Venice draws close to six million visitors a year. Less than an hour north, the hills growing the grapes for its favorite aperitivo see almost none of them.

Venice earns every one of those visitors — it's Venice, and you should see it at least once in your life. I went with my extended family a few years back and can honestly say a gondola ride at night there was one of my top travel experiences ever. But, yes, it's full of tourists. And, yes, it's expensive. If you want to take a break from those crowds, and see Italy at its most authentic, one must be willing to take the road less traveled by and veer off the traditional Venice–Florence–Rome–Positano axis.

For a destination worthy of that diversion, I submit the Prosecco Road. Formally the Strada del Prosecco e Vini dei Colli Conegliano Valdobbiadene, it's one of Italy's oldest wine routes — a roughly 50 km ribbon through the Prosecco Superiore DOCG hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, in the province of Treviso, Veneto, just south of the Dolomite mountains. The hills earned their UNESCO World Heritage status honestly: terraced vineyards too steep for any machine, still pruned and picked by hand, the way they have been for generations. The landscape does the selling for you — checkerboard rows of vines climbing and dropping with the slope, medieval villages, half-hidden castles, pockets of forest between the vineyard blocks, roads quiet enough to hear your own tires on the gravel. In short, an underrated paradise for food, wine, and cycling enthusiasts.

I've been aiming to explore the Prosecco Road for a while now, as a fan of both its bubbly and scenic cycling roads. In the meantime, I've been relegated to virtual simulation on my Rouvy bike trainer in the basement. But when I found out my niece was headed to Venice this summer as part of her graduate studies, I jumped at the chance to craft an itinerary to serve as her much-needed weekend getaway and as my reconnaissance mission. What she found confirmed my target — the kind of escape, and the kind of destination, that's become the core of my focus — off the beaten path, active, luxury travel in Italy and beyond.

My niece and her partner stayed at Villa Abbazia, a 5 star Relais & Chateaux property with a Michelin recognized restaurant in the middle of Follina, a quaint and quiet little village along the route. Through my agency's preferred partnership, they got a room upgrade and breakfast included, and the hotel arranged their transportation from and to Venice. The highlight of their trip was a guided e-bike tour with Italy Cycling Tour, a local group of former professional cyclists and the latest addition to my list of trusted local tour operators. Their cycling route was a mix of gravel and peaceful roads with no cars, trails beautiful and not too difficult in the heat, their guide super fun, the e-bikes excellent. The tour stopped at Serre di Pederiva, a family winery that's grown Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG on the steep hills for two generations — the kind of place where the same hands that pick the grapes pour the glass. They shipped bottles home, and I can't wait to try. In town, their dinner was a short walk to Osteria del Majo — amazing food, amazing staff, their words.

Off the beaten path isn't a compromise. It's simply a better deal. Villa Abbazia — the upgrade, the breakfast, all of it — ran roughly half what a comparable hotel would cost in Venice, Rome, or Florence over the same dates. The restaurants and the tour price out the same way for something just as good, sometimes better. Then there's what money doesn't buy directly — room to move. No lines, no timed-entry tickets, no elbow-to-elbow crowd at the viewpoint. Just open road and quiet. And the businesses haven't been worn down by tourism — they're still genuinely excited to greet you, the real thing, not a performance for a tour bus.

This is part of an ongoing effort — finding and curating the best destinations, hotels, cycling routes, and experiences for my clients, one region at a time. Thanks to my niece's confirmation, I have a new hotel partnership, a new outfitter, a new winery, a new destination I can now recommend with confidence.

So, by all means, see Venice. I have some great hotels and experiences to suggest. But please also consider tacking on a few extra days to get off the beaten path. 

It can make all the difference. 

Last October, I spent a week cycling through Piedmont with a group of family and friends, and it quickly became one of the most memorable travel experiences I've had in Italy.

That's a meaningful statement for someone who has made nearly twenty trips there. But Piedmont earns it.

The Setting: The Langhe by Bike

Piedmont sits in Italy's northwest, bordered by the Alps to the north and west, and the Apennines to the south. The Langhe — the rolling hill country south of Alba — is its heart: a landscape of vineyards, hilltop villages, forests of white truffle oak, and narrow roads that seem designed specifically for cycling. Which, in a sense, they were. The region has been farmed and traveled by foot and wheel for centuries, and the roads reflect that — winding, human-scaled, logical.

What stood out most about cycling here was the rhythm of it. Long, winding climbs and descents with modest grades and perfect pavement. Almost no traffic — except for the occasional wild boar crossing, which keeps you attentive. Small villages and castles appearing around each turn, as if someone placed them there for effect. Espresso stops in quiet piazzas where the barista knows every person who walks through the door. Views stretching across Barolo and Barbaresco wine country that make you stop pedaling, just to look.

This is not aggressive cycling terrain. It's contemplative cycling terrain — the kind that gives you time to think and something worth thinking about.

The Base: Relais San Maurizio

We based our stay at Relais San Maurizio, a former Augustinian monastery perched above the village of Santo Stefano Belbo in the Moscato wine hills. The conversion from monastery to luxury hotel is one of those projects that seems obvious in retrospect — the architecture, the cloister, the silence, the views — and yet takes a particular vision to execute well. Relais San Maurizio has a Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa carved into the hillside, and the particular atmosphere of a place that has been used for contemplation for several centuries. It holds on to that quality.

This kind of accommodation does something important for an active trip: it makes the recovery part of the experience. After a long day in the saddle, arriving at a place that asks nothing of you except to sit down and eat well is its own kind of reward. That's L'Equilibrio — the balance — in practice.

The Wine: Barolo, Barbaresco, and Beyond

Piedmont is Italy's most serious wine region. It produces Barolo and Barbaresco — both made from the Nebbiolo grape, both among the most age-worthy and complex wines in the world — along with Barbera d'Asti, Dolcetto, Moscato d'Asti, and a dozen other varieties that rarely leave the region in quantity. Cycling through these hills and then drinking the wines made from the vines you just rode through is a particular kind of pleasure.

One highlight of the trip was visiting Agricola Marrone, a family-run winery in La Morra in the heart of the Barolo zone. We toured the cantina, tasted through several vintages, and then had lunch on their rooftop terrace overlooking the vineyards — a meal that lasted the better part of the afternoon, which is exactly the right amount of time. The wine was serious. The food was regional. The view was the Langhe in October, which is to say it was remarkable.

Barolo is commonly called "the king of wines" — which sounds like marketing until you taste a well-aged bottle and understand why someone said it.

Why Piedmont Over Tuscany?

Piedmont may not receive the same international attention as Tuscany — and that is, at the moment, its advantage. The roads are quieter. The towns are less oriented toward tourism. The prices are more reasonable. The wine is just as extraordinary, possibly more so.

For a traveler interested in cycling, wine, cuisine, and a slower pace, I think Piedmont is one of the most compelling regions in Italy — and consistently undervalued precisely because it doesn't work as hard to be discovered.

October is, in my view, the ideal time to visit. The harvest is underway in the vineyards, the truffle season is beginning, the summer crowds are gone, and the light on the hills in the afternoon is the kind of light that makes you want to stay.

What a Trip Here Looks Like

A well-structured Piedmont cycling trip typically centers on the Langhe — the area between Alba, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Asti — with routes calibrated to the group's fitness and ambition. The terrain is genuinely varied: you can design a trip around easy valley riding, moderate hill climbs, or proper multi-hour efforts depending on who's in the group.

The non-cycling days matter just as much. A truffle hunt in the hills around Alba. A cooking class focused on tajarin and agnolotti. A tasting at one of the region's great producers. Evenings at the kind of restaurant that doesn't need a famous name because the locals already know where it is.

Relais San Maurizio is one natural base. There are others — smaller, simpler, equally rooted in the landscape — depending on what the group is looking for.

If Piedmont is on your radar, it should move up the list. I'd love to help plan it.

Reach out through the contact page — October fills quickly, and this is the kind of trip worth building carefully.