New Tours: Fall 2025 & Special Offer
Umbria + Sicily
*******Spring 2025: SPECIAL OFFER FOR SICILY*******
We are about to close our tours for Spring 2025, but still have a handful of spots left on my Tour to Sicily in May. And since these are the last spots left I would like to offer all readers of this newsletter a special 20% discount off the published price! That means a savings of up to €1220! Click the link below for details. We will apply the discount with the code SICILY2025
May 4–10, 2025: The Culture of Food in Eastern Sicily with Elizabeth Minchilli
We’ve just added two new tours to our schedule this fall:
October 5–11, 2025: The Culture of Food in Western Sicily with Elizabeth Minchilli
November 9–15, 2025: The Culture of Food in Umbria with Elizabeth and Sophie Minchilli
Keep scrolling for summaries of each itinerary. We are also including links to the online brochures, which include details and pricing.
The Culture of Food in Western Sicily with Elizabeth Minchilli
October 5–11, 2025
Have you been dying to get to Sicily since you saw it on White Lotus? Or maybe it’s just been on your bucket list for a while. I hope you will consider joining me on a six-day feast through Western Sicily. We’ll be based in Palermo (one of my favorite cities in Italy), and you’ll discover the city as well as visit some of our favorite farms and food producers in the countryside. We will feast while exploring this part of the island's food, wine, and history.
Even if you’ve visited Sicily in the past, chances are you may have missed Palermo. In the last 15 years, Palermo has become one of the most vibrant cities in Italy. Whenever I am there (as often as possible) I always think: I could live here. It is the perfect size to manage on foot and is full of churches, markets, museums, artisans' studios, and shops to visit. Another thing I appreciate these days: the ratio of locals to tourists still favors locals. In other words, Palermo is still a ‘real’ city where you can get a sense of Italian daily life.
Like most of our tours, we will be based in one place (Palermo). This will give you a chance to really explore the city both on your own and during the two full days we will spend there together. The other three days will be spent exploring the countryside in different directions: south and west. We will be meeting people who still maintain the strong traditions of the food culture in this part of the world: farmers, cheese makers, salt harvesters, bakers, and chefs.
A few of the things we'll be doing:
Private dinner at my favorite market restaurant
Cheese-making at a farm
Market walk, cooking lesson, and lunch in Palermo
Private performance in an antique puppet theater
Couscous lesson and lunch in a private home in Erice
Pastry-making lesson in a bakery
Lunch at a private olive oil estate
Guided visit to the archeological site of Segesta
Guided visit to a private ceramic museum
Guided visit to Palermo’s most beautiful churches
and more…
Details:
When: October 5–11, 2025
Where: You’ll be based in Palermo, Sicily, in your own private Deluxe room at the historic 5-star Grand Hotel et des Palmes
Who: This tour is limited to 12 guests
What: The tour is 6 nights and 5 very full days, with trips in our private 20-seat bus. But don’t worry; you’ll also have some downtime in Palermo to explore on your own.
How: If you’d like more information, including the pricing and the full itinerary, just click the button below to view the detailed brochure with booking instructions.
The Culture of Food in Umbria with Elizabeth & Sophie Minchilli
November 9–15, 2025
For the last 25 years, I've been lucky enough to divide my time between our apartment in Rome and our home in Umbria. During summers and weekends spent at our villa, I fell in love with this unspoiled corner of Italy. If I had to pick, I’d say my favorite season here is Fall. I love the crisp, cool weather, the bright, saturated colors of the turning leaves, and the brilliant green of the freshly pressed olive oil. Although the days are short, the light is heart-breakingly beautiful. Everything looks like a Renaissance painting.
Due to huge demand (our last posted tour to Umbria sold out in a few days), we’ve decided to add another week to our Fall 2025 schedule. During this six-day tour, we'll have the time to truly explore the region—from a completely food-centric point of view, of course. From breakfast through dinner, we’ll travel all over Umbria, tasting, drinking, eating, cooking, learning, and having fun.
It’s one of the only tours that Sophie and I host together and is the only tour where we get the chance to invite you into our own home. I hope you can make it!
Here is a taste of what we’ll be doing:
Welcome dinner at our villa
Pizza night in Todi (truffle pizza, anyone?)
Truffle hunt and lunch (cute doggies galore)
A day learning all about olive oil (FYI: they ship)
Farm visit and cooking lesson (your chance to bond with an Umbrian nonna)
Winery visit (they also ship)
Visits to Orvieto, Bevagna, Spello, and Deruta (small towns off-season = no crowds)
Ceramic workshop in Deruta (with shopping, of course)
and more…
Details
When: November 9–15, 2025
Where: We’ll be based in Todi, the hilltop village in Umbria. You will have your own private room in a family-run 4-star hotel.
Who: The tour is limited to 12 guests
What: The days will be full, with trips in our private bus all over Umbria. But don’t worry; you will also have some downtime in Todi to explore independently.
How: Click the button below to view the full itinerary (including pricing details) and learn how to book this tour.
