Ten things you may not know about The Palio

If you've not yet joined one of our annual Palio tours in Siena every August your ideas about this horse race might be a little sketchy. As race day approaches (August 16) we thought you...

The region of Basilicata in the southern part of the Italian peninsula is wild, dramatic and sparsely populated. Its geography has something "other worldly" about it, with majestic mountains, bare clay hills and dark forested valleys.  But it is the landscape of...

The first tour of our Italian season took us to the wild landscape of Abruzzo, in the central Apennine region of Italy. Abruzzo is home to many National Parks but the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise itself is home to some very special residents.

The island of Elba sits opposite the coast of Tuscany, about 20km from the town of Piombino, where the ferry leaves to connect the island to the mainland. It has a population of about 31,000 residents but is incredibly popular with visitors...

Chris Bell is one of our most dedicated followers of Hedonistic Hiking tours in Italy but this year, for the first time, he flew to Australia and joined our hikes on the Great Ocean Walk and in the Victorian Alps. We asked him for his first impressions ....

We loved the way you...

The last weekend in February was party time for Hedonistic Hiking as we hosted our annual long lazy Italian-style lunch in the historic village of Wandiligong, and enjoyed some of the very best ingredients that north east Victoria has to offer.

Mick was at the...

Dina and I (Annabel) have worked alongside Mick and Jackie in Italy for many seasons and are accustomed to the high standards which they maintain on their tours. But, this weekend, we were their guests on a two day camping trip high in Victoria's Alpine National Park close to Mount Cobbler and I...

I've just been lucky enough to visit Venice in January and savour this amazing city out of season when the number of day-trippers must be at its lowest in the whole year.  It is an experience I can wholly recommend as it's such a pleasure to wander the streets without the usual summer...

As we (that is Jackie and Annabel) were sitting in a restaurant in Parma one evening, we thought how good it would be to recognise some of the people who help to make our Italian walking holidays so much fun.

The Australian passion for coffee must be almost equal to the Italian, but we often notice on our tours that the differences in terminology can catch a visitor out, and lots of great coffee-drinking moments are getting lost in translation!  We have designed this simple guide to ordering, to...