A good wine is liquid geography - a friend once told me - a place where man plant, and planet meet. It became my credo as a wine producer. In human nature the aim is to realize one's nature perfectly. As much is true for your wine, when you produce it. I produce wine and, in a rare symbiosis, wine produces me. I am seduced not by tradition but by stories of civilized disobedience to it. Stories which I now help other producers to write. These are stories about keeping the faith and knowing that sometimes the greatest risk, is not taking one. Coming to wisdom through failure. Good wine shapes solid rock, hills of vineyards, miles of road and, sometimes, a courageously simple philosophy: "Do as you are, become as you do!! With every pruning I am reborn to this strongly defined sense of purpose.

For more than 20 years, Carol has been working in the active tour industry. She started in the early '90s with a San Francisco based trekking company that ran mountaineering trips all over the world. An Italian-American with relatives in the Piemonte region of Italy, in 1993 she decided to shift her professional interests towards Italy and began designing and leading active tours exclusively in Italy. Thirty years later she continues to enjoy Italy - where she and her two boys, Mattia and Daniel now live. Carol has designed and led trips in: Tuscany (& Elba), Umbria, Le Marche, Lazio, Piemonte, Lombardia, the Dolomites, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia, Liguria, Sicily, Puglia, Corsica, and Sardegna. Carol currently manages the European Operations office for Whole Journeys. She also leads a few walking trips each year.