A Helping Hand — and Italy

In early March of 2020 I took my last light-hearted research trip around my home, which is Italy.  At the time I thought that Covid 19 would be restricted to only the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, and profoundly underestimated the tenacity and wildfire spread speed of a virus that cut deeply into the way Italians embrace, pile close into one another at the coffee bar counter, talk, live and — exist.

I travelled to Umbria, where I had much of Assisi to myself.

I was in Pompeii; which I had again almost entirely to myself.

Rome was quieter than usual, but still itself.  The Carnival sweets were especially good.

Just a few people were wearing masks.  It seemed exaggerated, I thought at the time.

But here we are, more than 10 months later, and Italy has lost 85,162 of her people, with 2.46 million known infections.

Thousands upon thousands of small business have closed.

It is in this spirit that I am reaching out to you, those who have supported Insider’s Italy in the wonderful adventure that it has been since 1989.

In 2020, we had not even one client.

Yet I know from so many of you that an Italy trip is synonymous with 2021 or 2022.

Please may I ask you to consider supporting us now, to keep us going for these next months and before we are all vaccinated and Italy is again open for travel ?

If YOU are planning a trip for this year or next, will you prepay our services ?  We will call you immediately to talk about Italy.  We can on the side discuss Italian wines, Italian movies, Italy food.. anything and everything that you love.

Is there SOMEONE ELSE you care about whose life would be immeasurably happier if they were going to Italy ?  A spouse, a partner, a child, a friend, a parent, a sibling ?  Will you purchase a gift certificate now of our planning ?

There is much to plow through in the coming months.  Dreaming of Italy — feeling a trip in your hand — brings an immediate joy, and something concrete to anticipate.  I am closely at your side as we begin to plan, and you can delegate all of the details to me.

Would you (or your recipient) like a villa ?

To do nothing (and everything) except to eat and drink deliciously ?

Classes ?

Immersions in art and architecture with or without a superb guide ?

Total relaxation in one of the loveliest places on the planet ?

There is no other company in North America that does what we do.  I say this not only because we were the first (founded in 1989) but also because it is true.  If you do not know us well, visit our history page to understand how our company began, in many ways, in 1919, with an American family that moved to Italy. And for whom Italy is everything.

I know that our trips have changed lives, this because you have told us so.  We provide experiences that you carry with you forever.

Thank you so much for your support.