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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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This cheese is named after the capital of the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni (Plateau of the Seven Communes.) This area, located in the north of the Province of Vicenza, was famous in the year 1000 for the high quality of its wool and for its excellent cheese, then called pegorin (sheep’s cheese). In the early 16th century, the local farmers gradually changed from sheep farming to cattle farming, as the latter was more profitable. So milk available for dairy products was now cow’s milk, rather than sheep’s milk, and the local cheeses were produced used the cow’s milk. The asiago cheese we know today was born, however, even today, some locals still refer to the cheese as pegorin.

asiago cheese italy private bike walk ski tours
Asiago cheese in Italian market


Asiago has an official Italian DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) designation. The only ‘official’ Asiago is produced in the area of the town of Asiago, in the province of Vicenza. Asiago DOP cheese’s authentic production process dates back to the year 1000, when the cheese was made with ewe’s milk. It became an important market for cheese in the early 1500s, when a large amount of woodlands in the area were converted to pasture and mountain farms. Today, the production of Asiago also includes the upper Po valley and the mountains of Trentino, as well as parts of Treviso and Padova. In order to earn the DOP designation, the milk must be collected from this area, and the cheese must be produced in this region. Most Asiago, however, is made elsewhere using the same cultures and techniques.

Asiago cheese tasting italy tours
Asiago cheese tasting on our Italy tour


Traditionally made Asiago is referred to as Asiago d'Allevo, or matured. Asiago d'alleva is made from raw milk from Pezzata Nero and Bruno Alpina cows, which is allowed to stand for 6-12 hours and the cream is  then skimmed off. Milk from two milkings is used, only the first being skimmed. Coagulation occurs at 35°C, then the soft curd is broken up and cooked twice, once at 40°C and then next at 47°C. The cooked curds are transferred into moulds, and the rounds are either dry salted or wet salted in brine baths before maturing. Asiago is referred to as mezzano if it has matured for at least 3 months, and is referred to as vecchio if it has matured for a minimum of nine months. Stravecchio is aged even longer.

The outer rind is thin, and becomes increasing brown as it matures. The inner cheese is white, semi-hard, with an even texture. The vecchio or stravecchio versions may be used for  grating as the body becomes harder. The cheese also develops a fuller flavor and fragrance as it matures.

Asiago d’Allevo vecchio and stravecchio made in the province of Trentino is sometimes referred to as Vezzena, one of the plateaus in Trentino where it is produced.

Recently, a fresh type of asiago has become increasingly popular, Asiago Pressato. It is produced in larger dairies in lower lying areas. It is made from pasteurized whole cow’s milk, the curd is first dry-salted. The curd is broken up, then cooked and drained, transferred into moulds and pressed (pressato). It is matured over a period of 20 to 40 days, and is soft to the touch, with small holes in the body, and pale in color with a mild, milky, delicate flavor.