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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!

This wine region, little known outside of the Veneto region, lies in the southeast of the province of Padua and the south of the province of Venice. Established in 2004, this DOC recognizes the role the Benedictine monks played in the social and economic development of this area.

corti benedettine wine private tours italy bike walk ski
Corti Benedettine wine region


This territory lies between the rivers Brenta and Adige and the Adriatic, an alluvial plain subject to periods of severe flooding. From the 12th century, the Benedictine monks have made their home in this plain, putting huge amounts of effort into reclaiming these wetlands. While also battling wars, malaria outbreaks, and famine, they managed to build canals and drainage systems to create Corti. A corte was the heart of their reclamation effort, and would contain the quarters where the friars lived, as well as houses for the farm laborers. These corti became the social, economic and administrative centers for these large estates for almost 1000 years. The monks were the leaders of the efforts to prepare the land here for cultivation. The wines produced on the lands reclaimed in this area became a major commodity, exchanged with the nearby towns of Padua and Venice, and through the Venetian port, cities across the Adriatic.

pinot grigio veneto wines custom tours italy
Pinot Grigio

Cultivation of wines in this fairly damp region requires a great deal of local expertise. But local winegrowers have had success with both indigenous grapes as well as (relatively) newly introduced international varietals. Historically, varietals such as Raboso, Refosco, Tocai and Moscato giallo have been cultivated here, and today wine-growers also produce what international varietals that thrive in the excellent local climate and soil conditions: Merlot, Cabernet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Bianco. Most wines in this DOC are best served young, when then exhibit fresh floral notes; others are better left to develop greater complexity with a bit of aging.

White wines included in the D.O.C. are:

Corti Benedettine del Padovano Bianco
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Chardonnay (also sparkling and spumante)
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Pinot bianco
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Pinot grigio
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Sauvignon
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Tai
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Moscato spumante
Corti Benedettine del Padovano passito from Moscato giallo

raboso veneto wines private cycling tours
Raboso

Red wines of the D.O.C. are:

Corti Benedettine del Padovano Rosso
Corti Benedettine del Padovano rosato (rosé)
Corti Benedettine del Padovano novello
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Cabernet
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Cabernet riserva
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Cabernet Sauvignon
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Merlot
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Raboso
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Raboso riserva
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Raboso passito
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Refosco dal peduncolo rosso
Corti Benedettine del Padovano Refosco dal peduncolo rosso riserva