Of course, Italy and Orvieto epitomize artful living. It is what attracts us to them. We tend to forget life is art as we go about our busy lives. Any vacation can return us to this understanding. But one to Italy, when you go slow enough to enjoy the place rather than trying to see it all, immerses you in life as art. You see it in the way people dress. You enjoy it when you eat on tables with linens – most restaurants use linens. You appreciate it with the care that the coffee is made and presented. You recognize it in the ancient monuments so beautifully built and decorated. It infuses everything.

Stefano at Scarponi's in Orvieto

One little example. When you step up to the bar for a cappuccino at Scarponni’s  in Orvieto, Stefano always spins the cup on the plate so the handle is to the right. He puts the spoon on the plate so the handle faces you on the right of the cup. Always. Then he pours in the frothed milk in front of you. It is this kind of simple gesture happening around you all the time that you begin to absorb.

Living is the original art. Slow travel helps remind of us that!

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Giving thanks is a simple, rewarding act. Slow travel is, in many ways, a simple and rewarding act as well. While planning a Europe vacation, making the arrangements for everything at home while you are away, and the actual travel to your destination are not necessarily simple, people who then stay in one place – part of a slow travel experience – are rewarded for choosing a simpler form of travel. In the spirit of the season then, I thought it would be nice to share some of the thanks giving of people who have invested themselves in traveling in the slow lane. Most of our trips are art based, so our travelers are working in some form of art – thus comments about “work.”

Slow Travel allows you to reflect:
I think Orvieto gave me a new appreciation of my realities. Savoring things more…. And rushing a bit less.

Sharing coffee outside in Orveito

Susan from Florida

Orvieto has given me time for reflection, living in the moment. I will look for “well being” and laugh more often as a result.
John from North Carolina

I left my heart behind – no surprise there – and I took away a greater, deeper appreciation of the true value of a slower-paced life.
Maureen from Massachusetts

I will take home from this trip to slow down, to create a more cozy garden space at home and to save money for another trip!!
Angela from North Carolina

And grow:
Bloom Indeed! It’s a trip that needs to be experienced firsthand – up close and personal – to be truly appreciated! So happy I did.
Theresa from Florida

Slow travel brings a sense of peace as you sense more, worry less, embrace life. Witness these comments first from Cathy who lives in rural Ohio and then Ann from Olympia, Washington:
I hope the feeling of such peacefulness remains for a longggggggggggggg time – slow city – slow food . . . .Not a day goes by that I don’t think of our fairy tale adventure. Miss all of you and Italy.

I will never forget Giovanna putting her hands on my cheeks and forehead when Marty and I first arrived at the convent and saying “calma”, “calma”. That set the stage for the rest of my days there.

Slow travel allows for reflection

Traveling where you get to know the locals and learn from them can transform your outlook and you.
You have given me a life changing experience. I am now someone who makes her dreams come true. I am experiencing life rather than plowing through it just to get by. I am going to live a healthier, creative, adventuresome and more passionate life. And for that I am eternally grateful.
Beth from Minnesota

It looks like Ruth and I have found a place to rent for an art studio. We’re really excited about it. We’ve been wanting to do this for a long, long, time. See the impact Orvieto has had on us?
Judy from California

I sit here with tears in my eyes recognizing that this wondrous moment has passed and I am sad that I will not come down to start this day with a heart felt buon giorno and lovely coffee at the Blue Bar. I am sad, yet so filled with the wonder that is each and every one of you. Such a gift this week has been; the setting, the amazing heartfelt depth of everyone and everything we’ve experienced. I cannot find the words to really do it all justice. I return full of life (full…..literally too!) and an eagerness to embrace it. Thank you.
Lynn from Chicago

I definitely have to say the Italy trip was a real turning point in my life. It’s terrific. I’m journaling frequently now and work is now just one part of my life again in healthy balance.
Paula from South Carolina

My soul healed and I was given wings.
Jeanne from Wisconsin

Not only am I hearing Italian in my ears, but hoping to learn it.  And starting to do a little Italian cooking. I loved the food.
Sandy from California

Almost two years  later I still dream of Orvieto and Italy.
DD from Montana

And this from Lisa from Australia who added

The simplicity of sharing meals

fun to the transformation:
Well, what can I say, except that this was some of the best fun I have ever had….after cooking all this scrumptious food, we sat down in the restaurant where the staff served it to us…..along with some fabulous wine, we had a ball! I am so inspired to try some of the recipes we were given when I come home.

Traveling this way instills a sense of camaraderie. Witness:
I came back from Italy Saturday night with my heart full of wonderful memories….It was such a great experience to be in Orvieto with all those lovely people. They let you feel at home immediately! We shared a lot, laughed a lot and worked hard together. In one word this trip was STUNNING.
Baukje from France

I loved every minute of it. We got the experience of a lifetime. I sit here wistfully lingering over each photo identifying each place and person with an “Oh, I was there! Oh! WE did that! Oh! I KNOW that Orvietani! Such great memories. I miss you all and look forward to when we meet again.
Angela from Ireland

And in the spirit of the season, thanks to each and everyone of the wonderful people who have traveled with us! Kristi and Bill

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

We stay at a convent Bed and Breakfast on our trips to Orvieto. It is nice because we have a garden, library, lounges, and scenic overlooks in which to spread out. We have begun asking the nuns to cook us our first lunch and for it to be a soup. It is homemade, and for those who are just recovering from jet lag, it provides a light, delicious meal – the perfect thing for a tired body recovering from the assault that is airline food.

Lunch is served simply, but we are always given the unexpected prepared with immense care and presented beautifully. A caprese salad of cherry tomatoes stuffed with mozzarella. A simple dessert of cheese and honey. A sampling of aperitifs made by the nuns themselves and served with their own biscotti. A side of grilled vegetable. Homemade tiramisu.

Cherry tomato caprese

We receive this kind of generosity throughout town, unexpectedly. The offer of a guided visit to the 400 museum quality medieval costumes worn in Orvieto’s most important community event – the Corteo Storico. A behind the scenes tour of the iconic Michelangeli workshop. An invitation to see one of the hundreds of Etruscan and medieval caves under the city in which a sculptor has spent 20 years carving the walls. The opening of a garden hidden behind the walls of the city streets. An invitation to see a local paper shop make marbled paper.

Carvings in a cave under Orvieto

When you stay in one place and see familiar faces, when the locals recognize you and see you aren’t just passing through, they open themselves to you. For travelers wanting more than just the surface glimpse of a culture, it is an enormous gift. The generosity and grace with which it is given does humble, reaffirming our relationship with others as co-inhabitants of what is, in fact,  a very small planet.

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Bodnant Garden Setting

Most of our travel is to Italy and for Adventures In Italy. We go with a different outlook and mindset, since we are hosting others. In Wales, we took on the role of those who travel with us – people looking to experience a new place and its people and ways. Two incidents struck us on this trip about slow travel.

Bodnant's house - not open to the public

We stayed in Conwy, Wales, an absolutely captivating medieval fortress town with its nearly 1-mile long medieval wall, still intact along with its impressive fort built in about 1180 by Edward I. We stayed at the Town House B & B where Alan and Elaine were magnificent hosts. One morning at breakfast a new group appeared having arrived the day before and who we had not met. What struck us was that when asked where they had been the day before, they couldn’t

Pond, waterfalls, streams and more at Bodnant

answer. Theirs was a typical journey of taking in as much as possible to the point of amnesia. Our first time to reflect on slow travel – or not!

The second incident, lest you think we are immune, involved our visit to Bodnant Garden. (All the pictures here are from the garden.) These are a beautiful combination of wild and sculpted,

Pin Mill in the background

cultivated garden set in the country with an impressive house and views to Snowdonia Park. We had taken the bus to get there and enjoyed a very pleasant several hours and lunch. But, truth be told, we had it in our minds that we also wanted to visit the town of Lladudno that day, a Victorian resort town in the opposite direction from the way we had come to Bodnant. We wanted to cram a little more in. As a result, we hurried through the gardens in a way that precluded truly savoring, experiencing and enjoying. They truly were spectacular. And we only gave ourselves the smallest taste.

Architecture and nature combined

I suppose the loss was compounded by the fact that Lladudno was, for us, a serious disappointment. We instinctively did not stay there, though it is the more popular destination in the area. We’re glad we didn’t for we found little to recommend it with its hordes of people, chain stores, and tacky tourist attractions – yes I judge!

Reflecting on the lost chance for reflection!

Perhaps if we had fallen in love with Lladudno we would feel differently. But we know we missed something special by trying to cram too much in. Travel is a delicate balance. Time and again Kristi and I learn that the best travel is that in which you don’t rush and you savor every moment rather than looking forward to the next.

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Support Teams for the Tour D'Italia

As slow travel devotees, whenever we travel we have wonderful, unexpected, unplanned things add spice and enjoyment to our trips. This May we had two such events. The first was the Tour d”Italia. This is Italy’s big bicycle race, equivalent to the Tour de France. The tour came through Orvieto. Not just to the modern part of the city, but to the old part perched above the valley floor where we stay.

Racing through Orvieto

The race finished in Orvieto one day with a grand finish line, and then began in front of its Cathedral the next, winding through town on its way out to the country side. Each day leading up to the race’s arrival a little more decoration appeared in stores and along the race route. In Italy, the race leader wears a pink jersey – the maglia rosa. So the decorations that appeared were pink. It was great fun to see bicycles appear in display windows, a chocolate shop use brightly colored wrapped chocolates to do the Italian flag and spell out Tour d’Italia, manikins don pink jerseys. When we were in Ravenna a week later we saw the same unfold during our stay and preliminary to the Tour coming through there on its trip around the country.

The town decorates itself for the Tour

The second event was the neighborhood celebration of Cava della Madonna church. This neighborhood church annually brings out their Madonna statue and parades her around the neighborhood in a big procession. The neighborhood gathers outside expectantly as a mass is

The Emerging Statue

held inside the church. Then the Madonna emerges, goes down the steps where it is mounted on two supports. It is then hefted onto shoulders of men who carry the statue around the

Parade begins as confetti falls

neighborhood. Flags come out for the event, confetti is dropped and off the parade goes. Kids lead, a band plays, gendarmes travel alongside, and they stop periodically throughout the neighborhood for the priest to offer blessings. It is a wonderful slice of life that we were privileged to see.

An accompanying gendarme

On all our many trips to Italy, we have never failed to experience these little bits of serendipity. Whether a city-wide A Capella festival in Venice, a horse race in Sienna, or a medieval parade in Bevagna we have inevitably been surprised. It is great fun!

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

Medieval archery competition in Orvieto, Italy

We were in Venice one time inside the Academia looking at a huge Titian painting when all of a sudden we heard heavenly voices. Despite the imposing and impressive nature of the painting we were drawn to locate the voices. Not finding it inside we went out, turned a corner and there was a group of a cappella singers filling the air with beautiful sound. As it turned out there was a music festival in Venice. For the three days we were there we ran into musicians of all stripes all over the city. We heard a chorus sitting outside at dinner, ran into a piano player in a small piazza, found a string quartet at the entry to our bed and breakfast.

Spello's flower festival

Then there is the flower festival held in Spello we stumbled into. Here the competition was to see who could create the most beautiful flower arrangement outside your house or business. So the streets were lined with flowers. The culmination is streets painted with flower petals. Neighborhoods compete developing intricate and beautiful pictures on paper that they then translate onto the streets using multi-colored petals.

Our first visit to Siena happened to be during their famous Palio, the wild bare backed horse race held around their incomparable shell shaped piazza. During our stay we visited the thirteen contradas, or neighborhoods, each of which had flag and banner lined streets. Each contrada had its own band that paraded through the streets playing in period costume. We watched them bless their horses right inside the neighborhood churches. And then the race itself was a wild, fun, spectacle.

Neighborhood Madonna on parade in Orvieto

In Orvieto we have frequently been surprised by festivals. We know of the big ones such as Corpus Domini and Palombella, and have witnessed both, which are incredible in their costumes and pageantry. But we have been surprised by a medieval peasant parade, and the Madonna brought out once a year from one of the little churches to bless the neighborhood, or the medieval archery contest that had stations all over the city where archers competed. All have been such fun to follow and watch and enjoy. We know of, but have not attended, the Umbrian jazz festival taking place between Christmas and New Years in Orvieto. Our fellow Slow Travel Tour operators, Anne and Kirk Woodyard of Music and Market Tours lead trips to this special event.

The nice thing about slow travel is you can take time to enjoy these surprises. When not on a tight schedule, but slowly taking in whatever you find wherever you are, you can truly join in the fun and taste a slice of Italian life.

We would love to hear of festivals you have enjoyed. Tell us about those you’ve visited by leaving us a reply!

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations” to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets.

Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year.

Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.

“To journey without being changed

is to be a nomad.

To change without journeying

is to be a chameleon.

To journey and be transformed

by the journey

is to be a pilgrim.”

Mark Nepo

This is one of the things that I love about our trips and the way we do them, which is to say slow travel. Staying in one place for a week offers the chance to be transformed. This isn’t to say that you can not be transformed by scurrying from place to place. But the very act of unpacking your bags signals that this is a particular kind of travel.

Staying for a week in Orvieto on one of our trips allows you to have the time to process what you are seeing and experiencing. It allows you to slowly, imperceptibly fall back into the natural rhythms of life. It allows your subconscious to process the very different, comparing it to the familiar and known, so similarities and distinctions are made. And it is through all this that the ability to be transformed emerges.

The beauty of travel is that it offers contrasts that shine a light on how you perceive and live in the world now. It may simply affirm what you are doing and how you are doing it. Or, it may suggest an alternative path. Either way it is transformational.

But it is traveling slow that truly enables one to process things and to come upon transformation. In our fast paced world, slowing down is what it takes to gain the perspective we need. And it is why I love our way of travel. I like being a pilgrim!

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Kristi and Bill Steiner

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations”  to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets. Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year. Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.

Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

As our parents age Kristi and I have been exploring the aging process, learning from our folks and from books we have been reading. While it has been useful and helpful for us, we have also learned things totally unrelated to the reason we began researching.

One of the interesting things we have discovered is that we all learn best through experiencing. Now I think we probably intuitively knew this already. We formulated our art learning trips because we knew that the art reinforces and provides a lens through which to experience the culture in a deeper, more meaningful way. We also knew that, at the same time, the Italian culture serves as inspiration for the creative process. And while we may have intuitively known that it was a better way to learn, we now know it as fact through the research of others on aging.

Plein Air Painting in Orvieto

We never stop learning of course. One of the many reasons people travel and one of the great delights of travel is the learning that takes place. As humans we are curious and travel is a very satisfying way to fill our curiosity, to be surprised, and to be engaged in life. And, it can have a profound effect on our lives – sometimes only discovered after the fact. Proof of this comes from those who have traveled with us.

* Orvieto has changed me forever. I will never be the same. I feel as though there is an imprint in my soul, the very core of me. It says this is life, real life.

* You have given me a life changing experience. I am now someone who makes her dreams come true. I am experiencing life rather than plowing through it just to get by.

* Jane, my daughter, paid me a wonderful compliment when she saw my journal. She called my watercolors “a treasure”. That’s exactly how I feel about my Oriveto experience!

* The trip was a dream come true experience for me. This morning, and yesterday too, I woke dreaming I was photo-ing or being photo-ed in the ancient alleys. I’ll be back in November to visit. Besides I need just one more scarf and certainly more Gorgonzola filled ravioli!

* It seemed so normal and casual to be around you and Bill in a small medieval town in Italy while I’m having the travel/art experience of my life!

* It looks like Ruth and I have found a place to rent, for an art studio. We’re really excited about it.  We’ve been wanting to do this for a long, long time. See the impact Orvieto has had on us?

* Both of us are bursting with inspiration not only from the utter beauty of Italy, and Orvieto, but also from spending wonderful quality time with such endearing students and the most incredible hosts! It is very rare, nowadays, to truly be able take time to stop, appreciate your surroundings, and savor the moment with like hearts and like minds.

* My soul healed and I was given wings.

* Coming home I sifted through all that I had learned, from the ancient history of the Etruscans to the art techniques that I learned. It was presented in such a manor that it all made sense. My only regret was that it was not long enough.

* This experience was just what Angela and I needed to restore a sense of “well being”.

I think this kind of experience is characteristic of all the Slow Travel Tours. It is both satisfying and rewarding!

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Kristi and Bill Steiner

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations”  to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets. Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year. Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.

Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

One of the apparent paradoxes of slow travel is that you actually see more by seeing less. On the surface, this seems ridiculous. Yet, when you spend more time in a place it allows you to absorb so much more, to see so much more detail, to become aware of many nuances that you miss when you are rushing about.

We had a nice reminder of this with our fall trips just recently concluded. One of the trips combined the local culture, sites and sights of Orvieto, Italy with a painting, collaging and journaling workshop. The teacher, Misty Mawn, is know for her faces, and the group of people on this trip were particularly excited to work with her on painting their own faces inspired by what they saw in and around Orvieto. What was so wonderful to observe was how many different faces this group saw, noted and then painted because they stayed in one city, really looked at it and what was there. By slowing down in one place, this group found an incredible number of faces in a host of different places. They drew from the local churches, the amazing cathedral with its stunning San Brizio Chapel, frescoes from the convent B&B in which we stay, the artwork donated to the convent by parents of former nuns, artwork found on the walls in the street, the artist shops around town.

Our students, in the week they were with us and under Misty’s tutelage, came to know Orvieto much more deeply because they were looking – looking closely and examining, in part, because they had time to do so. Then they put what they saw to paper. The result was a much deeper experience, a bonding with the place and its people, and a trip that fulfills and provides lasting memories in a way impossible to achieve going at a faster pace.

One of the group said, “It was an amazing experience even for a European and Italy lover like me.” Another said a few weeks after retuning home, “I can’t get any of it out of my mind.” We think travel ought to leave us feeling this way, and that slow travel is a terrific way to accomplish it. It is why we do our slow travel trips, and, for us, it is incredibly rewarding.

Enjoy below some of the faces that were painted during the week that will forever be with our group that painted them.

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Kristi and Bill Steiner

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations”  to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets. Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year. Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.

Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.

Ode is an alternative magazine that we enjoy. Their  August, 2009 issue is all about laughter. There is lots of good information in it, but there was one thing that struck me since it relates to our Adventures in Italy trips, and, I think, to any of the Slow Travel Tour group’s trips.

We do two kinds of trips. One is strictly cultural exploration: food, wine, coffee, customs, olive oil, Orvieto history, etc. The other trips are what we call creative exploration. With the latter, we engage top notch teachers, usually in some kind of creative endeavor. Regardless of which is chosen, culture (which we do on all the trips) or creative exploration, there is a learning element that is part of each trip.

So what struck me about this issue of Ode was an article on laughter and it’s impact on learning.

Having fun learning

In it the author, Jos Houben of the Jacques Lecoq International Theater School in Paris, describes the times when people learn quickly and easily. He says, “Without exception, people said they were on holiday, in love or otherwise having a great time. In other words they were doing something that made them smile. This is why children learn so quickly. They engage with the world through curiosity and play. They learn to walk and talk without having to take an exam.”

Well, this sounds a lot like our trips! People traveling with us:

• Are on vacation – or holiday, as others in the world say
• Are having a great time
• Are with us because they are curious
• Are truly playing
• Don’t have to take exams!!!

So while we can argue that our trips are a great holiday and fun, we can also say that people traveling with us learn more quickly and easily. In fact, the learning is fun and not a chore. Isn’t that how it should be?

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Kristi and Bill Steiner

Kristi and Bill Steiner began leading “learning vacations”  to Orvieto, Italy in 2003. Through Adventures in Italy they provide a cultural immersion experience. Many trips include the pursuit of some kind of creative work that complements and reinforces exploration of Italy’s culture. Relationships built over the years enable Kristi and Bill to provide experiences that a typical visitor to Orvieto never gets. Trips are held in May and September/October every year. Their Discover Orvieto and Girlfriend Getaway trips are available to groups any time of the year. Learn more about Kristi and Bill’s trips.

Stay abreast of Adventures in Italy developments, and follow Bill’s musings about travel and Italy on his blog Make Haste Slowly.