About Italy Within Reach
Our Founder
Andrea, the founder of Italy Within Reach, began traveling to and within Italy in 2014 when she became part of a family that spanned the Atlantic, linking Tuscany to the American Midwest and the greater New York area. She was, as most people are, smitten. Andrea has a Ph.D. in sociology, and her decades-long study of social structures has helped her understand Italy as a complex and contradictory society, whose wonderful, tumultuous, and at times nutty character requires an openness to all that is Italian, not just Tuscany’s hills and Rome’s pastas.
Andrea’s new world came with many new demands—namely, organizing a lot of international travel for her family. The timings were complex. The kids ranged in age from newborn to teenagers. Everyone had their own needs. Flights to and from Italy had to intersect with travel to both cities and remote areas of the US. There was only so much money. Andrea’s analytical mind proved to be very well suited to this kind of work.
Andrea has lived in Rome on two occasions, taught at one of the city's American universities, and traveled through nearly every region of the country. When not doing travel planning, she is a researcher, educator, and administrator.
She came up with the idea for Italy Within Reach after returning from one of her trips a few years ago and speaking with a friend, who remarked, “Italy has always been my dream, but I could never afford it.” Andrea replied, “Actually, you can.”
You can contact us or email her at hello@withinreachitaly.com.
Our Firm
Italy Within Reach is a small Italy travel planning firm that designs customized itineraries emphasizing simplicity, beauty, and character over high-end price tags. It was founded by social scientists from a blended Italian-American family. In addition to spending more than two decades traveling within Italy and between Italy and the US, we have studied and analyzed European and American society for over 20 years. Out of this unique perspective and experience, we created Italy Within Reach. Our travel planning firm merges our organizational, logistical, and analytical skills with our fascination with Italian culture and history.
Understanding how societies actually work — who benefits, who gets left out, how tourist economies function, how cultures interact — is what enables Italy Within Reach to plan trips that help travelers experience Italy in a genuine way, as opposed to a cookie-cutter, tourist-manufactured one.
We have traveled across Italy's many regions as solo travelers, as couples, with friends, and as families with kids of different ages. We have done all this on a budget that aligns with the reality faced by many working people.
We know what it costs to travel, what is involved in planning a trip from start to finish, and where things tend to go wrong logistically and financially. We have navigated the many frustrations of travel, from the tourist-trap dinner to the exhaustion of arriving hours before a hotel check-in with nowhere to go. Because we have experienced these mistakes, you don’t have to.
We prepare trips carefully, honestly, and thoughtfully for travelers who have a range of different budgets, but for all of whom money is not limitless and the experience is as important as the beautiful photo.
We are a fee-based firm and do not earn commissions from the small businesses that we recommend, as it is against our principles to squeeze those who are working hard to preserve and share Italy’s beauty.
