BIG NEWS: Our new tour company!

New website + new brand

I’m usually not very good at keeping secrets, but somehow, during the past year, I’ve managed to keep some very big news under wraps. Sophie, Emma, and I have been working on a big project, and today, we are very happy to introduce you to our new Tour Company: Via Rosa!

A bit of background

As you all know, I’ve been leading food tours in Rome since 2012. What started as a way to pivot my writing career towards something more lucrative turned out to be the right road to follow. You probably don’t remember a time when food tours weren’t a thing, but back in 2012, I was one of the only people doing this in Rome. What seemed like a slightly weird idea back then (people would actually hire me to tell them what to eat?) turns out to have been a smart career choice.

I went from leading half-day market tours in Rome to hosting week-long food tours all over Italy. Along the way, the business has grown in ways I never dreamed possible. Not only have I been able to bring guests with me to explore the culture of food in places like Sicily, Puglia, Umbria, Tuscany, and Emilia Romagna, but I also have the best business partners in the world: my two daughters, Sophie and Emma.

Via Rosa

During all this time, the tour business lived online and was hosted on a page on my original blog. We all decided that it was time for an upgrade to something more user-friendly with all the bells and whistles. We also decided that our little company had grown beyond simply being associated with my name or blog.

And so Via Rosa was born. Via in Italian means road, and Rosa was my mother-in-law’s name. Via Rosa sums up what all three of us think our new business embodies. Traveling to Italy should be about discovering new roads that lead you to the traditions that hold our life here together. We firmly believe that much of that is inextricably tied to the culture of food. Who grows it, who makes it, who sells it, and, of course, who cooks it and places it in front of you at the table to share it with you. Just like Nonna.

There is history, love, and culture in every bite. In sharing these moments, we believe that everyone’s life will be richer. You will come away with a deeper understanding of the country, for sure. But also, we hope, you will get to know the fellow traveler sitting with you at the table. We are committed to the sense of community and understanding that exists when people share their stories while sharing a meal.

The new website

You can visit the new site here, and the tour page will host our ever-expanding tour schedule. Our brochures now live fully online, so feel free to share the links with anyone you think would like to join us.

• New tour announcements: As always, new tours will first be announced to Premium readers through this newsletter. A week later, they will be posted on the Tour page of the new website.

• Guest hosts: Both Sophie and I continue to host tours all over Italy. As our business grows, we look forward to collaborating with friends and colleagues who have agreed to host their own week-long food tours in Italy. The weeks are expertly curated by Via Rosa, but you’ll get the chance to explore, cook, and eat with your favorite cookbook authors, radio hosts , health professionals, and online cooks.

• Italy guides: I know many of you have missed my app Eat Italy, which I retired two years ago. In the meantime, Sophie has been sharing much of her knowledge on apps like Thatch and AmiGo, and many of my lists are scattered on my blog and in past newsletters. We are thrilled to announce that the new website has a dedicated guide section. We will be rolling out new guides all the time. We’ve also added a nifty PDF function so you can take the lists with you when you are on the road, either digitally or as print outs. If there are any specific guides you are looking for, just let us know in the comments below.

• Blog: The blog section on the website will host posts about culinary adventures (for example, 36 Hours in Parma) as well as some of our favorite recipes we discover during our travels.

My old website

I can’t quite believe I’ve been regularly updating my blog since 2009. That’s 15 years!! 1215 posts!! While I used to update the blog 3 times a week, over the years, things have changed. Social media has become the way I share information, whether through words, images, video, or a combination of all three. Along the way, there were books, too. These days, this newsletter is where I share a lot of what I am thinking about. And so the blog got left by the wayside, and what has been pretty obvious for a while (my most recent blog post is from a year ago) is now official: I will not be updating the blog anymore. Don’t worry; it’s not going anywhere. The full archive will remain just how it is.

Follow us

We’ve set up new accounts for Via Rosa on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. We’ll be sharing information about the tours on these accounts but also creating posts that we hope will be helpful if you are heading to Italy (restaurant lists, travel tips, etc.), so please make sure you are following along so you don’t miss anything. (Sophie and I will of course continue to post on our own personal accounts)

Join us

The best part about growing our business is that we are able to host more tours and so meet more of you. Some of you have been following along on this adventure since before there was even an internet(!) and I thank you for from the bottom of my heart. More tours mean more fun, and Sophie, Emma and I look forward to sharing it all with you in person one day.

x, Elizabeth
(and Sophie & Emma)

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