Antica Experience Company

30/08/2026

After a two year hiatus in Italy, we are going back to where the Antica Australis dream started:

>> Cargo Road Wines, Orange NSW

27/07/2026

Antica Australis returns.

REUNION
Cargo Road Wines


The Orange Region

28/06/2026

21/06/2026

It’s a return to Australia for Kelly, soaking up countryside winter vibes while Paolo contends with a stifling hot Italian summer 😅

It’s red wine by crackling fires for me 🍷🔥 as I’m still dealing with radiation treatment fallout. 18 months post treatment AND this better be the last of it!!!

Grateful to have the ability to get the help I need surrounded by amazing friends & family - and to be able to converse in English 😆

After 1.5 years I am now teetering on the edge of being fluent in proper Italian and I’ve soaked up a lot of Ciociarian dialect, but OMG it’s a relief to be able to communicate in my Australian personality [no holds barred] and in Australian dialect [lots of swearing].

Paolo will return to in October. In time for the Orange Wine Festival. Watch this space 👀

12/06/2026

One of the finest things about living in central Italy - developing a copper collection for our kitchen.

We source direct from a local coppersmith based in the ancient hilltop town of Agnone, in the most remote & wildly beautiful region of Molise. Just over the other side of the Apennine mountains from Ciociaria.

The coppersmiths of Agnone have been famed throughout the Italian peninsula since the Bronze Age, and the sound of Agnone for centuries was the ringing over cobblestones & ancient stone walls of artisans beating copper into form.

30/05/2026

Agnone in Molise, it’s quite a special place. We include a day trip to Molise in our Wild Heart of Italy cultural travel experiences every May & September.

11/05/2026

03/05/2026

For the next two weeks we are OOO and on the roads of glorious Ciociaria & Molise in the wild heart of Italy ♥️ follow us over at to share the discoveries and adventures of our curious & cultured explorers from Australia 💫

30/04/2026

Our May micro* tour groups will both be based in the magnificent Valle Di Comino [Comino Valley] of Paolo’s home region of Ciociaria.

Home to many of the region’s artisanal producers, shepherds, cheesemakers and traditional artisans as well as many culinary creatives, academics & archeologists.

We take our guests for an archeological walk through the forest on the hill of Santo Stefano in their home village for the week of Atina.

This was the site of the original medieval era village of Atina before an earthquake encouraged everyone to relocate to the town’s current site beneath the hill.

Santo Stefano was also a settlement site of the Volscii tribe of Italic people in the Bronze Age, who were settled in the mountaintops of the Valle di Comino.

Together with tribes from neighboring Molise they were all part of the splendour of the Sanniti civilisation of the Bronze Age. Defeated by the ancient Romans circa 300 BC, the Sanniti spirit still very much lives on…♥️
Cultural Travel Experiences:


* we have made the conscious decision to host micro groups of maximum 8 guests for all of our Wild Heart of Italy cultural travel experiences from this point forwards - small is beautiful.