A YouTube vlog by Kara and Nate Buchanan (uploaded Aug 10, 2018) describing their month-long (four-week) Vespa tour series in rural Italy. They explain how the tours started, how they planned and ran four consecutive week-long trips in July (first group arriving July 1), activities and daily routine ( Vespa lessons, countryside rides, medieval hill towns, wine and food experiences, cooking lessons, beach day, cheese/winery visits, free day, final farm pizza party and karaoke), and reflect on the rewards and exhaustion of hosting 45 participants. The video thanks local partners and notes plans to likely run future tours (probably not Vespa-based).
Questions this video answers
Four weeks (four consecutive week-long trips).
Sold out in 45 minutes.
45 people.
Five participants.
July 1 (first group arrival).
Chapters
It has been an entire month since we've uploaded a vlog, and we are really sorry.
For the last month, we have been in our favorite part of Italy hosting 4, 4 weeks of Vespa tours. Before this all got started, we thought we were still going to be able to post two or three videos a week, and the channel would kind of keep moving along like it always does. Little did we know how much energy running a Vespa tour would require. We had no clue that we wouldn't be able to update you for a month, or we totally would have shot a video before this whole thing began.
Since it's been an entire month, we felt like we needed to fill you in on everything that we've been doing instead of just posting the next vlog like nothing happened.
So.
So in this video, we're going to tell you everything that we did in the tour. But first we need to back way up and explain how this Vesperteur even came to be.
How are you, man? It's so good to see you. How you guys doing?
A year ago, exactly, Bob and Gina invited us to their farm here in Italy. We agreed to come for about five days, and that turned into three weeks because we completely fell in love with this part of the world. But the people, the food, the beauty. And we'd always talked about doing some kind of group tour, but it had never felt right until we came here.
When we talked about hosting a tour, we had always talked about the fact that we wanted it to be something that you couldn't do on your own. And this area of Italy that we're in now is very rural, and you really have to have connections to have the true experience. Kind of like we do with our friends Bob and Gina. When we came here, they let us use their Vespa. Driving around the countryside, they took us to all of their favorite restaurants, and they just gave us this, like, drink, true local experience. And basically what the tour was was us wanting to share that experience with other people.
Shortly after we left here the first time last July, we could not stop thinking about planning a Vespa tour in this part of the world. So we called Bob and Gina and we asked them if they would be willing to help us plan a Vespa tour.
The next step was seeing if anybody was actually crazy enough to come on a tour that two people who had never planned a tour together put together. So I sent out an email to our email list asking if anybody would be interested in coming, and the response was overwhelming. So much so that we Sold out. Our first tour in 45 minutes. Keep in mind, at this point, it was all just an idea.
So, of course, the next logical thing to do is open up three more trips for people to come.
So by the end of it, we had sold four weeks of Vespa tours with just this very rough idea of bringing people to Italy, putting them in a villa, and. And having them go around on Vespas with us as the tour guides.
So the next step was to come back to Italy and plan out this Vespa tour that everybody had signed up for. It consisted of a lot of research, trying all the local wines, trying all of the local foods, driving on all the beautiful roads.
It was very rough work. So flash forward to July 1st. The first group of crazy people was about to arrive here in Italy.
We're actually here. This villa is ours. She got to get all of the stuff out of the cars.
The scooters are here. It's all happening.
Yay.
I cannot believe this moment is finally here. Nate and Bob and Gina just left to go pick up our first guest room vestment tour. It's happening. I can't believe it. Here's Arilla. She's a beaut. I just can't wait to meet everyone. I'm so curious who these people are who signed up for this trip that wasn't even planned yet. Group number one, your troopers. It's gonna be awesome. We have some local porchetta sandwiches, welcome drinks, snacks, and my favorite, cold scented towels. They're actually still kind of frozen. That is pretty much the only vlogging that we did the whole trip. We had no idea how much time and energy it would take to host a Vespa tour. And we could have vlogged, but we felt like since people came all the way to Italy, we needed to make sure they had all of our energy so they could have the best time possible.
So we want to give you a taste of what the tour was like. And since we don't have any footage of our own, the three of the people who came on this tour have been nice enough to let us borrow the footage. So thank you, Jerome, Dylan, and Trevor, for letting us borrow your footage. So on the first day after everybody arrived to the villa, I spent the rest of the day teaching people how to drive Vespas. Nate's teaching us to turn it on. Turn the key to the right, then you do the walk and the circle test.
It turns out only five of the 45 people who signed up for the tour had driven a two wheeled motorized vehicle. So this whole teaching process was a little more interesting than I anticipated. It'd be.
A little scary. However, by the end of every week, everybody had this new skill and could go out on their own. So that was really cool to see.
On the first day, the majority of the people were just like hanging on to their handlebars for dear life. And then by the end, everybody was just loving cruising through the countryside. So after a couple practice rides to get everybody comfortable for the rest of the week, we returned back to the villa for a delicious din cooked by our friends and excellent chefs, Stefano and Pietro.
This is Pietro.
Hello.
He's our local pro. And Stefano.
Hello, Stefano.
Their cooking is during tonight and Thursday.
Wow.
And they cook together every Sunday.
Aww.
You know they're cooking for us this month.
Yeah.
Y' all want to Campari?
Yes, always.
It's a bubbly wine, but it didn't happen in the bottle, so.
Yes. So it's olives stuffed with three or four different kinds of meat. Something like that. Three or four different kinds of meat. So they stuff the olives and then they fry all of them together. So even if you don't like olives.
Like olives the best. We started the first night off strong with delicious carbonara with tiramisu, and of course, paired with some local wines from the co op.
Day two was all about riding Vespas through the countryside and exploring the medieval hill towns that make this region of Italy so beautiful.
The best part about this day to me is driving through all of the endless sunflower fields. It felt like a dream.
Making quite the scene at the gas station.
We rewarded ourselves after a long morning drive with some pre lunch gelato followed by lunch at our favorite restaurant in Ripa, Transone. The snail.
Oh, yeah. Oh, give me that. Formaggio. Oh, yeah.
Next we walked off all of our pizza, walking around the beautiful town of Ripa Transone.
That was less than a minute, so it'll go on Instagram.
Then we went back to the villa and started our daily ritual of laying by the pool until dinner time.
That evening was one of my favorite nights of the entire tour. One of our good friends and expert gnocchi makers, Michele, came over and taught everyone how to make delicious gnocchi from scratch.
It's a lot of action going on on tango.
Okay. Make sure if it's sticky.
I'm just stirring.
I bought this fast pumpkin bar which I had in the store, so it might be a great idea, but it's not exactly practical.
Oh, no, Whatever. You can get off is good. Does that include a finger? No.
That is crazy.
Day three was a beach day, so we drove down to our favorite spot on the beach and then went to lunch at this little hole in the wall restaurant where they serve the best fried calamari in the world. One general rule that loads of foreigners like do but in Italy is basically illegal. Never put parmesan on.
That's unforgivable. No, I don't remember not to.
We're doing a vlog takeover right now. Trip one the best at forever. How was the calamari?
Oh, it was delicious.
It was so good. Oh, my God. So what was your favorite thing here?
That evening? We had dinner in the most picturesque location that you've ever seen. It was this beautiful restaurant where the tables spilled out into the square of this medieval town. It really looked like something out of a movie set.
And of course, There were like 18 courses. So we were there until 12:30 at night.
When we were planning this trip, our local friend who was helping us asked what time we wanted to bus to pick us up from dinner. I said, Ah, maybe 10 o'. Clock. And he was like, no way. 12 or 1. I didn't think it was possible to eat dinner that long, but apparently it is here in Italy. On day four, we drove into the mountains to a family cheese farm where we got to meet the cows and taste the locals.
It's very.
After that, we drove into one of the biggest towns in the region. It is so beautiful. So we just walked the cobblestone streets, visited some churches, and took so many pictures in the square.
And of course, we stuffed ourselves with more pasta.
After that, we got back on the scooters and just tried not to fall into a food coma on our way back to the villa.
This was our longest day of driving, so we had two hours back to the villa, where that night we had a beautiful dinner of a caprese salad made with the fresh mozzarella that we had seen created right in front of our eyes at the cheese farm. On day five, we drove to the beautiful town of Ofida, where we tasted wine from one of the largest wine producers in the region.
Each wine was paired with a d.
Different lunch course, and it was all delish. Obviously, Okida is also known for this dying art of a traditional lace making. So after lunch, we walked around and saw the cute little ladies moving lace in the streets.
That afternoon, we headed back to the villa early to continue our tradition of hanging out by the pool until dinner time.
Oh, stoked. Like, no.
Jason, go.
Nothing to it.
Oh, they're back.
Look at those muscles popping out.
I'm going like 80% effort.
Dinner that evening was a fantastic seafood pasta, once again made by our friends Stefano and Pietro.
If you haven't figured it out by now, the tour pretty much revolved around wine, delicious food, Vespas, medieval hill towns, and gelato.
On day six, we did something a little bit different. We made the last full day of the tour of Free Day. We really encourage everybody to go out on their own on the Vespas and spread their wings and have their own adventures.
We've been on a lot of tours in the past, and one of the biggest things that we feel like is missing is a sense of self discovery. So normally when you go on a tour, you're just following the tour guide and you're not actually discovering anything for yourself. And we feel like this is a really important part of travel. So now that everybody was comfortable on their Vespas, we encouraged them to go out, get lost, and have an adventure. So some people went down to the beach, other people went to a local market, and other people just went in search of delicious gelato in the different hill towns.
Friday night was super bittersweet because it was my favorite night of the whole tour, but it was also our last night altogether. So we started by meeting back up at the most picturesque tasting room in all of Lamarque before heading over to Bob and James farm.
You're nailing it, Sarah. You're nailing it. How's my abs?
Your abs? Really good.
Bob had spent the entire day making pizza dough from scratch so everybody could make their own pizza and then cook it in the wood burning oven. It was pretty much the fanciest pizza party that you've ever been to.
Welcome.
Told you. I didn't say anything.
Happy birthday, Lisa. When the sun is setting over all of the vineyards in the valley, it is so beautiful. They had music playing, everybody was drinking wine. We were having a photo shoot. It was just so much fun.
On the other side. Are they all.
This is insane.
Here goes the sunset.
Last day of the tour. You can do it by hand, like the Italians. I don't know how to do that. That's how Enza does it.
You can put it down on the bottom and you can kind of like shake it off or you can do the pull the tablecloth out from underneath all the glasses strategies. So I like the shake.
It's that quick.
Wow.
Wow.
Who would like a piece of pizza? Me.
Oh, my gosh.
Mozzarella tomatoes out of the Garden. I went and picked some fresh rosemary out of the garden.
You look like you've worked at a pizza place before. I did, actually. Really? Did you really? Yeah. And I'm gonna tell you that pizza rolling is not easy. I'm going for all of it. All of it. Fair. No pizza party. Wow. Oh, look at that. That's so good.
The grand finale of the trip was getting everyone to sing karaoke. So at the very beginning of the week, we told everybody, on Friday night, we're singing karaoke. At least half the people said there was no way we were getting a microphone in their hand. But I'm happy to say that we had a 100% success rate. Everybody that came on the tour ended up singing. It wasn't good, but it was a lot of fun.
It was great.
Starring Natan Bouquet.
Should it be a pop star or stick with his traveling?
Whoa. How did you get to meet Mil? I think so too. Like on Jesus wine 17.
We can be around the bushes we can be in the pew de barn we can.
Live in the parking lot but either way there's gonna be a heartache tonight A heartache tonight.
And I'll hang.
But losing everything it's like the sun going down on me.
Day 7 was always super sad. We would take everybody back to the train or the bus station. We get the villa ready for the next week, sleep for as many hours as possible, and then do it all again three more weeks in a row.
So that was pretty much our routine for the entire month of July. We were going non stop from 8am to midnight almost every single day. It was an intense month, and by the end, we were both completely exhausted. So much so that Garrett slept till 1.30pm the day after the tour ended.
I woke up and seriously thought Nate had changed all of our clocks. I didn't wake up once. We had no idea how tiring hosting a month of tours would be, but it was so rewarding in so many ways that we didn't even expect. We knew that we would get to meet a lot of cool people from around the country, but we had no idea the relationships that we would build with them, because we really went through a lot together, especially learning how to drive the Vespas and spending every second of every day together. But another thing we didn't expect was how cool it would be to watch other people become friends with each other even after they left Italy. So that was really cool to see.
This has just been so different from what we spent the last two years doing. Normally, we're sharing our passion for travel with thousands of people online, but there's only so much of a relationship that you can create on the computer. So it was so much fun to be able to share our passion and person and be able to create relationships that truly go both ways. I really feel like we left this tour with tons of new friends that we'll keep in touch with for a long time. So a huge thank you to everybody who was crazy enough to sign up for this tour before we had any idea what we were doing.
Another part of the tour that was just so rewarding was seeing all of the local people who were part of our tour come together and just be so passionate and proud to show off their home to us and our groups. They totally embraced us even though we couldn't speak Italian to majority of them. They just made this trip so much better than we ever could have imagined. So I feel like we need to do a public thank you to all of the people who made our Vespertura dreams come true. Like Bob and Gina. We could not have done it without you. Pietro. Monica. Stefano.
Enzo.
Michele.
So at this point, some of you are probably wondering if we're ever gonna do a tour like this again.
And the answer is probably.
Yes. Oh.
But no.
So yes, we will probably do another tour. No, it probably will not include Vespas.
There will never be another Vespa tour like this one.
I felt like I was way too responsible for people's lives this past month as people were learning to drive Vespas down the curvy roads with the crazy Italian drivers coming around the curves way too fast. I count ourselves lucky.
Just one trip to the er.
So we don't know what the next tour is going to be, but if you want to be the first to get all the information about it, we'll leave a link in the description below where you can sign up to be on the VIP list. You. You just get the emails first. This one turned out pretty good, so sign up if you're you don't.
I had fun. I think other people have fun. Once again, we are super sorry for leaving you hanging for a whole month. We promise we'll never do that again without updating you first, but hopefully now you have a better understanding of why we haven't uploaded anything.
So after today, our video schedule is gonna go back to posting every other day, or at least trying to. But we are pretty far behind. We still need to share with you our travels through Egypt and Turkey and Sweden. So the next video that you see here on the channel will be our travels through Egypt.
Feels good to be back. See you soon.
Strict man as they call his Bob.
It seems like a much better idea when they were on the Internet. This is the real hero.
I did it.
Cool. I don't know if it's quite tight enough.
I think it is.
Is this a picture or video? This is a video. We could do a picture though. Okay.
Proof that we are in the middle of the Italian countryside. We found a very scary friend in one of the bedrooms of the villa. It was a scorpion.
You should put it back for trip two.
I'm glad you found it.
There he goes.
Where?
There he is. He's mad. You need to get rid of before he gets rid of you. Yeah.
Oh my gosh. He's uncurling his tail.
Oh, he's ready.
What do we do?
Life behind the like the gram. Behind the scenes. Behind the scenes. Buttercup.
Oh, yeah. Say hey guys. You guys are in 4k right now.
I can't see if anything's in focus. I don't think it is.
No.
West Philadelphia born and raised on the playground was where I spent most of my days chilling out Maxim, relaxing, all cool and all shooting some B ball outside of the school. Somebody's going to hurt someone.
Before the night is through.
Not here though.
Should have learned to rope and ride.
Like when the heart of gold.
You're never hearing a flare.
I got friends in lonely places.
I got to take the moment. You won't and you better let it go.
Rocky Top down in the Tennessee hills Ain't no smelly smoke on Rocky Top Ain't no telephone bills Once I wet a girl on Rocky Top Had Harry had her half cat why doesn't mean my sweet ass soda pop. I still dream about that.
