Private travel · Italy
Our Italy is one region deepUmbria — its cheese cellars, its cave tastings and its kitchens, privately, on your dates.
- UmbriaItaly's green heart
- 1–12guests, your group only
- 1 day – 3 weeks
- 100%privately hosted
Private travel in Italy
One region, known completely
Most operators sell you Italy. We sell you Umbria.
It is a deliberate limit. What you get is a region where we know the norcino who ages his own cheese, the family who press the olive oil, the household above Orvieto whose kitchen you cook in, and the winemaker who takes you down into the tufa to taste — and where those people have been saying yes to us because of how our guests behave once they are through the door.
Umbria repays that. It sits between Tuscany and Rome and is quieter than either, still farmed by the families who own it, and almost entirely undefended by tasting rooms and ticket desks. It is the closest thing in Italy to travelling before the coaches arrived.
Explore Umbria through relationships, not bookings.
Where we travel in Umbria
Four places, each entered through the people inside it
They sit within an hour or so of one another, which is the point — you settle in one or two places and the region comes to you, rather than spending your week in the car.
Piegaro and the Perugia hills
Where a journey usually begins
You start in the countryside above Perugia, on a five-hundred-hectare estate where the hilltop abbey is now where you eat. The cheese is the reason to be here: a family-run cheese and charcuterie house where the norcino ages his own wheels in an underground cellar and cures the pork himself, and the platter he lays out is large enough to be lunch.
Piegaro · the Perugia hills
Orvieto, on its cliff
A tufa town, and the Etruscan caves beneath it
Orvieto stands on a plug of volcanic rock, and the rock is hollow — the Etruscans cut cellars and wells into it 2,500 years ago, and one of Umbria's most awarded family wineries still pours its Orvieto Classico in a cave on its own grounds. Above ground: one of the great cathedral facades in Italy, an amaro made inside the walls for four hundred years, the town's oldest porchetta counter, and a room a few doors from the Duomo.
Orvieto · the Etruscan caves · the Duomo quarter
Bevagna and Deruta
Where the region's hands are
Bevagna is medieval, quiet, and quietly serious about cashmere — you go in where it is made and handle it rather than shop for it. Deruta, up the road, has been painting maiolica since the 1400s and still does it by hand, in workshops you walk into rather than shops you buy from. The same stretch of days takes in an olive oil estate and a maître chocolatier who folds that oil into the pralines you make alongside him.
Bevagna · Deruta · the olive groves
The kitchens above Orvieto
Pasta by hand, and a truffle hunt at first light
The best cooking in Umbria happens in houses, and the cooking class is in one — a family home in the hills above Orvieto, the town in the window, making umbrichelli to recipes that have never left the family. Another morning starts in the oak woods with a hunter and his dog, and what you find is on the table by lunch.
The hills above Orvieto · the oak woods
Prefer to join a small group? Our seven-day Umbria journey, The Artisan's Table, runs each spring and autumn — see the dates.
Where we have people
We only go where we know the people
That keeps the list short, and it keeps the access real.
- Piegaro
- The Perugia hills
- Orvieto
- Deruta
- Bevagna
Access, introductions and relationships
You travel with someone already inside the region
You are accompanied throughout by a specialist host — in Umbria, a cheese sommelier certified by Italy's national organisation of cheese tasters — who moves with you through cellars, kitchens and tables, connecting what you experience as it happens.
At certain moments others join — a producer, a maker, a chef — adding depth from within their own work. That might take place inside production, through hands-on craft, or in the wider context of the region itself.
One person holds the thread throughout, so each part connects without interruption. Nobody is working from a script, and there is no group to keep pace with — it is the difference between being shown a place and being taken into it.
What that makes possible
Four things you couldn't arrange yourself
Estates
The winemaker's own afternoon
Most estates here have a tasting room. What we arrange instead is time with the person who makes the wine — the vineyards, the cellar, the cave beneath their own grounds, and lunch at their table rather than a flight at the counter.
Makers
Time with the person who made it
The norcino who cured it, the family who pressed the oil, the chocolatier at his own bench — at the pace of a conversation rather than a tour.
Tables
Meals arranged, not booked
A long lunch on the estate, a family kitchen above Orvieto, a courtyard in the old town, a truffle lunch made from what you found that morning. Menu and wines chosen for your group.
Shape
A day, or three weeks
A single day in the cellars with your host, or three weeks built around Umbria with private transport throughout and no fixed schedule once you are there.
How it feels
Depth rather than volume
- Fewer visits, with more time in each place
- Conversations that unfold naturally
- Experiences shaped by presence rather than schedules
- A pace that allows for spontaneity and discovery
Umbria rewards patience, trust and connection. This is a more personal, less transactional way of travelling — and it suits people who value depth and detail over a full itinerary.
What to expect on investment
$1,500 – $2,000 per person, per dayGuide price for the Amble experience · accommodation costed separately
Every private journey is priced according to your group size, the length of the trip and the experiences we design together. As a guide, plan for a minimum average of $1,500 to $2,000 per person per day — covering your Local Legend host, private transport, tastings, workshops and a hosted lunch.
Accommodation is costed separately and tailored to your preferences, from a hillside estate in the Perugia countryside to a frescoed residence a few doors from the Duomo in Orvieto. You will have a full, transparent proposal before you commit to anything.
Amble Journeys Ltd is a member of Protected Trust Services, member no. 5978. Every payment you make is held in a trust account and financially protected until your trip is complete.
How it comes together
From first conversation to arrival
01
Start with a conversation
Tell us how you want to travel — the pace, the places, and the moments that matter most. Share a few details and we will set up a call.
02
We design your journey
An outline itinerary built around access, flow and the people who will bring it to life. A $500 planning fee, applied in full to your trip cost, begins detailed planning.
03
We refine the details
We adjust, add and shape until it feels exactly right. Once you are happy, a 50% deposit secures your booking.
04
You arrive
Your final balance is due 90 days before departure. From there we handle everything, so you can simply arrive and experience it.
Start here
Begin your Umbrian journey
We work with a limited number of clients each season, designing journeys shaped around individual interests, timing and access. Tell us a little about how you would like to travel using the form below, and we will come back to you to arrange a call.
Or write to us directly: customerservice@amblejourneys.com
Begin
Tell us how you would like to travel
A few details are enough to start. We read every enquiry ourselves, and we will come back to you to arrange a call.
Thank you — your enquiry is with us
We read every one ourselves and will come back to you within two working days to arrange a call.