join my facebook group

WISH YOU WERE HERE — ITALY

September 20–27, 2026

This is a tailor-made, immersive Italian experience for a small group of 26 travelers, hosted by bestselling author Christy Schillig and inspired by her novel Wish You Weren’t Here.

Shaped by the places, moods, and moments that live inside the book, this journey brings Christy’s Italy to life — the rolling hills of Le Marche, the food-forward heart of Bologna’s countryside, and the dreamlike magic of Venice, where the story lingers long after the last page.

On the ground, a dedicated See Italy Tour Leader handles the logistics (timelines, transfers, the boring-but-crucial details), so you’re free to sink fully into the experience — guided by story, place, and connection.

Expect boutique stays with soul, private cultural and culinary experiences, unforgettable meals, and a pace that lets you actually feel where you are — not just check it off a list.

  • Hosted by: Christy Schillig, author of Wish You Weren’t Here
  • Curated by: Kate Ciullo, Lumina Literary Tours
  • On-the-ground leadership: See Italy Tour Leader
  • Route: Bologna → Urbino (Le Marche) → Bologna Hills → Venice
  • For travelers who love: slow mornings, meaningful conversation, beautiful settings, sharp banter, and stories that follow you home

A JOURNEY TO THE CITY OF STARLIGHT

1
country

8
Days

8
Locations

Women Only 
Travel

lock in your spot

What’s Included in Your Escape

8 days of story-led travel in Italy

Handpicked accommodations

All private ground transportation and transfers

Private, guided experiences and cultural activities

Select meals and tasting experiences

Dedicated on-the-ground tour leader

Exclusive group reservations

Private Sommelier

Highlights
  • Arrival in Italy & group welcome
  • Private transfer to the Marche countryside
  • Vineyard & cellar visit
  • Welcome dinner at the estate

The Story
You land in Bologna and are met by your dedicated tour leader — the person whose sole job this week is to make sure you never have to think about logistics again. From there, you travel into the rolling hills of Le Marche, where your first hotel waits like a secret.

Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo is a working wine estate turned countryside haven. Stone cottages, vineyard views, and a pace that immediately asks you to slow down.

That evening, you tour the cellar and vineyard before sitting down for a welcome dinner reserved just for your group. Wine is poured. Introductions happen naturally. And somewhere between the first course and dessert, the shift occurs — from travelers to companions.

Bologna → Urbino
(Le Marche)

Easy

Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo

Saturday,September 20

Benvenuti in Italy

Welcome Dinner

Private arrival
transfer

🍽️

🚙

📍

🚶‍♀️

🏨

Highlights
  • Slow morning at the estate (spa/pool time)
  • Four-course lunch on property
  • Private walking tour of Urbino
  • Ducal Palace visit
  • Dinner in historic Urbino

The Story
The morning is yours — and intentionally unstructured. Sleep in. Visit the spa. Sit by the pool with a book and no agenda. At lunch, you gather for a long, leisurely meal before heading into Urbino, one of Italy’s most elegant Renaissance hill towns.

With a private guide, you wander cobblestone streets and step inside the Ducal Palace, where art, architecture, and history converge. Urbino feels intellectual without being stiff — beautiful, but deeply human.

Dinner that evening is at a local restaurant, chosen for warmth, flavor, and atmosphere. Conversation stretches. Laughter lingers. No one checks the time.

Urbino

Local transfer & walking

Sunday, September 21

Leisure and Urbino Discovery

Breakfast, Lunch,  Dinner

Moderate walking

🚶‍♀️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo

Highlights
  • Private truffle hunt with expert & dog
  • Truffle-focused lunch with wine pairings
  • Afternoon rest time at the estate
  • Dinner at a countryside agriturismo

The Story
Today takes you into the woods of Acqualagna — Italy’s truffle capital — where an expert hunter and his dog guide you through oak-scented forests in search of something rare. When the dog signals and the earth is gently brushed away, the moment feels oddly reverent.

Lunch follows, because of course it does — truffle crostini, handmade pasta, wines chosen to highlight every earthy note. The afternoon invites rest: pool, spa, or doing absolutely nothing without guilt.

Dinner is at a nearby agriturismo, reserved entirely for your group. Candlelight, regional wines, and food that tastes like it came straight from the land you walked earlier that day.

Acqualagna → Urbino countryside

Private transfer

Monday, September 22

Truffles & The Art of Indulgence

Included Meals:
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Moderate (forest walking)

🚶‍♂️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo

Highlights
  • Hands-on cooking class in Pesaro
  • Guided visit to Gradara Castle
  • Sunset aperitif at a family-run vineyard

The Story
In Pesaro, you step into an Italian kitchen to learn the art of piadina sfogliata — folding, kneading, laughing, and eating what you’ve made while it’s still warm. It’s tactile, joyful, and deeply satisfying.

From there, you travel to Gradara Castle, where stone walls hold centuries of love stories and heartbreak. As the sun lowers, you end the day at a vineyard overlooking the Adriatic, glasses raised during a private sunset aperitif.

It’s one of those moments where conversation naturally softens — where everyone feels the quiet gratitude of being exactly where they are.

Pesaro → Gradara → Vineyard

Private transfer

Tuesday, September 23

Cooking, Castles, & Sunset Vines

Breakfast · Cooking class meal · Aperitif

Moderate

🚶‍♂️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Tenuta Santi Giacomo e Filippo

Highlights
  • Scenic transfer into the Bologna Hills
  • Wine & olive oil tasting lunch
  • Spa and pool time at the resort
  • Fine-dining dinner on property

The Story
This morning, we trade vineyard quiet for polished calm as we journey into the Bologna Hills. Palazzo di Varignana rises gently from the landscape — an 18th-century villa surrounded by olive groves, gardens, and open sky.

Upon arrival, you’re welcomed with a private wine and olive oil tasting lunch, hosted by the estate’s own winemaker. Every dish is intentional, every pairing thoughtful, every moment unhurried.

The afternoon is yours to sink into rest: float in outdoor pools, wander the grounds, or retreat to the spa for a long, luxurious exhale. Dinner that evening is served at the resort’s fine-dining restaurant — elegant, warm, and quietly celebratory.

Urbino countryside → Bologna Hills (Varignana)

Private transfer

Thursday, September 24

Wine, Wellness, & The Bologna Hills

Breakfast · Tasting Lunch · Dinner

Easy

🚶‍♂️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Palazzo di Varignana

Highlights
  • Private food tour in Bologna’s medieval market
  • Tastings of regional specialties
  • Arrival in Venice by private water taxi
  • Luggage porterage directly to your hotel

The Story
Bologna greets you with flavor. On a private food tour through its medieval market, you taste your way through the region’s greatest hits — aged Parmigiano, fresh pasta, balsamic vinegar, cured meats — while your guide shares the stories behind each tradition.

In the afternoon, the journey continues north. As you arrive at Venice Tronchetto, the pace shifts again. You step onto a private water taxi, gliding across the lagoon as domes and spires rise from the water.

Your luggage is handled. Your hands are free. Venice unfolds slowly, beautifully — and by the time you arrive at your hotel, it already feels unreal in the best way.

Bologna → Venice

Private transfer · Water taxi · Porterage

Thursday, September 25

Flavor, History, & Arrival by Water

Breakfast, Food tastings

Moderate (walking)

🚶‍♂️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Splendid Venice

Highlights
  • Murano glassblowing demonstration
  • Cannaregio neighborhood walk
  • Fun Venetian rowing experience
  • Farewell dinner overlooking St. Mark’s Bay

The Story
Today is Venice, up close. You begin on Murano, where master glassblowers shape molten glass into works of art — fire, patience, and precision all moving as one.

Back in the city, you explore Cannaregio, one of Venice’s most authentic neighborhoods, where daily life hums just beyond the tourist paths. Then comes the unexpected joy: a hands-on Venetian rowing experience. It’s playful, imperfect, and full of laughter — the kind of shared memory that bonds a group for life.

That evening, you gather for a farewell dinner overlooking St. Mark’s Bay. Wine is poured. Stories are retold. There’s laughter, a little softness, and the quiet realization that this wasn’t just a trip — it was a chapter that mattered.

Venice · Murano

Private water taxi

Friday, September 26

Glass, Canals & A Final Toast

Breakfast, Farewell Dinner

Moderate

🚶‍♂️

📍

🍽️

🚙

🏨

Splendid Venice

your itinerary

Deposit: $1,200 per person


Double Occupancy: 5,985 pp


Solo Occupancy: $6,885 pp


Final Payment Due: June 01, 2026

This journey is intentionally limited to 26 travelers to preserve the pacing, intimacy, and depth that make Lumina tours feel different. Pricing reflects a curated, small-group experience shaped by story, place, and exceptional local partners.

Registration

pricing &

after you register

You’ll receive immediate confirmation, access to your personal travel portal, and a warm welcome from Kate & April. Everything you need to feel prepared — without overwhelm — arrives gently.

reserve your spot

HOST

meet your

Christy Schillig is a contemporary romance author known for stories that feel like a conversation over wine — warm, witty, emotionally layered, and quietly unforgettable. Her novels Wish You Weren’t Here and Lessons in Falling are beloved for their sharp banter, tender longing, and settings that feel so alive they might as well be characters themselves.

With Wish You Weren’t Here, Christy invites readers into an Italy shaped by slow mornings, complicated feelings, and the kind of moments that linger long after the last page. This tour is an extension of that world — not just inspired by the book, but shaped by the places, moods, and details that made the story what it is.

By day, Christy is a middle school teacher with a deep love for language and storytelling. By nature, she’s a lifelong reader, traveler, and observer of the small moments that make life feel rich. She studied Italian Literature and Language at Villanova University — a background that shows up in her deep affection for Italy, its culture, and the way stories live inside place.

On this journey, Christy brings the heart of her novel off the page and into the real world — sharing behind-the-scenes insights, favorite details, and the quiet magic of seeing a story come to life around you. Expect thoughtful conversations, laughter, and the kind of connection that happens when readers and writers meet somewhere beautiful.

Christy Schillig: author of wish you weren't here & lessons in falling

Submit Form

 I’d love to connect! Whether you need more details, want to chat through the itinerary, or are ready to start the process of reserving your spot, I’m here to help.  💬 Fill out the form below, and I’ll personally get back to you.

Thank you for getting in touch.
We will reply to you within 24 hours.

Interested...
but have questions?

accreditations: