Your Italian adventure awaits . . .

I know. Another travel cliche, but it’s been my tag line on my website for 15 years and I stick by it! Since the inception of Ciao Italy it has always been about adventure and never a ‘sun lounge on the beach with fancy cocktail in hand’ kind of holiday.

I believe an adventure is opening yourself up to new experiences that may be unusual, exciting, out of your comfort zone and even a little daring! Travel allows you to become a storyteller and adventurous travel gives you more compelling, inspirational stories.

Before I lose you, I’m talking soft adventure requiring a moderate level of fitness and experiential adventure to expose you to local traditions and Italian lifestyle.

Here are seven of my favourite adventures (restricted to that number only by the length of the newsletter) that are optional because there are always alternative activities if they don’t appeal.

Who can resist the sexy vespa?

Travel the cobblestones of Rome like a true Roman sitting on the back of a vespa with your Italian driver whose number one priority is your safety. Their vespa riding skills and local knowledge are superb. This is a four hour tour to show you special places you would never find on your own. Experience and see sites, neighbourhoods and locations that are too far on foot, including the working class district of Testaccio where we stop at the best Pasticceria in Rome for coffee and pastries.

Travelling through the bohemian neighbourhood of Trastevere, we scooter up to the top of Gianicolo Hill for a breathtaking panoramic view of Rome laid out before your eyes. There is history on every street corner of Rome and this is a chance to hear more gripping stories about ancient Rome from our Tour Leader.

The quintessential Tuscan walk

Think Italy. Think Tuscany. Think rolling green hills and a winding white road bordered by cypress trees. It is one of my favourite walks in Tuscany from Montepulciano to neighbouring hill-top Montefollonico where we follow the meandering white road past golden stone farmhouses, vineyards and olive groves through the valleys of Val d’Orcia and Val di Chiana, both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

One year there was an abandoned house, now restored into an impressive grandiose villa, that had me fantasizing about being Diane Lane in ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’. Our reward at the end is a delicious lunch in a secret garden . . . so worth the walk!

The best way to see the lake is from the lake!

Believe me when I say no experience necessary. From our lakeside village of Bellagio, we walk ten minutes across the promontory to a tiny fishing village called Pescallo. Michele is waiting for us with his very sturdy tandem and single kayaks to guide us on a two hour journey with lots of stops, story telling about the history of Lake Como and a not to be missed surprise at the end.

Walk a ravine dating back to the Paleolithic age

Matera, one of three continually inhabited places in the world, sits on the edge of a ravine several kilometres long with a stream flowing through it. A three kilometre return walk takes us down into the ravine, across a very cool suspension bridge and up the other side to caves once inhabited 10,000 years ago. A feeling of being frozen in time captures your imagination as you stand inside a cave looking across the ravine to the Sassi, the two ancient neighbourhoods of Matera.

There is no other place like this in Italy, or the world.

The most fun you’ll ever have in a cooking class

I don’t love cooking, but I love Simone’s cooking class in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast! Is it the Limoncello Spritz to kickstart the class; Simone’s sense of humour and patience as we all become loud and silly; the amazing food we take part in creating; the raucous laughter as we mess up the simplest of tasks or being serenaded by Simone’s Dad? It’s all of that and more. Funny how when we eat what we’ve created it tastes so much better than we could ever have imagined.

Stand on the edge of a crater

For adventure seekers, there is no greater thrill than walking around the craters of Mount Etna, Europe’s largest and most active volcano.

From our stunning town of Taormina, we are picked up in four wheel drive vehicles to drive to the extinct craters area at 2,000 metres above sea level. On the way up we stop at the great lava flow of 1991-1993. On arrival at Silvestri Craters, there is the option to walk the perimeter of a low crater or a high crater. Both craters are inactive and were formed from an eruption in 1892.

The summit is 3,329 metres high where it is almost a daily occurrence to see smoke and stream rising from the summit craters. Rest assured that we would not venture up the volcano unless it was safe to do so.

The dazzling Dolomites

If I was allowed one word only to encapture ‘adventure’, I choose ‘Dolomites’. The majestic mountains alone make you feel like it’s your greatest adventure the minute you step outside. So stunning is the landscape that surrounds you that it feels quite surreal.

A network of cablecars and chairlifts allows you to explore all day long. Ascend to 2,000+ metres, walk an easy trail, eat glorious food, walk another trail surrounded by magnificent scenery, eat more delicious food in a beautiful green valley and pinch yourself that you’re really there.

I can promise you that every day of every tour is an adventure. Is it any wonder that I love my job!

To access past newsletters and read more about these adventures, click here.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb