You Don’t Need the 'Authenticity Tour' to Find the Real Italy
Some things have been here for 2,000 years. The rest is marketing.
The BBC just published “An Insider’s Summer Guide to Italy”. A well-written, well-meaning guide (full of commercial tips) to help you avoid the usual heat, hassle, and hordes that descend on Italy every summer.
It suggests alternatives to the overcrowded icons – lesser-known towns, quiet festivals, forest paths instead of marble piazzas, tiny trattorias instead of TikTok-famous pizzerias. It’s all about that elusive word: authenticity.
And sure, it’s a nice idea.
But here’s our take – from people who live here, have left and returned, or chose to stay longer than a summer.
Some of the things worth seeing in Italy – the temples, the roads, the hills, the stones you walk on – have been here for two thousand years.
You won’t "discover" them. You’re not the first to be awed. And no matter how many hashtags you slap on the photo, you won’t be the last.
As for the so-called “hidden Italy”?
If a tour is trying to sell you something “no one else has seen”… trust us, someone else has. And they probably paid less.
Because what’s real here isn’t curated. It isn’t packaged. And it definitely isn’t something you can schedule between check-in and sunset Aperol.
The Italy we love – and try, in our own way, to protect and share – begins somewhere else entirely.
It starts when the itinerary ends.
When the GPS gives up.
When you pull over on a country road because there’s a sign for fresh pecorino and it turns out to be the best plate of your trip.
It starts in a village with one streetlight, one café, and someone who still remembers the story behind that crack in the bell tower.
You want the real Italy?
Try getting lost.
Not metaphorically. Actually lost.
Lose signal. Lose the plan.
Wander until you don’t know exactly where you are – but you feel oddly at home.
The best journeys here don’t come with narration. They come with moments.
A slice of crostata offered by a stranger.
A hilltop that looks like it’s always been waiting for you.
A room you didn’t expect to stay in.
A dinner you didn’t mean to have.
We’re not against guides. Or tours. Or curated lists. Sometimes they help.
But the most “authentic” Italy is the one you don’t try so hard to find.
It’s the one that finds you, when you’ve stopped trying.
So by all means, read the BBC’s guide. It's a good one.
Then toss the checklist, turn down a small road, and let the unexpected happen.
Because that's where the real stories begin.
And those can't be booked in advance.