From Toorak to Tuscany: How Italy Touring Helps Australians Travel Italy Properly

Tucked into a shopfront at 6/145 Canterbury Road, Toorak, Italy Touring is not a generalist travel desk with Italy as one line on a brochure. It is a Melbourne-based specialist dedicated to one country: Italy. From first-time visitors who want Rome, Florence and Venice done well, to travellers returning for Puglia’s trulli towns, Sicily’s layered history or a quieter week on the Italian Lakes, the team’s brief is simple. Match the person to the right journey, not the other way around.

Founded in 2015 by directors Andrew and Angela Geils, the agency grew out of a family passion for Italy and a conviction that Australians deserved better than a one-size-fits-all European package. More than a decade on, six Italy specialists work from Toorak, drawing on 35-plus years of combined travel-industry experience and a network of trusted operators and local guides across the peninsula. The firm sits within the Inflight Travel group, is CATO accredited and ATAS accredited, and holds travel licence A10857.

That combination — local Melbourne advice plus deep Italian connections — is the point. You can walk into a Toorak office, talk through dates, pace and budget in person, and leave with a plan that already knows the difference between a rushed “greatest hits” coach tour and a small-group itinerary that still leaves room for a long lunch.

Italy specialists, not just tour sellers

Italy Touring’s own line is blunt: “Italy specialists. Not just tour providers.” In practice that means the catalogue is curated rather than exhaustive. The team does not try to sell every departure on the market. It hand-picks small-group tours, private journeys, walking and cycling holidays, food-and-wine itineraries, scenic rail trips and luxury escapes that they would recommend to their own family.

The distinction matters. Italy rewards travellers who choose a region and stay long enough to feel it. It punishes itineraries that try to see everything in ten days. The Toorak consultants start with questions most high-street agencies skip: Have you been before? Do you want cities or countryside? How much walking is comfortable? Is food the main event, or art, or the coast? Are you travelling as a couple, a family or a small group of friends?

From there they narrow the field. First-time visitors are often steered toward what the agency calls Tutta l’Italia — well-paced journeys through the great cities and iconic landscapes. Return travellers are pointed toward La Vera Italia: smaller places, slower days, regional food and the Italy that sits just off the postcard trail.

Tours on the ground are typically led by local Italian guides, not fly-in escorts. That is a deliberate choice. The history of a hill town, the reason a particular wine is poured at lunch, the shortcut that avoids a cruise-ship queue — those details come from people who live there.

What they actually book

The current collection runs to more than 100 dated tours for 2026 and 2027, plus private and tailor-made programmes built around a client’s own dates. Typical styles include:

Small-group tours — usually a modest guest count, four-star hotels, private vehicle or well-planned transfers, and a mix of guided visits and free time. Signature examples include Best of Puglia, Sicily Carousel, Italian Lakes Discovery, Amalfi Coast short breaks, and longer northern journeys such as In the Shadow of the Dolomites or Veneto: Venice, Vineyards & Villas.

Private and tailor-made travel — useful for couples, families or friends who want their own driver, their own pace, or a villa in Tuscany rather than a group hotel. A four-day Lake Como and Bernina Express private tour is typical of the shorter, high-comfort options.

Walking, cycling and food-and-wine holidays — Puglia walking routes through olive groves and white towns, coastal cycling in Cilento and Amalfi, garden tours, and itineraries built around regional cooking and cellar doors.

Classic city and coast combinations — Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Naples and Pompeii remain the backbone for first visits, arranged so the logistics do not swallow the holiday.

The agency can also book international flights, pre- and post-tour nights, and onward European travel, so the Italy piece sits inside a complete itinerary rather than as an orphan booking.

Prices vary widely by season, room type and style. Recent published starting points have ranged from a few thousand dollars for a short private lake itinerary to around $5,000–$11,000 per person twin share for longer small-group tours. A deposit of $750 per person per tour is typically required to secure a small-group place, with the balance due by the invoice date or no later than 60 days before departure from Australia. Exact terms are confirmed at booking.

North, centre, south and the islands

Italy is not one holiday. The Toorak team plans it as a set of regions that travel differently.

Northern Italy is lakes, mountains and efficient rail: Lake Como and Lake Garda, the Dolomites, Milan, Verona, Venice and the vineyard hills of Veneto and Piedmont. It suits travellers who want scenery and comfort without long, grinding transfers.

Central Italy is the Renaissance core — Florence, Siena, the Val d’Orcia, Umbria and Rome — plus the hill towns that make Tuscany more than a postcard of cypress trees. This is where first-timers usually begin, and where garden lovers and art travellers often return.

Southern Italy is where many of Italy Touring’s most distinctive programmes now sit. Puglia, with its whitewashed towns, trulli of Alberobello, olive country and Adriatic light, has become a house speciality. Campania covers Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Basilicata adds Matera. Calabria remains quieter and more local.

The islands — Sicily in particular — reward travellers who want Greek temples, Norman palaces, volcanic landscapes and a food culture that is its own country. Sardinia is offered for those who want a different island rhythm.

The agency’s advice, repeated across its regional guides, is consistent: do not try to cover the whole map. Choose one anchor region, add a second if time allows, and use day trips rather than changing hotels every night.

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The people behind the desk

Andrew Geils’ interest in Italy began some fifteen years ago on a family trip that took in Rome, Sicily, Bergamo, Florence and Venice. He has since returned repeatedly — Lake Garda and the lake districts, Tuscany and Umbria, Naples, the Dolomites, the Veneto, Basilicata and Puglia — both as a traveller and to meet suppliers on the ground.

Angela Geils, co-founding director, brings Italian heritage and a practical eye for how people actually like to travel. She has recently been back in Italy visiting familiar northern and southern favourites, scouting new areas and reviewing hotels.

Around them sit senior consultants Edwina Brierley, Sonia Mahony and Marisa Manes, and business development manager Diana Cregan. Edwina specialises in detailed, high-end itineraries. Sonia combines European travel experience with a strong client focus and also works on the agency’s marketing. Marisa’s Italian heritage feeds destination knowledge and meticulous planning. Diana concentrates on bespoke group travel and partnerships.

The shop is small by design. Clients deal with named consultants, not a call-centre queue. Enquiries can be made by phone on (03) 9824 0898, by email to andrew@italytouring.com.au, or in person at the Toorak office during weekday business hours.

Why a Toorak address still matters

Canterbury Road puts Italy Touring in easy reach of Toorak, Armadale, Malvern, South Yarra and the rest of Stonnington — useful for travellers who prefer to sit down with someone before they commit several thousand dollars and two weeks of annual leave. Being Australian-based also means the time zone, the consumer protections and the aftercare sit in Melbourne, not in an overseas call centre.

Accreditation is part of that local trust. CATO membership and ATAS accreditation are the industry markers that separate a proper travel business from an unregulated online reseller. Operating as Geils Pty Ltd (ABN 78 121 579 922) under licence A10857, and as part of the Inflight Travel group, gives clients a structured company behind the specialist brand.

For Stonnington residents the practical offer is straightforward. You can browse tours online at italytouring.com.au, then book a conversation with a specialist who already knows which 2026 and 2027 departures still have the room type you want, which operators run the better Puglia walking week, and whether shoulder season on the Amalfi Coast will suit your party better than high summer.

How a booking typically unfolds

The process the agency describes is deliberately unhurried.

1. Browse the collection by region, style or year, or ignore the catalogue and describe the trip you actually want.
2. Speak with a Toorak specialist about dates, pace, budget and previous travel.
3. Compare two or three genuine fits rather than twenty near-misses.
4. Confirm inclusions, hotels, single supplements and flight options.
5. Pay the deposit, receive the paperwork, and keep a named consultant through to departure and return.

That last point is easy to underestimate. Italy is straightforward when trains run and hotels honour the booking. It is less so when a ferry is cancelled, a museum strike lands on your only Rome day, or a travelling companion needs a quieter hotel. A Melbourne office that answers the phone is not a luxury in those moments. It is the product.

Who it is for

Italy Touring is a good match for Australian travellers who:

• want Italy specifically, not a multi-country European whirl
• prefer small groups or a private arrangement to a large coach
• value local guides and regional food as much as the headline monuments
• are happy to plan months ahead for 2026 and 2027 departures
• like the security of an accredited Australian agency with a real address

It is less of a fit for travellers who only want the cheapest seat on the largest coach, or who treat Italy as three nights between other countries. The agency’s catalogue and advice both assume that the destination is the point.

Visit, call or enquire

Italy Touring
Shop 6, 145 Canterbury Road
Toorak VIC 3142
Australia

Phone: (03) 9824 0898
Email: andrew@italytouring.com.au
Website: www.italytouring.com.au
Facebook: Italy Touring, Toorak VIC

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 5.30pm
Saturday and Sunday: closed

Directors: Andrew Geils — andrew@italytouring.com.au
Angela Geils — angela@italytouring.com.au

Company: Geils Pty Ltd
ABN: 78 121 579 922
Travel licence: A10857
Accreditations: ATAS accredited, CATO member
Group: Inflight Travel

If Italy has been sitting on the list for years — or if you have already done the classic cities and want the south, the lakes or a walking week that is not improvised from a guidebook — the useful next step is not another hour of late-night tabs. It is a conversation on Canterbury Road with people who have already done the sorting.