Finding your personal Great Escape in Italy is simple.  Take a map, close your eyes, drop your finger.  Anywhere you land is a feast for your senses.  Italy’s diversity is legendary and its treasures easy to discover, with a little help along the way.  Escape with us and we'll be your guide.

Italy is delightfully complex.  Every region has layers of history, cultural differences, food specialties, wine to steal your heart, artisans beyond compare, and a glorious landscape to take your breath away.

Escape with us and experience a country with traditional Mediterranean values and a pace of life reminiscent of the past.  We’ll visit small wineries, ancient abbeys and cathedrals, charming hill towns, archeological sites, wild sandy beaches, markets, festivals….tours as diverse as Italy itself. 

Hosting small group tours in Italy for the past twelve years, and living in Tuscany almost full-time now, gives me a unique perspective, and a base of knowledge and experience that only comes with time and discovery.  I would like to share with you the places, the people, and the passion I feel for this country that has changed my life.  I believe its siren song will sing its way into your soul and you, too, will be forever changed.

Great Escapes in 2014 


Springtime in Positano 

Painting Positano - (Recently added)

Spirit of Tuscany 
with Brian Luke Seaward

Autumn in Positano

Springtime in Positano will take us to the heart of the beautiful Amalfi Coast.  We’ll spend a week  in a lovely restored villa dating back to the 1600's.  It's perfect position in this jewel of the spectacular coast will give us a 180° view over all of Positano and allow us to reach the “Grande Spiaggia” and the main square (piazza principale) in only a few minutes.  It may be difficult to leave our terrace with breathtaking views of the sea to visit Capri, Pompeii, Amalfi, Ravello, and the quaint little shops and cafes of Positano, but we'll do our best!  No driving needed as transportation will be preovided.  This is a week for those who are fit and love to walk....the steps of the Amalfi Coast are legendary!

Painting Positano, a very special week at the villa for artists!  The award-winning painter, Michele Usibelli, will co-host the week with me, and we will see this amazing cliffside village through new eyes - the creative view of the artists.

Spirit of Tuscany with Brian Luke Seaward, internationally known stress management author, photographer, teacher, and all-round great guy.  Mother Nature puts on her best dress in the Tuscan Springtime.  She's decorated with bright green fields of red poppies, yellow blossoms of ginestra, and purple thistle in her hair.  Rosemary, lavender and roses scent the air and the geraniums are beginning to overflow their pots.  We'll settle into our week at the elegant Tenuta Santo Pietro, our favorite B&B near Pienza, with a sigh of relaxation and anticipation.  From here we'll visit ancient medieval villages, share cooking classes, seminars with Luke, and many more lasting memories....

Autumn in Positano will take us back to Positano, to the famous Amalfi Coast, in October. This tour, led with my Italian partner Roberto Crocenzi, will focus on the best this area has to offer in food, wine and history.  Your small group will decide the daily itinerary according to your preferences - Pompeii, the beautiful Isle of Capri, Sorrento - there is much to discover. The incomparable beauty of this area of Italy will greet you each morning as you step out onto your terrace overlooking the sea....pure magic.