WHO ARE WE?
An Australian-born global cultural heritage tourism professional & ancient history aficionado
and a native-born Ciociarian chef with a passion for sustainable futures.
Kelly & Paolo Picarazzi.
Our Journey.
We established the Antica Travel Co. cultural travel experiences brand in September 2022 as a natural and timely extension of our award-winning destination and cultural dining restaurant - Antica Australis, which first opened in an heritage 1927 haberdashery store in the historic village of Carcoar in regional NSW, Australia in March 2020.
Prior to the global pandemic and before opening Antica Australis, we had been hosting food and wine tours through Paolo’s home region of Ciociaria bi-annually as Silver Compass Tours. We rebranded in 2022 to be more aligned with the Antica concept of cultural dining / cultural travel experiences.
The original vision for Antica Australis was for the restaurant to serve as a platform for attracting like-minded, curious food and cultural explorers, who would then follow us to Ciociaria for an authentic and immersive culinary and cultural travel experience. As a unique way to ‘gather our tribe’.
In September 2024, we were able to commence making our vision a reality with the launch of our first reinvigorated and personally-hosted Antica Cultural Travel Experiences through Ciociaria and neighbouring Molise, as well as a series of gourmet cycling tours through Ciociaria in partnership with Bespoke Cycle Tours from Australia.
In March 2025, we relocated from Australia to Ciociaria in central Italy to truly live and breathe our Antica Travel Co. brand, continuing to deliver our Antica Cultural Travel Experiences and Gourmet Cycle Tours in Ciociaria while developing a series of new itineraries and co-creating incredible cultural experiences through Molise in central Italy and Istria in northern Croatia in partnership with our local friends in each of these very special history-packed & culture-packed regions.
Our focus has always been on providing truly unique ‘behind-the-scenes’ access and insight into remote and ‘undiscovered’ regions brimming with ancient history and vitality, and in supporting local artisans to continue their traditional practices into the future.
While we design and curate our itineraries ourselves from on-ground lived experience, we engage local guides in each respective region to collaborate in hosting our guests. Our local guides are experienced academics, archaeologists, artisanal producers, culinary creatives and art historians - and our very close personal friends.
Venture off the beaten path into the extraordinary with us.
Kelly & Paolo
Years of research & relevant experience.
We have spent over a decade researching in-depth into the ancient history of the Ciociaria and Molise regions, including seven years of on-ground exploration with the help of an individual team of local academics and archeologists. We have expanded that research recently into the Istria region of northern Croatia, to uncover forgotten Celtic tribe archeological sites that lay mostly forgotten.
Paolo is a Ciociarian native and is descended from the Ernici & Volscii tribes of the original Samnite civilisation of central Italy, and as such he is deeply connected to the land. As the culinary creative behind the revival of the ancient and traditional cuisine of Ciociaria through the Antica Australis cultural dining experiences, Paolo is a genuine and passionate food & local produce enthusiast.
He was awarded an AGFG Chef Hat for his artisanal craft at Antica Australis in 2021 and Antica Australis in Carcoar was awarded a Bronze in the 2022 NSW Tourism Awards in the ‘tourism restaurants’ category in recognition of our contribution to the local community and the economic revival of the historic village of Carcoar.
Australian-born Kelly has a background in global tourism and strategic communications, with a focus on sustainable and cultural heritage tourism.
She was noted as one of the top ‘100 Inspiring Women Travel Founders’ in the 2020 Travel Massive global list.
Passionate & visionary.
We re-design our on-ground itineraries bespoke for every single tour. No experience is ever the same. This is born from our passion and belief in the continual evolution of the regions we are visiting and to align with the personal adventures our curious & cultured travellers are seeking.