We had such an incredible time on our recent trip to Italy that we wanted to share some of the highlights to get you excited about joining us next September for our La Dolce Vegan tour through Rome, Umbria, and Tuscany!
We began our adventure where we’ll start the tour: in Rome, aka the Eternal City. This city is incredible; layers of civilizations built atop the next, and in some places you can look down and see those layers right before your eyes! We saw the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and more adorable piazzas than you could shake a stick at.
After a few days in Rome, we headed north and east to Umbria, the only region in Italy not bordered by a sea, and met up with our friend Terresa in her ancient hilltop village and enjoyed a delightful lunch of salad greens (we picked them ourselves!), Umbrian bean and barley soup, some delightful natural wine from a local winemaker, and an incredible homemade crostata for dessert. On our September tour, guests will get to meet Terresa and step into her 500-year-old kitchen and learn to make some of the rustic local specialties!
Next we were off to Tuscany, with a stop in Assisi for lunch. Here, we visited the basilica of St. Francis—the patron saint of animals—and marveled at the 13th century ceiling frescoes. The views over the countryside were pretty incredible, too. (And yes, we’ll stop here on our tour, too.)
Later that afternoon as we arrived at our final destination, Carnaval celebrations were just getting underway. We headed to the main square and soaked up the festive ambiance, then moseyed to a nearby bar on the grand piazza and sipped a chilled glass of Vernaccia, the local wine. And that stuff that looks like snow? It's just confetti. Lots and lots of confetti!
The next day, we met up with Lauren (guests will meet her in Rome and again in Florence) and her partner Nico and enjoyed a lovely cafe Americano at a terrace cafe on a small square. Lauren’s knowledge of Italian history is astounding, and after a decade in Italy, she’s got the cultural thing down, too! We loved getting the inside scoop on what all those Italian hand-gestures mean (there are some strange ones, that’s for sure!), and our guests will come away from their time with Lauren knowing how to communicate in Italian senza parole (without words), too!
Back in Rome, we did a day trip to Ostia Antica to see the incredible remains of an ancient Italian city. Ostia sits where the Tiber river meets the Mediterranean, and two millennia ago, it was where spices, fruits and vegetables, and other provisions entered Rome from faraway lands.
We can’t even get into the food we experienced, otherwise we’d be writing all day. But take our word for it: the pasta, pizza, artichokes, tomatoes, vegan cornetti, and everything else we relished seemed like the best thing we’d ever eaten.
If you’re ready to experience La Dolce Vegan on a small-group, slow-travel tour through stunning landscapes, quaint villages, ancient landmarks, and historic cities, this is your tour! Click here for all the details and to reserve your spot. Until then, arrivederci and buon appetito! #vegantravel #Italy #Rome #Tuscany #Umbria #vegantour #veganfoodtour
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