Why We're Different

Attitude

Many terms can be used to describe our journeys; laid-back, fun loving and free wheeling are just a few that come to mind. Of course, we take good care of all the important stuff like accommodations and the like, but we leave plenty of opportunities for what we call “getting lost” or exploring on your own, with your friends or with your group leader. Over the years, we’ve learned that the “getting lost” attitude allows us to experience all the fun and truly fond memories we bring home after a tour. We’ll take the real spontaneous fun over the pre-planned canned stuff any day!

Off The Beaten Path

There are plenty of over-crowded bus tours out there. We prefer to avoid the big cities and spend our precious time in Italy and Ireland visiting the smaller cities and towns where the pace is slower, people are friendlier, the food is better, the prices are lower and the scenery is breathtaking. If you feel that you must see the big cities while you’re in Italy, you can always arrive before the rest of the group or extend your stay a few days. 

The “Anti-Group” Tour

Our groups average around 14 people, the most we’ll have on a walking tour is 18, on a cooking tour there’s never more than 10 travelers, and our Via Ferrata tours average 10, which is a nice size. It lets us enjoy the advantages of group travel without having the usual bus tour size of 50-250 people. 10-18 people also allows enough diversity and camaraderie among the group to provide for an interesting 8 or 9 days. We organize our tours so that we're more like a band of friends traveling together rather than a highly-structured and impersonal crowd of strangers with a "herder" group leader. You won't find any "Hello, my name is..." badges in our groups, or anything else that makes us look like tourists! In fact one of our favorite pastimes is poking fun at the huge tour groups as they stampede past us (usually as we're enjoying a glass of wine or cappuccino at a nice quiet spot).

The Owners are On the Trail With You

Lost in Italy is part of a family business owned by Jeff and Steve Fafoglia, who have been leading groups of adventurous travelers all over the world since 1994. Although their company is an American company, they are also proud to be Italian citizens.  They have strong ties to Italy and spend much of their time there visiting relatives, finalizing details for their travel groups and exploring new areas for future trips.  And with their mother's maiden name of McMullen, it's obvious that they also have a rich Irish heritage as well! They have built a team of some of the best local group leaders and guides on the planet, but even so, it's not unusual to find at least one, if not both, of the Lost in Italy owners accompanying the group on many of the walks.  They LOVE Italy and Ireland and they LOVE to personally introduce new faces to their favorite spots and to all their Italian and Irish friends! 

Balanced & Flexible

Our tours provide just the right mix of walking, dining, shopping, sightseeing and fun along with plenty of free time. Since we usually have our own private motor coach accompany us for transfers and as a support vehicle, there are often other alternatives for those who would rather check out the sights by car than by foot. When possible, on many days we offer options to shorten the walk for some of the group or to provide alternate independent activities. On just about any day you can opt to "do your own thing" and laze around the square with the locals instead of participating in the days planned schedule. Travel in Italy can sometimes be unpredictable. When Mother Nature or any other unforeseen event changes things, our schedules are flexible enough to be quickly altered to accommodate everyone. No two trips are exactly alike – each individual tour is unique and memorable!

Affordable

Our preference for lodging is quaint inns and small hotels with local flavor, (and private bathrooms), and are chosen for their location, cleanliness, charm and affordability, avoiding the sterile “chain” style high rise hotels. Most restaurants and meals aren’t “pre-planned”, some of our best culinary finds have come when we were out “getting lost”. It’s hard to find a bad restaurant in Italy and with the staggering amount of great spots to eat, in our opinion, it would be a sin for someone to choose all your meals. Almost all our advertising is word-of-mouth, this keeps prices down! Compare our trips to competitors like Backroads or Country Walkers, and you’ll find that our tours are longer, with smaller groups, and are 30-50% cheaper! (AND we’re more fun!) Our "return rate" upholds that ...we’re proud of the fact that over half of our travelers are repeat customers, some on their 3rd or 4th trip to Italy or Ireland with us!

Friends!

There’s nothing like a shared experience to bond people together and form friends out of strangers.  Our groups are all about having fun and making friends while exploring the best of Italy .  The Italians have made enjoying life into an art form and we do our best to emulate them!  Check out the Word-of-Mouth section on our website and read what previous travelers have to say. You can even contact some of them and find out first-hand how special our tours are!