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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!

Located in the Lugana DOC of the Veneto, one of the smallest of the Veneto DOCs, and shared with Lombardia, one will find the Ottella winery.  Ottella is one of the most successful wineries in the region, operated by Lodovico, Francesco and Michele Montresor. The farm is located in the Verona province, near the small Lago di Frassino, near Lago di Garda. The name, Ottella, comes from the family coat of arm that hangs on the farmhouse, depicting the heads of eight (otto) twins.

sirmione lake garda private tours italy
Sirmione, Italy on Lake Garda


The vineyards of Ottella are located near Peschiera del Garda, with their best terrior, the Cru, being the vineyards of San Benedetto di Lugana. Their stated philosophy is “to create wines that have an exact nose to palate correspondence; that are fine and elegant in their evolutions and thrilling in their mineral sensation, ...with a satisfying depth that is enhanced with the savory and spicy sensation of clay."

ottella la creete wine custom bike tours italy
Otella La Creete

I tasted the Lugana Le Creete 2009. This wine is produced solely from Trebbiano di Lugana grapes from their own vineyards which have been harvested late in the season by hand. There is a brief maceration with the peels, then fermenting happens partly in stainless steel and partly in large wooden crates.

I found the Le Creete has a fruity freshness, accompanied by mineral notes. Very rich, balanced, with a lingering finish. I paired it with my Grilled Trout with Pea Pesto, and I thought they were well matched - these Lugana wines tend to pair quite well with the fresh water fish from the nearby Lago di Garda. A very enjoyable wine!