AWAY TO ITALY
Weekly stories, travel tips, and planning tools to help you experience Italy more authentically—plus a special 7-day welcome series to help you start planning with clarity and confidence.
🇮🇹 Your family's Italian village is waiting
The next time your Italian family gathers, someone will tell the story. You know the one. The town name that's been passed down for generations. The place your great-grandparents left behind. The village someone mentions at every reunion, every holiday, every time the family comes together. Someone will say, "We should go there someday." And everyone will nod. And the conversation will move on. But what if someday was this upcoming year? The village is still there. The church is still there....
🇮🇹 It started in an alley in Orvieto
I want to tell you about a man named Geppetto. Not the Disney one. A real one. I was 20 years old, spending a semester in Rome, and a group of us took a day trip to a town called Orvieto—this stunning hilltop city in Umbria, about an hour north of Rome. We were wandering. No agenda. No itinerary. Just walking down side streets because that's what you do when you're 20 and everything feels like an adventure. And then I heard it. This... tapping. Rhythmic. Coming from somewhere below street...
💸 How To Set A Budget For Your Italy Trip
"The best trips start with a well-planned budget." Ciao Reader, Many of you have recently asked about the cost of an off-the-beaten-path trip to Italy. So, I decided to make that the focus of this week's email. 💸 The most important step in your traveling planning is to set a budget. You want your trip to be stress-free and that comes with designing a trip you can afford. Let your budget guide your travel plans every step of the way. Here are two different budget ranges for the average 1-week...
🚊 My Italian Train Mishap (and How to Avoid Yours!)
"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving at a fixed destination." — Lao Tzu Ciao Reader, I’ve been thinking about you ever since my stressful train journey last weekend! 🚊While train travel in Italy lets you soak up the scenery and local life, bumps can happen. Last weekend, my husband and I were off to visit family in Genoa for the day. There are no direct trains between Lucca and Genoa, so we’d be switching trains once along the way. The first connection was fine,...
🌻 Discover 20 Slow Travel Destinations in Italy
"The beauty of slow travel lies not in how far you go, but in how deeply you immerse." — Unknown Ciao Reader, I'm a true advocate for slow travel. But let me tell you about the time I got caught up in the whirlwind of a group tour. It was 2022, and after the long pause of the shutdown, I was itching to return to Italy. ✈️ So, I joined my church for an 11-day, fast-paced tour. It sounded like a great idea – reconnecting with friends and revisiting beloved sights. 🤦🏻♀️ But reality hit as we...
Weekly stories, travel tips, and planning tools to help you experience Italy more authentically—plus a special 7-day welcome series to help you start planning with clarity and confidence.