Italy

This tour will suit those who enjoy being surrounded by thousands of easily accessible alpine butterflies at a fabulous time of year, as the burgeoning vegetation in this glorious Italian and French alpine region reaches its midsummer climax.

A week of orchid hunting in Europe's finest natural rock garden, the world-famous Gargano Peninsula - our tour timed to coincide with the peak of the flowering season.

Off the southern end of Italy, Sicily offers an enticing and rewarding destination for the orchid-hunter, with a variety of habitats packed into a relatively compact area, and boasting a rich haul of species possible in the space of a week's stay in this culturally rich and delightful island.

The second-largest Mediterranean island after Sicily, owing to the plethora of habitats packed into its unspoilt, beautiful interior Sardinia has been metaphorically described as a micro-continent.

Abruzzo, situated in central Italy, is the Italian region with the highest percentage of protected areas, home to three National Parks and a plethora of designated areas.

In the north of Italy, beside the Swiss border, lies one of the most beautiful Alpine regions of Europe, home to a range of localised and rare montane butterflies. This extended, two-centre, 9 day holiday offers the opportunity to enjoy the butterflies of both the Italian and Swiss Alps

A chance to take the path less-trodden, to explore the spectacular but widely unknown southern Italian orchid-hunting regions of Basilicata, Campania and Puglia, home to an intoxicating array of orchids in great profusion, including many Italian endemics…