Loading...

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.

Read More...

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.

Read More...

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.

Read More...

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!

Began in 1823 by Johann Lageder, who left his family home near Val Gardena (home to great skiing) and moved to Bolzano to find his fortune. He became a wheelwright and wine dealer, and his son Alois continued on in the wine business, purchasing the families first vineyard. The family first began producing Santa Magdalena and Lagrein wines from vineyards in the Santa Magdalena area, in the hills north of Bolzano.

trentino vineyards private bike tours italy
Vineyards in Trentino


Subsequent sons (all named Alois), became specialists in the local terroir and microclimates, as well as the indigenous varietals such as schiava (Vernatsch) and Lagrein. The family expanded their vineyard holdings, moving south to the village of Magrè, where excellent exposures produce robust reds such as Cabernet, Sauvignon and Merlot. A winemaking facility and cellars was created at the Löwengang estate in Magrè.

At the start of the 1970s, the company moved away from the then-popular bulk wines and began to bottle more of its own wines, and market them under its own Alois Lageder-label. At this point, the company was operated by Alois IV, along with his sister Wendelgard and her husband, and cellar master, Luis von Dellemann. The image of Alto Adige wines had suffered greatly as a result of years of perception as products for mass consumption. The family undertook the task of repositioning the winery, beginning initiatives to improve the quality of their wines, such as trellising on wires, and reducing yield.  In 1995, a high-tech winemaking facility and cellar complex in Magrè was constructed. Today, all of their over fifty hectares of vineyards adheres to the principles of biodynamic agriculture.

L

lageder rose wine custom tours italy
Lageder Lagrein Rose

agrein is a red grape native to the Lagarina valley in Trentino-Alto Adige. A very distinctive, native red with strong herbal notes, it is used in red (Lagrein Scuro or Dunkel) and rosé (Lagrein Rosato or Kretzer) wines. It is a descendant of Teroldego, and related to Syrah and Pinot Noir.

I recently enjoyed the Lageder Lagrein Rose 2010 at a recent fundraiser I worked on with the Homestead restaurant in Farmington, ME. This wine, one of my Top 10 Undiscovered Wines of Northeastern Italy, was the hit of the evening, and I was thrilled when I happened upon it recently in my favorite local gourmet store here in Newburyport, Joppa Fine Foods.

It is a wonderful dark pink color, with a hint of ruby. A very pleasant nose, berry and floral. This medium-bodied rose will stand up to some stronger flavored dishes, with a tart cherry flavor, nice acidity and persistent aftertaste with a nicely bitter finish.

I paired it with my last recipe post, a smoked salmon dish, Saumon con Verdure Mediterranee (Salmon with Mediterranean Vegetables). Fantastic foods and wines from Sudtirol!