About |
Feel Your Italian Spirit ! ®
About Our Company, Founder, and Tour Guides:
La Contadina is a company resulting from two great passions that Giuliana, the founder, has nourished since a very young age: Traveling and Italian Ceramics.
Giuliana was born and raised in Torino, in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. She came to the United States for her university studies. She graduated in International Relations and French literature and later completed her graduate studies in foreign language teaching at the University of Utah. She is currently teaching for the department of languages and literature and is the Director of the Italian study abroad program at the University of Utah. Along with her busy academic schedule, Giuliana manages to lead one or two small group tours per year to Italy and continues to create and sell her beautiful handpainted Italian pottery.
Giuliana has been leading tours to Italy for over 17 years, and her usual group consists of between 2 and 8 guests. In the last several years, Giuliana has invited several tour guides to join her in leading La Contadina tours. Giuliana's guides are carefully selected as they must speak Italian, be natural leaders, be passionate about Italy, and appreciate the special intimate nature of La Contadina tours and the concept of "slow travel." Our hope is that our tours feed your soul as well as your body, and connect you to the real Italy. We spend ample time in each location so you develop a deep sense of each village or region, and have time to rest and soak up the wonders of each destination.
In addition to La Contadina's new, 13-day "Postcards from Italy" tour starting in 2009, La Contadina also offers a Women's Tour ("Italy for the Soul"), and an "Enchanted Umbria" Tour, where guests stay in Spoleto and savor the Green Heart of Italy for the entire trip. Other tours include "Sicily by Sail" and an adventure through the Dolomites/Veneto region. La Contadina Travels and Tours also provides personalized travel consulting services and custom itineraries. To learn more about these offers, click on this link: http://www.lacontadina.com/content/tours/tours_main.html
Our new featured tour for 2009 is our "Postcards from Italy" tour. Documentary filmmaker Steven Robert McCurdy and tour director Marybeth Janerich will co-lead this 12-night, 13-day La Contadina tour of central and southern Italy.
Imagine being with Steve as he shows you the secret gems he filmed for his movie, “Postcards from Italy,” including the caves of Matera, the splendid beauty of the Amalfi coast, the wonders of Gubbio and Spoleto - enchanting hilltop villages in Umbria, and some of the most amazing sights in Rome.
Also included in this tour are some villages visited in another of Steve's films, "My Own Private Italy," including Supino and Buccino. Our “Postcards from Italy” tour will thrill each traveler with a taste of the “dolce vita,” including great food and wine, great conversation, exploration of historical sites, an Italian cooking class in an ancient hilltop village in Umbria, and much more.
Details of this 13-day itinerary can be found at www.lacontadina.com.
We invite you to please visit our website to view this and other tour itineraries as well as our photos of Bell' Italia!
Don't Just Dream It, Do It !
You can click on the following link to learn more about Giuliana and her guides for the Postcards from Italy tour, Marybeth and Steve. www.acontadina.com/content/about_us.html