The Ultimate Valentine

Tens of millions of tourists see Venice each year. But hardly anyone knows about the heaven-on-Earth Prosecco Road less than one hour North.

And yet this may be the most beautiful wine country in the world, with a fantastic and wildly underappreciated culture.

While everyone is familiar with the City of Venice, the islands and lagoon, the culture of medieval Venice responsible for that city was part of the larger "Serenìsima Repùblega Vèneta," which means "Most Serene Republic of Venice" in the Venetian language. The "country" of Venice extended all the way up to the Prosecco Road to the mountains beyond.

During our incredible Prosecco Experience, we explore the wonders of Venetian culture — the incredible food, wine, architecture and history — which lasted for a thousand years.

The Prosecco Road itself connects the beautiful towns of Conegliano and Valdobbidene and all the charming villages between, winding over brilliant green vineyards and forests. The landscape is breathtaking and picture-perfect.

The castles, abbeys, historic towns and incredible beauty of the Prosecco Hills should be well known to every Europe-loving traveler. But the tourist masses haven't found this idyllic spot yet, and so the Prosecco Road is one of the last undiscovered wine countries.

Which is just how we like it. We don't do tourism. The Prosecco Experience is not a tour. It's an immersive exploration of an incredible place and wonderful culture with our brilliant and visionary local food and wine friends. (We can’t give you the details; every exclusive gathering, meal, activity and location is a secret.)

But if you guess we’ll be drinking some incredible wine — well, that’s a very good guess. The Prosecco Hills is a wine country without equal — you're always surrounded by vineyards on rolling hills. We'll wake up and go to bed surrounded by vineyards.

And while everyone is familiar with the kind of prosecco this region exports abroad, the best prosecco can be tasted only in the Prosecco Hills. This Experience will transform your relationship with prosecco. We'll also enjoy a wide range of other incredible, astonishing red and white wines made only in the region. We’ll enjoy this wine with the winemakers themselves.

And the food — the food!! — so amazing. We can’t wait to show you this magical, undiscovered gastronomic paradise.

We have just one room available for our next Prosecco Experience, which happens May 23 through 28, 2022. Book now and make it yours. You deserve this!

Here's one for the bucket list

Once in your life, make sure you find yourself in a beautiful wooden boat on the Grand Canal in Venice at sunset. Trust me on this one.

A rainy morning in Venice

Venice is famous for, among other things, its throngs of tourists and seasonal flooding. But Venice is so nice in the early morning when nobody is around, and during a rain when the sea level is behaving.

Crispy egg… apparently?

Landed in Venice, showered and made haste to a very good restaurant called Ai Mercanti up meet up with friends. Couldn’t help but notice that they’re serving what are “apparently” crispy eggs. Don’t they know?

Picturing the Picture-Perfect Prosecco Experience!

You owe it to yourself to explore with us the beauty and wine and gastronomy of The Prosecco Experience. We still have room for our May and September Prosecco Experiences.

Looking forward to a Venetian Autumn

They make prosecco out of grapes that can tolerate, and in fact need, extreme weather conditions. Glera grapes love South-facing and steep slopes, very strong wind, near freezing temperatures in the Winter and heat in the summer. It's always beautiful in the Prosecco Hills, but the region gets real weather.

Autumn in Veneto, however, is extremely pleasant and beautiful -- especially so because it's a rare spot in Italy where the food, wine and scenery are magnificent, but the tourists haven't discovered it yet. (Or maybe the tour busses can't handle the narrow, winding lanes and steep hills.)

Yes, Venice itself is the poster child for overtourism. But the rest of Veneto is largely undiscovered by the Instagram set. That's one of the hundred reasons why we love hosting our Prosecco Experience.

On the joys of 'detourism' in Venice

Venice is amazing, historic and breathtakingly beautiful. It’s also radically overcrowded with tourists. Every day, thousands of visitors crowd together to see and take pictures of (mostly selfies) of Piazza San Marco, Rialto Market and the Santa Maria della Salute church.

As with other places burdened by overtourism, Venice gets hammered by far too many people trying to see and do far too little.

So the City of Venice has come up with a wonderful concept they call “Detourism.” That means to explore far more broadly, with an emphasis on discovering things off the beaten track, rather than to join the hoards crowding the city’s “Greatest Hits.”

That’s what Amira and I do when we live abroad. That’s what we do (and did) on our Prosecco Gastronomad Experience, which includes Venice. Yes, we see the major attractions (always in a way that avoids the crowds). But we also explore several Venetian islands, some of which are unrecognizable as being part of Venice. We find quiet spots to drink wine by the water, check out islands mainly populated by actual residents, rather than tourists, and and even spend time on a farm. (Yes, Venice has farming — a fact most visitors to Venice never learn.)

The Gastronomad way to travel is “detourism” — which means the opposite of tourism and also implies going off the beaten track where people don’t normally go. These little-known places are where you can find the true soul of Venice — or wherever you go — and experience the true joy of discovery.

We love the concept. We love the lifestyle.

The City of Vienna goes after Instagram tourism

I noticed this ad in The New Yorker today run by the City of Vienna. They’re advertising visiting the city. But most of all they’re slamming Instagram tourism, where people spend all their time simulating leisure for social media followers instead of actually enjoying themselves.

Their slogan is: “Enjoy Vienna. Not #Vienna”

And: “Unhashtag your vacation!”

If you visit the campaign’s web page, which is unhashtag.vienna.info, you’ll be greeted by a friendly lecture on the stupidity of Instagram tourism, with an invitation to visit Vienna for a “digital detox.”

At the bottom of the page is a button that links to “Six signs you should think about a digital detox.“

The page also links to the City of Vienna’s Instagram page, which is mostly photos of a bunch of buildings.