The Artisans of Travel: GO-ON-ITALY Is Changing—Here’s Why.
We’ve said goodbye to search engines: tailor-made tourism is a… Back to the Future.
Some decisions are made behind closed doors, and others are made by listening.
Ours falls into the second category.
After years as an incoming travel portal and a search engine for travel in Italy, GO-ON-ITALY is changing its format: starting today, our offerings will no longer consist of pre-planned trips. We ask that you tell us about the trip you’d like to take, so we can plan it together.
Our History
GO-ON-ITALY was born from a simple idea: to bring together the best of Italian tourism in one place. Tour operators and travel agencies uploaded their offerings to the portal and organized them by theme: food and wine, culture and art, nature, sports, family travel, religious tourism, and experiential tourism. Everything was available in eight languages, with profiles of regions and lesser-known destinations. It was a useful tool, and for many, it truly was. It allowed us to build what we’re most proud of today: a network of local partners who know their territory like the back of their hand.
The more our catalog grew, the more we realized there was a paradox. People who came to us weren’t looking for a package deal—they were looking for their own trip. And very often, that specific trip didn’t exist. Not because of a lack of options, but because no filter can know that you’re looking for a trip for a grandmother who doesn’t like stairs, that there will be a teenager passionate about volcanoes, or that your customers want to see Matera at dawn and not at noon.
A search engine answers the questions you ask it. But the most important questions are often the ones you don’t yet know to ask. The way people travel has changed, too: today, those who choose Italy are looking for the best experiences; they want a slower pace and less crowded places. Above all, they want the feeling that someone has thought specifically of them—and not just of the average traveler.
Travel Artisans
GO-ON-ITALY is becoming a service offering tailor-made travel experiences, designed on request. We will be travel artisans: A craftsman doesn’t sell what he already has in stock. He takes measurements, listens, designs, and builds.
Talking with you. Tell us what you have in mind , even just a vague idea, a time frame, a region, a feeling, or your clients’ aspirations. We ’ll listen to you and ask the right questions: who’s traveling, what excites them, what pace they want to set, and what they want to avoid. Then we’ll design a unique itinerary, drawing on the local partners we’ve selected over the years.
No catalogs to flip through and no cookie-cutter packages for everyone. Every trip begins with a conversation and will never be repeated for anyone else. Will we send you some travel ideas? Of course. But they’ll be unique itineraries—or useful as a starting point for your own plans.
What Doesn’t Change
Changing our approach doesn’t mean forgetting where we came from. What remains is our knowledge of the region, built up region by region; our passion for the lesser-known parts of Italy—the small towns, the back roads, and the restaurants you don’t stumble upon by chance; and our relationship with local partners, who continue to stand by our side.
It’s a slower, more demanding, and less “scalable” choice—as they say these days. But we’re convinced it’s the only way to bring Italy to life as it truly is: a country that can’t be reduced to a list of achievements.
