We have been promoting Italy as a golf destination since 1984 and we have had our problems convincing foreign golfers to consider our country as a possible destination for their golf vacation.
Nowadays, things are different and Italy appears more and more frequently in the catalogues of the major golf operators of the world: we like to imagine that, if this is happening now, it is also because we believed in what we were selling then.
Thanks to this seniority, WE ARE PROUD TO BE THE #1 AMONG THE ITALIAN GOLF AGENCIES, also because we offer a service and an assistance that others do not.
WELCOME TO ITALY, LAND OF FOOD, WINE, ART, MOTORS, SOCCER AND … GOOD GOLF LIFE!
What has Golf to do with all that, then? Good question! Let’s find a pretext to join Golf and things that make Italy unique!
When we started selling Italy as a golf destination, we had to face the huge competition represented by the most well-known destinations such as the British Islands, Spain, Portugal. We were in a similar position of a boutique trying to compete with a supermarket! Boutique? We found the solution! We had to sell Italy as a boutique destination where clients can find some of the most refined articles in the market sold together in the same place.. And which better place than Italy for the fine things?
So we took a typical day of golf in Scotland and we did the opposite!
Wake-up in the morning at 7am, breakfast at 7:45am, drive to the course by 9am, tee-off at 9:30 am, enjoy a lunch or a beer with snacks at the 19th hole, by 3:30pm back to the hotel to refresh, at 4pm out in town to enjoy some visit or going out in excursion, at 8pm aperitif sit outside a bar in a square looking at the people passing by and enjoying the last hours of sunshine, at 8:45pm dinner in a restaurant, 11pm again in town for….
Doesn’t it sound more interesting than a day in Scotland? But, as we do not want to give the impression to diverte your attention from golf, let’s speak about the courses in Italy.
Golf in Italy is still considered a game for rich people but, even though it is not true because skiing is far much more expensive, the fact that there is no public course but only private clubs helps this belief to take root preventing people to approach golf as a new sport activity.
Said that, as a confirmation of what people think of exclusivity of golf, the highest number of courses is located in the North of Italy, considered the richest part of the country.
In fact, from Turin to Venice (via Lake Maggiore, Lake Como, Milan, Lake Garda, Verona) we count 170 courses!
The best areas where to play and where you can find enough courses to play a different one everyday are:
1. Piedmont
2. Lakes District, without doubt the best in Italy for number and quality of the courses, formed by
3. Veneto (where Venice is the regional capital)
4. Emilia Romagna
5. Tuscany
6. Umbria
7. Rome
8. Sardinia to be chosen for its being a seaside destination as there are now only 4 courses in the entire region;
9. Apulia (South), that is becoming more and more a golf destination, but damaged by not being very well served by the flights
10. and last, but not least, Sicily with other 5 new resorts for a total of 7 courses
Having such a concentration of golf courses in each area, driving times are short and the really good system of roads and motorways help the foreign visitor to visit the country easily, with little or no problem at this regard.
For what regards the tee-times, during the week-days it is an easy job because courses are never crowded, tee times are every 10 minutes. Other matter is to play during the week-ends.
In fact, being private clubs, on Saturdays, Sundays and any holidays that fall in the calendar, they organise local tournaments where the non-members are rarely admitted. This means that tee-times for the visitors are fixed in the afternoon after the tournament or in the morning teeing off at 10am from hole #10 and then in the afternoon, always after the tournament, to complete the other 9.