All of us on the UnTours team have been here for 20 or more years, which is a good thing, given how knowledge intensive our work in Europe is. So when Andi Cancelliere Sheehan, our Italian Untour Director for 25 years, left our staff during COVID, it was hard to imagine how to fill those…
Category Archives: Umbria
Headed for Piegaro: the Etruscans, Part 2
On our last day at the UnTours farm near Spoleto in Umbria, Maurizia at the nearby bakery gave us big hugs and kisses and “bona fortuna” as we thanked her for the wonderful open “forno” experience. We would miss our morning trip for danish, panini, and poppy gazing. We also had to say goodbye with…
Finding Etruscan Treasures, and Friendship, in Umbria (Part 1)
This is part one in a series on the ancient Etruscan civilization that inhabited central Italy from the 8th – 4th centuries BC. Planning our trip to Italy last May, I became interested in the historical finds of the Etruscans, who thrived during four centuries BC and contributed heavily to Roman civilization. The Greeks regarded…
Sue Tells All: Favorite work and family memories from Untours
Over Sue Baker’s 15 years with UnTours, she’s had lots of time to travel and build memories. On the occasion of our 40th anniversary, she shared these gems from her work and personal travels with UnTours in Europe. Fun memories of Untourists… Our former staff person in Rome led our Untour group on…
Your Italian Bucket List: See These 12 Places Before You Die
Montalcino, Top of your Bucket List So much to see and do in Italy. Of course you will likely start with Venice, Florence and Rome, what we knowlingly call The Big Three. (Wink. Nudge.) You may have gotten into the Tuscan countryside or the Amalfi Coast. If you’re lucky (and/or savvy), you’ve dug more deeply into these places….
Jim and Claire Graves, Untourists of the Week: and their wine is so good
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour. In the fall of 2012, we took a 3-week Untour in Italy: one week at the Poggiarellino wine farm in Tuscany, one at an olive farm in Umbria, and a third in Rome, where our apartment (Zingari) was close to the Colosseum. We had…
Jean and William Tarr, Untourists of the Week, love the “small village” experience
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour. We arranged a visit to Bettona, Umbria, in Italy for one week and then to Vienna for the second week. We needed to make our own air arrangements but it was easy enough to do. We loved being in the hilltop village with access…
Russell & Barbara Crum, Renaissance Untourists of the Week (Umbria..Switzerland and Austria!)
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour. Our most recent Untour was to Kuchl, Austria in May 2012. We chose the Seiwald apartment for two weeks. We found this to be a charming small town to base in with great scenery. It was interesting to sit on our balcony and watch…
Robert and Sheryl Parrish, Untourists of the Week
1. Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour. We flew into Rome, stayed for a week, went to the airport to pick up our car and drove to Umbria, where we stayed in an agriturismo near Trevi, from where we traveled to many towns in the region. Spoleto, Assisi, and Orvieto were…
And the Unny winners are…
Photo by Untourist Ron Anderson As you may know, we had the inaugural Unny Awards just recently. These awards are our way of recognizing the regions which have welcomed UnTours all these years. The Unnies are fun and lighthearted and that’s how we like things around here. We like to think of them as the…