A’qto has long believed that travel can be a transformative experience; physically, mentally, and emotionally. Their intimate, fully hosted cycling tours have offered travellers the chance to embrace their inner athlete, exploring Italy’s stunning landscapes while immersing themselves in its rich culture, food, and traditions.
As the trend for athletic adventure travel continues to rise, A’qto is expanding its offerings to cater to a broader audience of active adventurers — not just dedicated recreational cyclists. Whether tackling the legendary climbs of the Dolomites or meandering through the vineyards of Tuscany, A’qto’s tours now provide the perfect balance of active exploration and cultural immersion, meeting the growing demand for diverse, meaningful travel experiences. We chat to Nancy about how her boutique cycling tour company came to life…
Tell us about A’qto.
A’qto is a boutique cycling tour company offering immersive experiences in Italy for cyclists and their non-riding partners. Our experiences combine cycling, hiking, cultural exploration and authentic Italian hospitality – bringing together the very diverse backgrounds, experiences and passions that my husband Damian and I share as founders and operators of the business. We personally design, curate and lead all of our tours, ensuring that our guests enjoy a very personalised and immersive experience of all that we love about Italy, and its distinctly different regions and sub-cultures.
What inspired you to start A’qto?
While the seed of our desire to live in Italy had been planted a few years earlier, the inspiration for our Italian cycling tours business came after Damian participated in an iconic cycling event in Tuscany in 2014, called L’Eroica. He and I both loved the whole experience as it’s a cycling event with a very special history and culture vibe that brings people together from all over the world and showcases the very best of what Tuscany offers. Damian wrote a blog about the experience and we had some customers ask us whether we would take tours – and we responded ‘yes’. The rest is history.
Tell us about your career and background.
My career has always been about people. From my very early career where I enjoyed roles in organisational development and change facilitation, I then ventured into a broad range of brand and marketing leadership roles across large global organisations and medium size businesses. Recognising my strengths in driving and leading businesses and teams, I then spent 15 years working alongside entrepreneurs and business founders helping shape the early years of a range of start-up businesses from a brand, marketing and client relationship perspective.
My husband, Damian and I set up our A’qto cycling tours business in 2015 and for a few years, I continued part-time brand and marketing consulting work as we scaled our own business. I enjoyed having a ‘portfolio’ career and the different types of work, networks and conversations that affords, before making A’qto my full-time venture.
How did you make the jump to running a business in Italy?
From a cycling and travel perspective, Italy is in the top 1 or 2 destinations in the world and so from a market opportunity and experience / tour development perspective, it’s a fantastic platform to work with. When you then combine that with my Italian background, Damian’s passion for all things Italian, and both of us enjoying a love for cycling, hiking, travel and adventure, it became a very easy decision for Damian and I to make the jump to running our business in Italy – feeling very natural to take the leap from where we had been.
Describe a typical work day for you.
I don’t really have a typical work day as every day is so different – from when we’re on tour to when we’re off tour, to when we’re in Italy vs in Australia, our work days vary.
However, to give you an example of a typical work day when we’re on tour – I wake up around 6am, do my morning yoga, catch up on emails and then join our group for breakfast at around 7.30/8.00am. After breakfast, the riders roll out for their day of riding and I accompany the non-riding partner group on their activity for the day, which could be a guided walking tour of an ancient town, a cooking class, a cheese making experience or a hike in the hills or mountains, to name a few of the activities. We then all arrive back to our accommodation by 3-4pm and have a couple of hours of free time before regrouping for our evening events, which could include a visit to roman baths, a wine tasting experience or an aperitivo in the piazza, followed by an amazing dinner. We aim to conclude our evenings by 9.30/10:00pm.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Start small and learn and adapt as you grow. While you need to be clear about your product, target market, financials, operations and a whole range of other elements that combine to form your business plan, do not aim for perfection or to have everything fully thought out on day one. It’s about taking action, responding to opportunities and continually evolving your offering and business to suit you, your team and clientele as you go.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced getting A’qto off the ground?
Scaling the business while balancing the various demands over the course of a year across Australia and Italy, and ensuring we have enough space and time for ourselves. As with any small business owner, having the right balance and focus of working in the business vs working on the business, and managing the balance across marketing/sales and client relations vs the tour operations, can be a challenge. It’s a continual balancing act of how to best manage our time, focus and investment into the business to keep innovating and driving sustainability, while also maintaining our passion and energy levels to continue doing what we love each day.
What’s next for you, and A’qto?
This year, we’re excited to be launching some new tour destinations and new tour formats that take us into adjacent adventure travel markets, alongside our classic cycling tours. These innovations are about keeping in line with the ‘active holiday trend’ that’s on the rise, with more travellers seeking out active holidays with cycling, hiking and walking at the forefront. It’s also about maintaining our focus on small group tour experiences.
Alongside the business, Damian is reigniting his love and work with photography and I’m starting to set my sights on a long-held vision of writing a book.
