Many Hedonistic Hikers will have met Cinzia, one of our fabulous tour managers, on their travels with us in Italy. She is a fantastic chef and hugely well informed about Italian food and wine, a knowledge which she always shares enthusiastically with guests on our trips. When she is not working with us, Cinzia and her English husband James also run their own company, MacNay Travel & Wine, from their home in Piedmont. James is a qualified Italian Wine Ambassador with extensive knowledge of and passion for this subject.
Guests booking their tours meet the best Italian winemakers and explore Italy’s most beautiful and important wine regions. They combine wine and food with the outdoors, meaning their trips usually include some walking or cycling. These tours attract wine lovers or wine professionals who enjoy the outdoors, or keen walkers or cyclists who love good wine and food. On offer are self-guided walking or cycling itineraries, and small-group guided trips with optional walking or cycling components. All trips are for private booking only.
New for 2026, James and Cinzia have two brand new itineraries, one in Northern Italy and one in Sardinia. James has described their plans for these two new routes:
“Sardinia has been prominent in our plans, because as well as extraordinary natural beauty and layers of megalithic history, this island boasts important, though little-known, wine regions. Our new accompanied wine trip, Northern Sardinia starts on the west coast, where they make tiny quantities of high quality ‘oxidative’ (sherry-like) wines. In particular, the towns of Bosa and Oristano are prized for their Malvasia and Vernaccia, respectively. From here, our six-night accompanied itinerary for wine lovers progresses to the decomposed granites of Mamoiada, where some of the world’s greatest Grenache (Cannonau, in Sardinia) is made. We finish in Gallura, at the island’s (if not the world’s) best Vermentino vineyard, for a masterclass tasting accompanied by one of Cinzia’s legendary picnics and tutored cheese tastings. Book to start 15 April – 15 June or 15 September – 15 November. A minimum of six guests is required.”
“Our last research trip of the year, which we did just before the Christmas break, was in our home region of Piemonte. We drove two hours to Tortona, where the Timorasso grape makes some of the country’s best white wines. Our new self-guided itinerary, Salt Roads to the Riviera, takes hikers over seven nights from our winemaker’s B&B, with a tasting included, into the unspoilt hills and high mountains of the Ligurian Apennines. This magical land has a long history of adventurers, traders and wartime partisans. From here, we emerge on a ridge high above the azure and green of the Portofino promontory. The final night is in a boutique hotel on the Italian Riviera. We provide detailed directions and GPS tracks for every metre, along with regular information panels which bring the region to life. We move the bags ahead to the next hotel stop and offer lifts in the vehicle to shorten or skip a day if required. This is a challenging hike in wild country, with a rest day at the halfway mark. There is no minimum or maximum number of travellers for this route.”
To see the full range of tours offered by James and Cinzia, you can visit their website here. Guests on HH tours in 2026 looking to extend their adventures in Italy may find that a MacNay Travel & Wine tour offers a good fit in terms of interests and dovetails well with their other travel plans.