Off the beaten path. Into the extraordinary.

ANTICA CULTURAL TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Meaningful Curated Travel Experiences for Curious & Cultured Explorers.

Following in the footsteps of European Bronze Age celtic tribes. Follow us to the ‘hidden’ regions of Ciociaria & Molise in central Italy and to Istria, Croatia.

Handcrafted and Personally Hosted By: Kelly & Paolo Picarazzi

PORTFOLIO

  • Antica Travel Co guests at a medieval tavern underneath a castle in Ciociaria - the Wild Heart of Italy

    Wild Heart of Italy - Ciociaria & Molise

    Ciociaria & Molise are charming, wildly unpredictable and utterly beautiful - and almost completely undiscovered by international tourists.

    Discover More

  • In the footsteps of ancient tribes - Istria, Croatia

    A spectacular food & wine cultural adventure deep into the Istrian countryside to peel back the layers of Istria’s fascinating ancient history.

    Discover More
  • Ciociaria Gourmet Cycling tour guests in Atina, Ciociaria with Antica Travel Co in the Wild Heart of Italy

    Ciociaria Gourmet Bespoke Cycling Tour

    A co-hosted cycling tour with local & Australian cycling guides, featuring unique gourmet & cultural experiences of this undiscovered region.

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CONTACT US

Make a Reservation Request or Booking Enquiry.

We are also happy to tailor itineraries and dates for Private Experience Groups

  • "What an amazing experience to escape into the authentic/real Italy. As a solo traveller, the opportunity to experience life in a totally different way that was creative, inclusive, and educational as part of a friendly small group was a real highlight. It was also exciting being part of local experiences presented by a creative team completely immersed in the small hilltop villages of the region. It’s these villages that truly are the heartbeat of Italy."

    Sandy D. Ciociaria Cultural Travel Experience, September 2025

  • “If you are looking for a food and cultural experience off the normal beaten tourist routes, this adventure is for you. Kelly & Paolo will introduce you to their like-minded local friends who bring the Ciociarian history and culture to life. We totally recommend this experience.”

    Peter & Jenny P. Ciociaria Cultural Travel Experience, September 2025

  • “Such an amazing tour and experience. Thank you so much! Ciociaria is a beautiful hidden gem of Italy. Highly recommend for an authentic encounter of Italy’s regions.”

    Lisa B. Ciociaria Gourmet Bespoke Cycling Tour, September 2025

  • “I've been on a cycle holiday in Italy five or six times before with various local providers. This Ciociaria experience was head and shoulders above the rest.”

    Louise B. Ciociaria Gourmet Bespoke Cycle Tour, September 2024

  • "Our Ciociarian adventure had everything - visits to beautiful & interesting places, good company, delicious food! And wine!"

    Sabina F. Ciociaria Cultural Travel Experience, September 2024

  • "A great fit for those who want to learn more and appreciate more, and who want to extract the very essence of life from every day, and who are flexible enough to confidently do so.”

    Janette D. Wild Heart of Italy tour, December 2018

  • "Exploring the beautiful Comino Valley in the Apennine Mountains region, we felt privileged to be welcomed into local, long-established and innovative family businesses and hear from energetic entrepreneurs and academics pursuing a shared goal of sustainable regional tourism."

    Lisa G. Wild Heart of Italy tour, September 2019

  • "Kelly and Paolo are a great team. They provided a wonderful insight into regional Italy. The enthusiasm of the locals we met- whether they were local guides or vignerons was infectious. We felt like guests not tourists. Paolo’s insights as a local were wonderful. Every day was a treat and full of unexpected discovery."

    David B. Wild Heart of Italy tour, September 2019

  • “Kelly & Paolo take you deep into the heart of central Italy and immerse you in the incredible history of the Ciociaria region to understand the great civilisations that inhabited this area of Lazio between Rome and Naples over the centuries. You will be delighted to meet local producers passionate about the revival of traditional foods, wine and production methods – all in the unspoilt natural beauty of the Valle di Comino and the Apennine Mountains.

    Janette D. Wild Heart of Italy tour, September 2018

  • "Just perfect for the adventurous, the curious, those who are tired of crowds and tourist restaurants, and for those who dislike moving from hotel to hotel to make the most of their vacation."

    Janette D. Wild Heart of Italy tour, September 2018

  • "We gave Kelly a tall order: create a private tour to Italy which can satisfy 13 people aged from 10 to 80 years old for a 'small' family reunion, with guests flying into Italy from four different countries. She & Paolo delivered. We are all still talking (and dreaming!) about this trip years later."

    Aghia G. Tailored Wild Heart of Italy private tour, December 2018

SLOW TRAVEL + STORYTELLING

Antica Travel Co guests walking along a mountain meadow in Atina, Valle di Comino in Ciociaria. The Wild Heart of Italy

Meet the culinary creatives, local producers, vignerons & artisans of the ‘hidden’ regions of Ciociaria & Molise in central Italy and Istria, Croatia - who are all still deeply connected to the land where they live and work.

They have been our inspiration to co-create our cultural travel experiences to help you travel more deeply into their culture, history and heritage. Food and wine of course is an integral and essential expression of culture!

Join us to explore peeling the layers of history from the Medieval appearance of these regions’ hilltop villages, through to the conquest of each of these regions by the ancient Romans from 300-178 BC, to discover with us the original Celtic tribe settlements and origin stories from the Bronze Age.

Our small and micro travel groups are co-hosted and guided by our great local friends in each region, who are archaeologists, academics, culinary artisans, artisanal producers, hiking guides and art historians.

Our hand-crafted itineraries are personally designed and hosted by us, after years of dedicated and extensive on-ground research to uncover forgotten corners of history. 

The Antica Cultural Travel experiences are also constantly evolving in collaboration with our local friends - we can guarantee that no travel experience with us is ever the same. 

Follow us off the beaten path and into the extraordinary…

Kelly & Paolo

Find out more about Our Journey

Santo Stefano View.jpg

Follow us through the Wild & Ancient Hearts of central Italy & Istria

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Antica Travel Manifesto

Antica Travel Co. is a values-based boutique travel company focused on supporting slow and conscious travel. We share a commitment between our business, our travellers, and our local collaborators to build journeys that enrich us all while we are experiencing them, and which contribute to the sustainability of the local communities we visit. Our guiding principles for every Antica Travel Co. journey are:

  • Our itineraries start with questions, not assumptions - inviting our guests to learn with locals, rather than just observe, and to become fully immersed in our local experiences.

  • This approach fosters deeper connections for you with our locals and with each other as we travel together, and we leave a lighter environmental footprint on the places we visit.

  • We embrace slower travel, slow food and seasonal rhythms, purposefully selecting low season dates for our travel experiences outside of high-season mass tourism periods.

  • Our journeys together through the remote regions of Ciociaria & Molise in central Italy include incredible opportunities for you to hear direct from our local knowledge‑keepers: academics, artisans and producers. It’s an opportunity for them too, to share their stories with you in their own way, and in their own dialects. We’ll translate for you.

  • We are consciously focused on contributing to our local collaborators remaining sustainable and viable in business, and in making a genuine contribution to the local communities we live and work in.

  • We have dedicated more than twelve years of dedicated research to learn how to piece together travel experiences worthy of the many thousands of centuries of stories of the ancient regions of Ciociaria & Molise, and we continue to invest our personal time and passion in exploration and research of these regions.

Wooden boardwalk surrounded by tall reeds with mountains in the background and four people walking at the front, viewing them from behind at Lago di Posta Fibreno in the Valle di Comino of Ciociaria. Wild Heart of Italy. Photo credit Antica Travel Co

“Italy today is far more Etruscan [& Sanniti] in its pulse than Roman; and will always be so. The Etruscan [& Sanniti] element is like the grass of the field and the sprouting of corn, in Italy: it will always be so.”  

— DH Lawrence, ‘Etruscan Places: Travels Through Forgotten Italy’ [with help from Kelly]. The Etruscan and Sanniti civilisations of the Bronze Age in central Italy flourished in parallel.