THE PHILOSOPHY

Your Custom Journey was born from a simple observation: most travelers experience Italy through the same lens, visiting the same places at the same times, often missing what makes the country genuinely compelling.

We work with Americans who've realized this—sometimes after a disappointing first trip, sometimes before they've even booked a flight. Based in Venice with reach across the country, we build itineraries around access and understanding rather than checklists. A private concert in a Venetian palazzo happens because we know the family who owns it. A truffle hunt with a Michelin-starred chef in Piedmont happens because that chef is someone we've worked with for years. After-hours at the Uffizi isn't about VIP treatment—it's about experiencing art without crowds, the way it was meant to be seen.

Our network includes boutique hotels, historical estates, artisans, chefs, and cultural figures who rarely work with tour operators. We've earned these relationships by bringing them travelers who genuinely care about what they do.

We think luxury means having enough time to actually experience something. Most people return from Italy exhausted. Our clients return changed.

FIRST-TIMERS AND REPEAT VISITORS

When someone contacts us about their first trip to Italy, there's usually a mix of excitement and anxiety. They want to see the Colosseum, the Duomo, Venice—the places they've been imagining for years. Our job isn't to talk them out of these experiences but to help them have better versions of them, and to show them things they hadn't known to look for. The neighborhood trattoria where Florentines actually eat. The Venice most tourists never see because they're queuing for the same three landmarks.

Returning visitors are different. They've already done Rome, Florence, Venice. They don't want the highlights again—they want to understand why Italians still argue about the proper way to make ribollita, or what it means to really know a place rather than just see it. These itineraries often skip tourist centers entirely. We're taking people to regions they can't pronounce yet, introducing them to winemakers and artists and artisans who represent what Italy actually is, not what the guidebooks say it should be.

The difference isn't in the budget—it's in the questions people are asking.

HOW WE WORK

Limited scale

We create about 80 itineraries a year. Not because we couldn't do more, but because we've learned what happens when you try to—quality suffers, relationships become transactional, and the work stops being personal. Fabio still personally manages every client. That matters more than it might sound like it does.

The Details no one sees

A few years ago, a wife contacted us about a 20th anniversary trip to Tuscany. Her husband was a serious cyclist—had been since he was young—and she wanted to arrange a ride through Val d'Orcia's white gravel roads. She mentioned, almost in passing, that he'd start to ride on a specific vintage Colnago bicycle, a model he still had back home.

Most operators would have arranged "a quality road bike" and called it done.

Fabio found that exact Colnago model. Took some calls. The husband saw it the morning of the ride and just stood there for a moment. The day that followed—the one they still talk about years later—happened because someone paid attention to a detail that didn't technically matter.

That's the kind of work we do. The kind no one sees until it changes everything.

Access Through Relationships

Our network isn't built on vendor contracts—it's built on years of working with people who care about their craft as much as we care about ours. The agriturismo that only takes referrals. The artisan who'll open her workshop for a private visit. The restaurant that's been booked for months but somehow finds a table. These things happen because of relationships, not transactions.

We don't advertise these connections. We use them for the right client.

THE TRAVEL DESIGNER FABIO FASONE

Fabio grew up in Venice, left for work abroad, and came back with a different perspective on what his country actually offers.

He spent years in an international tour operator focused on luxury itineraries where he learn how to work with clients whose requests range from straightforward to seemingly impossible. That experience taught him two things: how to anticipate what people need before they ask, and how to deliver it without making it feel like work.

At Your Custom Journey, he's the person American travelers talk to from the first conversation through the final day of their trip. Withe the support of his team he designs the itinerary, manages the bookings, coordinates with local guides and concierges across Italian cities, and handles the inevitable problems that come up when you're orchestrating something complex in a foreign country.

What makes him effective isn't just the logistics—it's that he genuinely cares about how people experience Italy. Not Italy as a backdrop for photos, but Italy as a place with actual depth and meaning. He treats every trip like he's showing his country to someone he wants to impress.

For travelers coming from the United States, Fabio serves as both designer and translator—not of language, but of culture. He understands what Americans expect from luxury travel, and he understands what Italy actually is. The space between those two things is where he works.

THE CONCIERGE

Every trip includes a dedicated concierge—a multilingual professional who travels with clients throughout their stay in Italy.

This isn't someone checking you into hotels. It's someone who knows which restaurant will stay open late if your train is delayed, who can get last-minute tickets to something that's technically sold out, who notices you're tired before you say anything and quietly adjusts the day's schedule.

Good concierge work is invisible. You don't notice it's happening until you realize nothing has gone wrong, even though statistically something should have.

While Fabio designs the journey, the concierge makes sure it actually unfolds the way it's supposed to. That combination—careful planning and responsive execution—is what allows people to stop thinking about logistics and start paying attention to where they are.

FAST FACTS

Founded: 2018

Headquarters: Venice, Italy

Service Area: Nationwide Italian coverage with physical presence in major cities

Annual Itineraries: ~80 (intentionally limited)

Average Journey Length: 10-14 days

Starting Investment: $500 per person, per day (accommodations, transfers, curated experiences)

Client Retention: 30% repeat travelers

Affiliations: USTOA, ETOA, ASTA

Certification: Great Place to Work Portal

Partnerships: Established relationships with Zicasso and KimKim

Service Model: Single point of contact (Fabio) + 24/7 concierge support

What's Included: Handpicked accommodations | Private transfers | Curated experiences | Expert local guides | 24/7 in-country support | Pre-departure consultation | Detailed itinerary planning

WHAT CLIENTS SAY

The pattern in reviews is consistent: people mention details they didn't expect us to remember, logistics they never had to think about, and experiences that felt discovered rather than arranged. A common phrase: "This wasn't just a trip to Italy. This was our Italy."

We're not trying to scale. We're trying to get it right, one trip at a time.

FOR JOURNALISTS

We work with travel writers who are interested in the parts of Italy that don't make it into most articles—the people, places, and perspectives that require actual time and local knowledge to access.

What we can offer:

• Direct access to our network of accommodations, artisans, guides, and cultural figures across Italy
• Context on emerging destinations and changing travel patterns
• Support for press trips, if the editorial approach aligns with how we think about travel
• Perspective on what's actually happening in Italian tourism versus what the headlines say

What we're looking for: Writers who care about accuracy and depth. If your work treats Italy as more than a backdrop—if you're trying to explain the place rather than just describe it—we should talk.

CONTACT

Carlo Carraro | Marketing Manager for Your Custom Journey

Press Inquiries: carlo.c@yourcustomjourney.com

Website: yourcustomjourney.com