoria start and finish in the town of Ballarat, a destination well worth exploring for a day or two at the start or end of the trip. With its renowned wineries and exciting restaurant scene, Ballarat is now an established...
The Etruscan people occupied an area of Central Italy referred to as Etruria predominantly in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. The region broadly covered modern day Tuscany, the west of Umbria and the north of Lazio and archaeological finds have been unearthed...
Torta Pasqualina This pie has become a tradition at Easter time across the whole of Italy, although it is believed to have originated in the coastal region of Liguria. The inclusion of the eggs symbolises life and rebirth, and many prefer to eat the pie cold....
When we are hiking in Italy we are spoilt for choice when it comes to UNESCO World Heritage sites, as Italy has over 50, and almost all of our tours have visits to one of these cultural highlights. So we are more than excited to now have a UNESCO World...
2021 marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, one of Italy's greatest literary figures. He was a poet and moral philosopher and best known for the epic poem The Divine Comedy, which made a lasting impression on the worlds of literature,...
The little town of Barolo, which sits right in the centre of the Langhe hills in Piedmont, has been voted Italy's first ever City of Wine or Città del Vino for 2021. The town received the award from a national association that works to promote and...
It's the time of year when the woods around our home in Tuscany would be full of locals foraging for chestnuts and, in normal times, many of the surrounding villages would be celebrating annual chestnut festivals. A great favourite with the Italian...
2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of Italy's first great food writers, Pellegrino Artusi. He was born in 1820 in the town of Forlimpopoli, in the region of Emilia-Romagna, to a wealthy merchant family. Emilia-Romagna is a culinary...
When we research our tours, we usually head off the beaten tracks and design routes which will take us where no other hikers are to be found. Occasionally however, we connect to some of Europe's greatest hiking trails and experience just small sections of...
Travelling on foot gives you time to stop and explore the natural world and a number of our walks give us the chance to learn more about the earth's precious resources. Knowing what's underfoot can bring a whole new dimension to a hike, and often these natural riches...