9 Days · Northern Italy · 6 Guests
Live Real
Chapter One
September & October 2027 · Everything Included
from Malpensa
countryside properties
local & traditional only
and excursions
throughout the trip
on departure night
Day
Welcome to Italy
From the moment you land, we take care of everything. We pick you up from the airport and after a short drive you arrive at your base for the next four days, a unique property on Lake Maggiore. A relaxing afternoon, then the welcome dinner at a traditional local restaurant.
Day
The Borromeo Islands
Today you venture to the Borromean Islands, three small islands sitting in the middle of Lake Maggiore that feel like they belong in a different century.
The Borromeo family began shaping them in the 1500s, importing soil, rare plants, and stone to build baroque palaces and terraced gardens on what were once bare rocks. Today, white peacocks roam the grounds, orchids grow alongside centuries-old magnolias, and the whole place has the feeling of somewhere that shouldn't exist and yet does, right there in the middle of a lake.
You’ll travel between the islands by private boat with Daniela, a local guide who has spent more than 30 years on them. She’ll share the stories, the details, and the hidden corners most visitors never find..
Day
Lago D'Orta
Today you venture to Lago d'Orta, a smaller, quieter lake in the foothills of the Alps, where dark forest runs down to the water's edge and centuries of history linger.
The village of Orta San Giulio dates back to Roman times. Its medieval streets lead down to a main piazza facing the lake, and out in the middle of the water sits the island of San Giulio, home to a Benedictine abbey and a 12th-century Romanesque basilica. Legend has it that in the 4th century a Christian missionary named Julius crossed to the island, drove out the serpents that lived there, and built his hundredth church on the rock. Benedictine nuns still live there today.
Daniela will take you across to the island on a private tour, sharing the stories, the details, and the hidden corners most visitors never find.
Day
Rice Experience
Today you head into the rice lands between Novara and Vercelli, a flat, quiet landscape of flooded paddies, historic farmsteads, and long straight roads that seem to run all the way to the Alps.
This corner of Piedmont is the heart of European rice. Together with neighbouring Pavia, the area grows around 60% of the rice eaten in Europe, and it has done so for centuries. You'll visit a working rice farm and mill to see the different varieties up close, learn how rice is grown and processed, and discover what separates a perfect grain from a flawed one. Along the way you'll hear the story of the mondine, the women who once spent long seasons bent over the flooded fields planting and weeding by hand, and whose songs and struggles became part of Italy's history.
Then it's time to cook. In a hands-on class you'll learn to make a proper risotto, along with other rice dishes, before sitting down to enjoy everything you've prepared together.
Giulia, a licensed guide trained in art history and archaeology who has made the world of rice her speciality, leads the day, sharing the stories, the details, and the hidden corners most visitors never find.
Day
Lake Como
Today you say goodbye to Lake Maggiore and drive east to Lake Como, where a private boat is waiting for you. From here, you simply sit back and let the lake do the work. You glide past grand villas and terraced gardens, past small towns that cling to the steep shoreline, with the mountains rising straight out of the water on every side.
Midway through the morning, the boat pulls up at a restaurant right on the water's edge, run by the same family for as long as anyone can remember. Before lunch, you're taken down into their cantina, a cellar dating back to the 1300s, where the cool stone walls have kept wine for more than seven centuries. Then it's back up into the light for a long, unhurried lunch facing the lake. It's the kind of place you'd never find on your own.
The boat carries you on to Varenna, one of the most beautiful villages on the lake. The afternoon is yours to wander the narrow lanes and stone staircases, stroll the lakeside walkway, or find a café by the water and watch the ferries come and go.
In the late afternoon, you make your way to Valtellina, your home for the next four nights. The property sits among the vineyards, just a short drive from the lake, and from the bedroom windows the view needs no filter at all.
Day
Valtellina
Four generations. Same slopes. Same vines. Walter Menegola makes wine in Valtellina the way it has always been made here, by hand, on terraces so steep no machine can reach them.
After a homemade breakfast, the morning is a hike through his vineyards, with Walter explaining a world most visitors never see. Here, you cannot simply buy a vineyard. It is passed down through the family, or entrusted to a fellow winemaker you know will care for it. Life follows the rhythm of nature, and age is measured not in years, but in harvests.
Afterwards, it's into the cantina for the full picture, production, barrels, and a tasting paired with local products.
The evening belongs to Val Malenco, one of the Alps' best-kept secrets, for a slow dinner in breathtaking valley that few travellers ever reach..
Day
The Bernina Express
One of the great train journeys of the world. After breakfast, you drive north through Val Chiavenna and over the Maloja Pass into Switzerland, one of those roads where conversation fades and the views take over. By late morning you reach St. Moritz, where you board the Bernina Express.
Built over a century ago and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the line was a feat of engineering that still seems impossible today. It is one of the steepest railways in the world to climb without a cog wheel, gripping gradients of up to 7% on nothing but steel on steel. The train rises past the Morteratsch Glacier to the Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres, the highest railway crossing of the Alps, where the milky turquoise waters of Lago Bianco sit beneath snow-capped peaks. From there it drops in tight curves past Alp Grüm, through stone tunnels and across arched viaducts, before making its most famous move, a full spiral on the circular viaduct of Brusio, looping over itself to lose height. In just a couple of hours you descend from glaciers to palm trees, arriving in Tirano, back in Italy.
You sit by the window and don't check your phone. Some things deserve your full attention.
The evening ends back in Valtellina, at a small family restaurant tucked among the vineyards, for a dinner past guests have called the best meal of the trip.
Day
The Mountain & the Thermal Waters
Your last day begins high in the mountains. Alice, your local mountain guide, leads you into the Stelvio National Park, one of the largest national parks in the Alps, rising right above Bormio. You walk through alpine meadows and past glaciers, keeping an eye out for ibex, chamois, and marmots, in the kind of silence you only find this high up. Along the way, Alice shares the history of the park, its wildlife, and its plants, the kind of knowledge that turns a hike into something more than a walk. The trail ends at a mountain hut, where a well-deserved lunch is waiting.
The afternoon is all about slowing down at the Terme Bagni Vecchi. People have been bathing in these thermal springs for more than 2,000 years. The Romans built the first baths here when they found hot water bursting from the mountainside, and Leonardo da Vinci wrote about them in his notebooks. The pools are carved into the rock, with ancient grottos and caves, and an outdoor panoramic pool that looks straight down the valley. Glass of wine in hand, you soak in the warm water and watch the sun set over the peaks.
The trip ends the way it should: around the table at a traditional local restaurant, for one last long dinner together.
Day
Until next time
A morning transfer takes you to your hotel near Malpensa. The trip is over. The memories are yours.