I spend a lot of time telling people why they should come to Italy with me. I talk about the beautiful towns, incredible food, local wine, family-run farms, cooking classes, long lunches, and wonderful people we meet along the way. But perhaps I’ve been going about this all wrong.

Maybe instead I should tell you why you absolutely should not join me on one of my culinary adventures in Italy. Because, truthfully, these trips aren’t for everyone. So, in the interest of full disclosure, here are ten very good reasons you may want to stay home.

1. You like being rushed.

If your idea of a successful trip to Italy involves checking six cities off your list in seven days, we may not be compatible. I don’t believe you need to see everything. In fact, I think trying to see everything is one of the best ways to experience very little.

My trips are intentionally slower. Whenever possible, we settle into one home base and explore from there. I want you to unpack your suitcase, figure out where the nearest coffee bar is, recognize the person behind the counter, and start feeling like you actually live in Italy, even if it’s only for a week. There will be time to linger, wander, and occasionally do absolutely nothing. You’ve been warned.

2. You don’t like eating.

This could be a serious problem because food isn’t something we squeeze into the itinerary between sightseeing stops. Food is a big part of the itinerary.

We might hunt for truffles in the morning, enjoy lunch at a family-run farm, visit an olive oil producer in the afternoon, and somehow still find ourselves happily sitting down to dinner that evening. There will be pasta, cheese, wine, bread, pastries, gelato, and almost certainly an Italian insisting that you need to eat just a little bit more. That Italian may, or may not, be me.

Food is one of the greatest ways to understand Italy. Every region, town, and sometimes even village has its own specialties and traditions. We aren’t simply eating our way through Italy—we’re learning about it one delicious bite at a time.

3. You prefer big tour buses and matching name tags.

You aren’t going to disappear into a crowd of 50 people on one of my trips. My groups are small for a reason. I want us to be able to visit places that couldn’t accommodate a busload of tourists even if they wanted to. I want us sitting around one table, sharing meals, laughing together, and having our hosts actually know who we are.

Something else happens when you travel this way: you get to know your fellow travelers. Many people arrive knowing only the person they came with—or sometimes no one at all—and leave with new friendships. After a week of meals, wine, adventures, and plenty of laughter together, it tends to happen naturally.

If you’d rather remain anonymous in row 37 of a giant motor coach, there are plenty of tours that can help you with that. Mine isn’t one of them.

4. You only want to see the famous places.

Italy’s famous destinations are famous for a reason, and I love many of them. But some of my favorite travel memories—and those of my guests—happen in places whose names you may never have heard before.

It might be a tiny cheese farm in the countryside, a family-owned winery, an olive grove, a truffle hunt in the woods, or a village where we seem to be the only visitors. Sometimes we drive down a little country road and I can practically hear my guests thinking, “Francesca, where exactly are you taking us?”

And then we arrive.

Those are often the experiences people are still talking about years later. Italy’s greatest treasures aren’t always the ones with a ticket booth out front.

5. You don’t want to meet Italians.

I don’t want you simply looking at Italy. I want you meeting Italy. There is a difference.

The farmers, winemakers, cooks, guides, artisans, producers, and small-business owners we visit aren’t interchangeable vendors I found on a booking website. Many are people I’ve worked with for years and relationships that have grown over time. When someone welcomes us into their kitchen, vineyard, farm, or family business, you’re seeing a side of Italy that can be difficult to experience when traveling independently.

Sometimes there will be imperfect English. There will almost certainly be lots of hand gestures. There may be stories that take longer than expected and meals that go well beyond the allotted time. Somehow, everyone understands one another just fine.

6. You’re counting calories.

We may need to have a conversation before you book.

Italy and calorie counting are not particularly good travel companions. I’m not suggesting you eat everything in sight—although I certainly won’t judge you if you try—but food in Italy is about so much more than what’s on the plate. It’s culture, history, family, tradition, and regional identity.

That bowl of pasta isn’t just lunch. The recipe may have been prepared in that town for generations. That cheese may have been made by the same family for decades. That olive oil may have come from trees growing a few hundred feet from the table where you’re sitting.

So have the pasta. Eat the bread. Taste the cheese. Order the gelato. Real life will still be waiting when you get home.

7. You want every minute of your vacation scheduled.

I love a good itinerary. Obviously. But I also believe some of the best moments in Italy happen when absolutely nothing is scheduled.

You need time to wander through town, sit in a piazza, have an espresso, browse a shop you weren’t looking for, or go back and buy that ceramic bowl you saw yesterday and haven’t stopped thinking about. Maybe you’ll sit outside with a glass of wine and spend an hour watching the evening passeggiata.

That isn’t “free time we couldn’t figure out how to fill.” That’s Italy. And learning to enjoy that slower rhythm is every bit as important as the places we visit.

8. You don’t like laughing.

This may be the biggest dealbreaker of all because things happen when you travel. Someone will mispronounce an Italian word. Someone will buy something that absolutely will not fit into their suitcase. Someone will order something without really knowing what they’ve ordered. Someone will declare that today’s lunch was the best meal of the entire trip, only to say exactly the same thing the following day.

And yes, someone may fall a little bit in love with the waiter.

We laugh a lot. I take the responsibility of planning and running these trips very seriously. I take your comfort, safety, experience, and precious vacation time seriously. But I don’t believe that means we have to take ourselves seriously every minute of the day.

9. You don’t want to fall in love with Italy.

This one is risky because Italy has a habit of getting under your skin.

Maybe it will happen while you’re standing in a vineyard looking over the hills. Maybe it will be during an evening passeggiata, when families and friends fill the streets simply because that’s what they do. Maybe it will happen during a two-hour lunch when nobody seems remotely concerned about getting up to leave. Or perhaps you’ll be walking through a little Tuscan town one afternoon and suddenly find yourself thinking, “I could live here.”

Be careful with that thought. I speak from experience.

My own lifelong love affair with Italy eventually led me to buy a home in Cortona. Now I have the privilege of sharing not only the Italy I visit, but also the Italy that has become part of my everyday life. Italy has a way of doing that. You arrive thinking you’re taking a vacation, and sometimes you leave wondering when you can come back.

10. You want to come home exactly the same person who left.

This may actually be the best reason not to come because I think a wonderful trip should change you, even if only a little.

Maybe you’ll slow down. Maybe you’ll start buying better olive oil. Maybe dinner will become something to enjoy instead of something to get through. Maybe you’ll start drinking your coffee from a real cup instead of carrying it around in a paper one. Maybe you’ll finally understand how Italians can spend three hours around a table and never once wonder what they’re supposed to be doing next.

And perhaps months after you’ve returned home, you’ll hear a song, smell something cooking, open a bottle of wine, or look at a photograph and suddenly be transported right back to that week in Italy.

That’s ultimately what I hope my travelers bring home. Not just photographs and souvenirs, but memories, friendships, stories, and perhaps a slightly different way of looking at life.

So there you have it: ten perfectly legitimate reasons not to join me in Italy.

But if small groups, beautiful places, family-run farms, incredible food, local wine, cooking, laughter, slow travel, and experiencing Italy through the people who actually live there sound like your idea of a pretty wonderful week, then we may have a problem. And I have the solution.

You might just be exactly the kind of traveler I created these trips for.

Ci vediamo in Italia! 🇮🇹