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Small Group Private Tour Specialist

Plan your Italy adventure with the small group private tour specialist. Escape overtourism and discover the back roads and authentic small towns with us. Kathy and Vernon create your perfect trip, with off-the-beaten path destinations, activities from walks and bike rides to city tours and shopping, and expert-led culinary adventures.

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Food and Wine

Any tour of Italy is incomplete without indulging in the amazing food and wine. But to truly appreciate It requires an understanding of the regional history, culture and geography. All become part of your adventure with Kathy, chef, food blogger, and Certified Italian Wine Professional, and Vernon, mountain guide, MS in European Literature and avid history enthusiast.

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Your Unique Adventure

Not all private trips are custom. Most tour companies don't have the flexibility to deviate from their set itineraries, so there are always compromises. With Kathy and Vernon, your adventure will be as unique as you are, and your itinerary will be personally designed us to meet the desires and varied interests of your group.

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The ItaliaOutdoors Difference


Truly Personalized Service and a Custom Plan for Every Trip

Kathy and Vernon

NO MIDDLEMEN

You communicate directly with Vernon and Kathy. We know your dreams for an Italy adventure, we’ll have it ready for you when you arrive.

No Group Too Small

SMALL FOOTPRINT

Our small footprint allows us to travel like locals and enjoy spontaneous adventures as we explore the path less traveled.

 

Custom Plan

UNIQUE ITINERARY

Each tour itinerary is unique and serves as a framework for an exceptional journey, where a thoughtful plan adjusts to your pace.

 

Authenticity

KNOWLEDGE

We focus on just a few select tours to provide an exceptional level of regional knowledge and an unforgettable authentic experience.

Travel after COVID-19: How do you wish to travel in Italy when we are able to return? In a small private group of your family and friends? Plenty of outdoor explorations? Off the beaten track destinations far from tourist crowds? Private cooking classes, wine tours, small intimate hotels? That's how we've been traveling for ten years. Plan your adventure in Italy with Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine, the custom tour specialist.

Customize Your Adventure - Food - Wine - Walk - Hike - Bike

With Italy's "Best Local Guide 2013"

Read about our tours in Adventure Cyclist August 2015

Our passion is creating intimate, personalized active food and wine adventures that explore an authentic Italy
- its outdoor beauty, its hidden back roads, its small family producers, its traditional wines, at your preferred pace.
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Ski Holidays Italy - Dolomites Ski Tours

val gardena ski tours dolomites
Val Gardena, Italy

Looking for a great Dolomites ski tour this year? One that can allow hardcore skiers to indulge in scenic terrain from wide open bowls to gladed trails, while non- or sometime skiers have plenty of other activities to enjoy? Bolzano, in the heart of the Dolomite mountains of Italy, is the perfect spot for you. Located within a 2 hour or so drive from Venice to the south, and Austria and Germany to the north, with its own small airport, it is an easy destination to get to. It’s ideal location in the heart of the magnificent Dolomite mountains make it a perfect base for ski holiday in Italy. Here are 5 reasons to Ski Bolzano, especially for mixed groups:

World-class Winter Sports

For your daily ski or snowboard fix, there are 42 ski areas within an hour drive of Bolzano, including Val Gardena, Selva -Sella Ronda and Alta Badia. Another 35 are within 1.5 hours, including ski areas in Austria like Innsbruck. Area passes are available which allow you to choose a different ski area each day; a local guide do the driving and can help you select the best resort destination of the day, based on the weather conditions and snowfall patterns for that year. Enjoy groomed skiing one day, glacier skiing another, and an introduction to backcountry yet another.


Apres Ski

 

apres ski bolzano italy
Apres ski - fine dining

Returning to Bolzano in the evenings, you have a wide choice of apres ski activities and restaurants. It is the shopping destination of the region, with porticoed shopping areas providing protection from the weather. You will find many local handicrafts available, as well as the latest in fashion. Wonderful restaurants, from very traditional establishments to more modern tables offer dining options for all tastes.


Cultural  Exhibits


The city itself offers a wide range of cultural activities and museums to visit to keep you busy on a rest day. From Otzi the Iceman at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, to a medieval castle at Castel Runkelstein, there is something for everyone. For true mountaineers, a visit to one of the locales of the Messner Mountain Museum is a must-see.  A museum project started by Italian mountaineer and extreme climber Reinhold Messner, this is perfect for the hard-core extreme outdoors members of the group.


Day Excursions

 

Juliet's Balcony verona italy
Juliet's Balcony, Verona

 

For those non-skiers, or anyone who has earned a well-deserved rest day, many excursions to various nearby cities are possible. Visit Juliet’s balcony and the ancient Arena in Verona, the Duomo and the museum and frescoes in the Castello del Buonconsiglio of Trento, or the Old Town of Innsbruck. A local guide can set you up with a private tour of these cities to make the best use of your time.

 


Wine

winery tour ski italy
Winery tours in Italy

Throughout the Adige valley, vineyards cling to the sides of the mountains, where they experience cool breezes from the Alps to the north intermixing with warm, drying air from Lake Garda to the south. The result of this interplay of air produces some of the most well-structured, aromatic whites in the world, as well as some powerful reds. Some not to be missed: Terlaner, a white blend from vineyards just northwest of Bolzano, Schiava or Vernatsch, a lighter bodied red that pairs perfectly with the local smoked meats, Lagrein, a more full-bodied, nicely tannic big red, with the Muri-Gries monastary in Bolzano worth a tasting stop, as they specialize in this varietal.

ski tours dolomites
Skiing in the Dolomites

The region of Alto Adige has long been a destination for outdoor lovers, but for those discerning snowsport enthusiasts who insist upon great food and wine to close each ski day, Alto Adige boasts more Michelin star restaurants than any other region in Italy. And to quote David Lynch and Joseph Bastianich in their guide to the regional wines of Italy, Vino Italiano, “For those who love both the outdoors and wines, Trentino-Alto Adige is hard to beat”. Great food and wine in the heart of the Dolomites, surrounded by countless ski resorts - a combination hard to beat!

 

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