Build Your Own Tuscan Wine Tour (or any other themed trip)

If you tend to pass on the all-inclusive and group tour trips, this post is for you. Here’s how to put together your own themed trip, with commentary based on my recent trip to Italy.

1. Pick a Theme
You can let the theme drive the destination or the other way around. Here are some ideas.
Vermont – Cheese
Oregon, Colorado – Beer
Kansas City, New Orleans – Jazz
Los Angeles – Vintage Clothing
Chicago – Architecture (and Pizza!)
New York – Theater (also Pizza)

My husband and I chose to do a wine themed trip to Tuscany. But Italy would also make a great destination for an architecture, fine art, opera, or foodie trip.

2. Pick a destination and radius
Decide where you’re flying in and out of, arrival and departure days, and how much of the area you are willing to traverse. This helps narrow down your options and what areas to research.

We flew in a out of Rome and decided to rent a car but stay in the Tuscany region.

3. Research
Use books or online resources to research your selected theme within the area that you are traveling.

I mostly relied on books about Italian wineries. I put together a list of wineries I wanted to visit, based on the descriptions and reviews I read. I mapped them all out and chose eight based partly on location. I wanted to cover as many of the micro regions of Tuscany as I could.

5. Decide what theme elements are most important to you
Will you focus on the pure enjoyment of your theme? Are you intensely interested in the techniques behind the theme? Do you want to know the stories of the makers or artists? You may be interested in all of this, but narrow it down for the trip.

Sounds crazy now that I’m saying it, but tasting wine wasn’t our focus. Like many, we are fortunate to have several quality wine stores with wine from across the world close to our home. We can taste great wine just about anytime. We focused on the stories. And there were so many great stories!

6. Book everything you can!
Depending on the location and theme, you may have to book your activities many months ahead of time. And because you’re likely not familiar with the region, you just won’t know what is going to book up. Get any tickets or reservations as soon as you decide on an activity.

Most of the places I picked did not have online reservation systems. You had to call or email. Everyone was extremely nice and responsive. Most of the people I interacted with spoke a varying amount of English, but I did learn enough Italian for the places that I had to call. I booked reservations for several dinners and all of our winery tours about three months ahead of time. Even with that lead time, there was one restaurant and one winery that where already completely booked.

7. Accessorize
This sounds silly, but I think it’s quite necessary. Think about what you will be doing during your booked activities and what you may need. Think about what shoes you will need. Will you be walking on wilderness trails, fields, cobblestone streets? Are you planning on buying a lot of goods? Are you going to ship them? Will you put them in your luggage? Going to a bunch of Michelin restaurants? Maybe look for nice outfits that are wrinkle resistant and don’t take up a lot of space.

Our big accessory was wine luggage. We wanted to bring back bottles from our trip to age. The VinGardeValise safeguards 12 bottles of wine while staying within the 50lb airline limit.

Other accessories include a travel garment steamer and opera glasses.

9. Go enjoy! And embrace the unexpected, because sometimes the world just doesn’t care about your plans.

Saluti