Tanti auguri to us! Today, Ciao Andiamo celebrates 11 years 🧡
Eleven years – and more than 1,100 trips and counting – since we first began curating authentic Italian journeys for our guests.
While it has been an incredible ride, it goes without saying these last two years have brought their fair share of challenges. For far too long, we could not fully carry out our mission and welcome travelers to Italy, or say with any certainty what the upcoming weeks or months might bring. And, when we celebrated Ciao Andiamo’s milestone 10-year anniversary in March 2021, we did so faced with the reality that Italy’s borders were still closed to American leisure travelers.
What a difference a year makes. By May of 2021, we shared the exciting news we had been waiting for for so long – ITALY TRAVEL WAS BACK! And, in June, I made my first return trip to Italy since the start of the pandemic, to reunite (in person!) with my partners Max & Cristiana, and the rest of our Italian office. I can’t fully express the emotions I felt touching down once again on Italian soil, experiencing the splendor of Italy and the Italian way life that inspired the genesis of Ciao Andiamo so many years ago. And how sweet it was that, following my scouting trip, we enjoyed an abbreviated, but very full, season across the second half of 2021, as our world of Italy travel was reborn and almost fully back to normal.
Last month, for the first time since 2019, we brought both our New York & Italy teams together, for 10 days of scouting around Italy, from northern lakes and Piedmont vineyards to Ligurian coast and Tuscan countryside. We planned together for the year ahead – one that is shaping up to be the biggest ever in Ciao Andiamo’s history – and shared in the magic of reuniting after far too long physically apart. Italy travel is back, and we are as ready as ever to continue on our mission of helping guests experience the beauty of Italy through local eyes, and fall in love.
So, as we celebrate 11 years and the long-awaited return of Italy tourism, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to our travelers, collaborators, team, and supporters; it is because of you that all this has been and continues to be possible, and that our future, even in the wake of a global pandemic, looks so very bright.
Tanti auguri to Ciao Andiamo, and to you, our Ciao famiglia! Here’s to many more celebrations in the years ahead 🧡
Carissimi Saluti,
-Jon, Founder
