Where it all started
The trips I organize take place all year round, because Tuscany is beautiful and enchanting in every season, when you are guided from hamlet to hamlet, vineyard to vineyard, festival to festival, learning why white truffles don’t grow in July or why Tuscan olive oil is greener and spicier than the other Mediterranean olive oils.
It is a matter of pride for me to reveal and share my Tuscany, a renowned travel destination, and a world that is the cradle and home of my heart.
Siena & Terrarossa
I was born in Siena and raised on a farm just outside the city’s walls, on a very fertile hill by the rich red soil that gives the property its name: Terrarossa. If you are familiar with the color palette, you know that terra di Siena is a warm orange paint with a multitude of earthy shades—a mirror of my own vivid and very colorful life.
For almost 30 years I have been spending my time between the hectic exhilaration of New York City and a laid-back Italian dolce vita. Despite their many cultural differences, I never really felt a contrast between the two worlds—more a mutual attraction and curiosity.
It is the richness of my homeland’s soil that keeps nourishing my character, the sun of Italy that runs in my veins. Colors, fragrances, flavors of my country come with me wherever I go.
Contrary to the common belief that Italian families are large, mine is very small. As if to compensate for the lack of relatives, my home is always full of guests—friends who fly from all over the world to visit Tuscany or New York. As the head of my company, I create engaging, singular itineraries, and socio-cultural encounters for my visitors: windows into another world. I have done many varied things throughout my life: I graduated from law school, managed my family’s agriturismo; worked for three years at an Italian bank; owned and oversaw a store that sold beautiful, high-end ceramics, silvers, linen, and other objects crafted by skilled Tuscan artisans; and I decorated villas in the Chianti region.
Gemmarosa
In more recent years I have been focusing on what is not normally considered a profession and yet is the most challenging and rewarding task for a woman: raising a family and being a mother. No school or college prepares you for this adventure, but motherhood has always been a strong component of my DNA. When my daughter Gemmarosa was born, my life became an amazing journey along the winding roads of unconditional love, whose rewards are so gratifying that you don’t mind a few personal sacrifices.
When my husband John and I decided to send our daughter to school in New York, it was not easy for me to give up most of my Tuscan life, but I never felt that I was losing my roots. I always saw myself as a branch on a deeply rooted tree reaching out in different directions but firmly attached to its trunk. It is the richness of my homeland’s soil that keeps nourishing my character, the sun of Italy that runs in my veins, even in the depths of winter.
Colors, fragrances, flavors of my country come with me wherever I go.
Tuscany, my favorite place in the world…
Daniela’s Tuscany is not my new project; it is the natural evolution of my previous experiences. My daughter is now in college, and I am transforming my passion for Italy into a profession, helping people plan their next visit to Tuscany and designing a one-of-a-kind experience for them.
Each person, couple, family, or group has different requests and desires, and so it is my job to carefully select accommodations, activities, restaurants, classes, and all that is needed to create trips that meet their expectations.
Tuscany is my favorite place in the world, one to which I bring expertise, so I want my customers to experience it authentically, outside the usual tourist circuits. I want my clients to mix with locals, participate in their daily activities, discover the real art of cooking, visit artists and artisans in their studios, see how pottery is made, how glass is blown, silver chiseled, and fabrics are woven. I recommend, among other things, that visitors returning to Tuscany explore areas unknown even to some locals, places forgotten by modern maps but very much alive with local history and traditions. In the end, I want my clients to go back home feeling that they made new friends and that their travel was an enriching personal experience.