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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.
Tell Me More!

Soft shell crabs are a seasonal Venetian treat, as they are in the US. In Venice, they are referred to as moleche. These crabs are a different species than found here in the US, they are smaller (about 2-3 inches), and are available twice a year - in the fall and spring.

moleche venice private culinary tours
Moleche at Rialto fish market

 

Males and females both shed their old shell in the spring, while only males molt in the fall. There is a 5-6 hour window of opportunity from when the crabs shed their hard shell, before the new, soft shell hardens again with contact with water. Timing therefore is crucial to the whole enterprise.

The moleche fishermen of Venice (molecanti) are masters as managing the molting process of their harvest. There is only a very brief 5-6 hour period in which the shells are soft enough to eat, as continued contact with water will harden them in a matter of hours. The trick is to identify those crabs that are just about to molt from those that are not; the former are stored in tanks until they have molted, at which point they are taken to markets such as the amazing fish market at Rialto. The latter are held back until their molting time has come. The crab stocks were almost depleted in the 1980s. Today they are farmed in various locations around Venice, and it now is an important industry in the region.

moleche polenta regional food tours veneto
Moleche with Polenta


Every fish restaurant in Venice will feature soft shell crabs on its menu during the season. We were lucky enough to be in Venice last September with one of our Chefs on Bikes trips, and were treated to some wonderful Venetian soft shell crabs are our welcome dinner at Villa Margherita. They were simply sauteed, and served in a very traditional manner with grilled polenta.