We aim to give to our travellers the best experiences in Central Italy, helping them to understand and enjoy local culture, food, environment and traditions while minimizing any negative effects that tourism can create while emphasizing the positives, such as cultural exchanges, appreciation of local products, support of the local sustainable economy, development of tourism to lesser known areas, preservation of the landscape and typical products and traditions. With these fundamental aims in mind, we have developed our itineraries, chosen our services providers, identified the main tour activities and developed for our customers our Traveller Code of Conduct.

We organize tours in Italy, where we are from. We are particularly proud of our culture and landscape, and we want our travellers to enjoy, appreciate and understand why we Italians feel this emotion.

We love our country and we think that tourism is a wonderful job that can support local economy while favouring different cultures to meet, favouring mutual understanding of people.

To be sure your behaviour is in line with this idea, please, read our Traveller’s Code of Conduct that will give you useful tips to enjoy your travel as best as possible making in the meanwhile you avoiding some behaviour that could be considered not correct by locals.

We sell tours that enable people to experience Italy as a local, choosing accommodation run by local people who are interested in preserving local culture. We organize visits to local markets to taste food that is produced in Umbria or Tuscany, no further than 40 km away; wine and olive oil tasting that will enable the traveller to talk and interact with local farmers, particularly those that utilize organic and integrated agriculture, and use renewable energy resources; restaurants that are eager to present a menu with traditional recipes and dishes that make full use of local products; shops where you can buy products from local artisans and in some cases watch them while they work.

We suggest combining your vacation with some walking and biking, even if this is unusual and, of course, provided you are fit enough . In Umbria and Tuscany there are a wide range of paths and routes of varying difficulty that will enable you to get in contact with our wonderful nature, meet local people, relax and enjoy your vacation. In such a way you will be able to see much more of the landscape! We suggest participating in local fairs and events where local people work together to present a traditional event or to present local food. Usually the earnings are used to improve services in the village or surrounding area.

Furthermore, we give tips to be able to act as a traveller and not just as a tourist, explaining local culture and what to do and not!! For example, Italians never drink cappuccino during or after dinner!

Below are some of the tenets on which we base our responsible tourism in Umbria and Tuscany:

• We organize self guided tours and small groups accompanied by local guides who know the environment and the local culture and can help understanding and respect for them and put travellers in touch with local people
• We select our accommodation preferring those, locally owned, that recycle waste, use renewable energy, use local products, and enhance local culture and tradition.
• We encourage and give information for using local transport or walking or biking
• We prepare our brochures and documents so that they can be downloaded or just displayed on your PC, tablet or phone to avoid wasting paper.
• We have close connections with a local NGO giving free advice and training on sustainable development, particularly regarding tourism, agriculture and handicraft, especially for developing countries.
• We have known all our suppliers for many years and communicate regularly with them to develop vacations and services that will sustainably enhance our area.

In particular, our commitment for a responsible tourism concerns:

Environmental responsibility

• In our office we use recycled paper and we avoid printing if possible.
• On the web site we recommend not to print the information if not necessary, and in case it is necessary to print to do it on recycled paper, and on both sides.
• We send our Traveller Code of Conduct with suggestions to minimize the negative effects on environment.
• We explain Central Italy municipalities’ separate collection of rubbish, so as to be able to support the recycling of waste, we recommend saving water and to minimize electricity consumption.
• Most of our tours are walking or biking tours that ensure the least possible impact on environment. We are still working on how to reduce the use of car/bus transfers, supporting the use of public buses and trains. Any other suggestion is welcome!
• We suggest our customers to buy typical agri-food products and locally produced souvenirs, giving them a list of farmers’ markets and handicraft shops that reduce pollution because the products are locally produced. We also suggest, when possible handicrafts made with recycled materials.
• Restaurants we choose are using, as much as possible, local products.
• We try to reduce water, energy and fuel consumption wherever possible.
• We give information on how to respect nature and wildlife.

Economic responsibility

• Our staff are committed to support an Italian NGO, TAMAT, working in Italy and in less developed countries to fight poverty and support sustainable development. We have been working particularly in the tourism sector, supporting projects, organizing training, giving information and advice to local people wanting to work in sustainable tourism.
• We employ local people, both to support local economy and also because this reflects our policy to make our travellers fully understand Italian culture and tradition.
• Our service providers are local companies employing local people, and in several tours we hire local guides directly.
• We choose service providers that employ local people because they are giving added value to the tour, being able to explain not only the cultural heritage or the natural spots travellers are visiting but also giving a historical explanation to better inform them and understand Italy from an “insiders” view.
• We choose restaurants and B&Bs that mainly use local products. This is a easy choice in Central Italy, as we have many unique products and we want visitors to appreciate them.

Social responsibility

• We send our customer a document with the description and information on the vicinity of their tours, including a list of events, such as local fairs, the opportunity to participate in or visit handicraft labs where they can buy local products (one of these, in Perugia, is a social cooperative working with people with physical and psychological disorders). Another is to visit two local associations, one in Foligno (Solearia, who promote sustainable tourism and concentrates on environmental education in the schools; additionally, our customers can discuss with them ZOES, an association they initiated to share good practices of sustainable development and to publicize “fair” products and services). The other is in Perugia (TAMAT, which supports local associations working for sustainable development in Bosnia Herzegovina, and also working with immigrants in Umbria, to support their empowerment and integration into local schools). We collaborate with them in suggesting how to be a “traveller” and not a mere tourist.
• Last but not least, all of our guides are all local people.

Annex 1 : Code of Conduct for our travellers in Italy