Antica Experience Update
Our new life in Ciociaria in the wild heart of Italy - focusing on our cultural travel experiences. Come & find us!
We arrived in Ciociaria in central Italy this March, after presenting our Antica Australis cultural dining concept at the RAKART festival in the United Arab Emirates throughout February.
Paolo was recognised as ‘setting a new culinary benchmark for the UAE’ (The National) with his unique blend of ancient Ciociarian cuisine and cooking techniques with Emirati flavours and surprise Australian twists. You can read the article here.
Was it a bit daft for Kelly to be working a festival for four weeks so soon after radiation treatment? Yes. But we did it and it was worth it for the heartfelt embrace of our UAE guests.
And now we are incredibly lucky to be calling the beautiful Valle di Comino (Comino Valley) of Ciociaria in central Italy our new home.
“We love that you create multi-sensory experiences which will last as a memory. It’s quite an art to create this feeling.” RAKART guest 2025
A new beginning in the wild heart of Italy.
Since landing in Ciociaria in March, we have managed to find and move into an apartment for the next 12 months and Kelly has successfully registered for Italian residency [we needed a home address to achieve this, so sorry we’ve been quiet on communications but we had to focus!]
After a few weeks of festival recovery up in the glorious Apennine mountains in one of our favourite hilltop villages, Picinisco, we came down into the Comino Valley and are now living in the lakeside and extremely scenic village of Posta Fibreno.
We are living in an ancient quarter [or district] of the village called a ‘contrada’. It’s a collection of three or four 300-400 year old stone houses, which would have been filled with at least ten families back in the day. There’s just us and two other couples now!
Our favourite bit? To get to the main village by the lake we need to walk through a forest along a river…there’s even an espresso bar at the end of the 15 minute walk…
HEAVEN
ANTICA CULTURAL TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
The first thing we did on arrival in Ciociaria was catch up with all of our Ciociarian friends - we have spent the last twelve years exploring and researching Ciociaria and in that time we have met some incredible local culinary creatives, organic producers & vignerons, archeologists, academics and local artisans that have become our great friends. This wasn’t like moving to a foreign country at all, it was like returning home.
This year we will be hosting three of our personally curated and hosted 8-day Ciociaria Cultural Travel Experiences in May & September - as well as a dedicated gourmet cycling tour in partnership with Bespoke Cycle Tours in September where we have designed the food, wine and cultural experiences for the itinerary.
Our first own small tour group arrives in just under a week’s time - everyone here in Ciociaria is very excited to welcome our Australians to the region!
We are fully booked for our Ciociaria cultural travel experiences this year, but there are still some places available for next year 10-17 May 2026 and 20-27 September 2026.
We are also taking enquiries for 2027.
» Follow our Antica Travel Journal on Substack for our next updates.
“Kelly & Paolo are the proud founders of a unique cultural dining experience…they go against the mainstream and popular restaurants, seeking out abandoned and hidden places to bring them back to life with their pop-up restaurants. They don’t impose. Instead, they honour and elevate the spaces they choose.” @cheschifodubai
ANTICA AUSTRALIS | CIOCIARIA
We can’t keep Paolo out of the kitchen. Especially surrounded by the next level Ciociarian produce of the Valle di Comino - this is where all the region’s top cheesemakers and producers are. It’s also a truffle region. It has several rare and indigenous wine varietals, with many of the region’s vignerons choosing to be organic & biodynamic over DOP registration.
Kelly currently has the only spare seat at Paolo’s two-person restaurant, but we are making plans to collaborate with a local team for the first Antica Australis cultural dining experience in Ciociaria soon.
Keep watching on Facebook & Instagram for more details.
Paolo & Kelly x
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