Friends, the Cultural Debris Excursions have been going strong and we are in our third year now. Alan Cornett and I are back and offering a new and even more exciting itinerary for October 2024. This is a small group (6 guests plus the two hosts), highly curated excursion will explore the cultural debris of Genoa Oct 5th-12th and Bologna Oct 12th-19th. If you’ve always wanted to visit these jewels but do not wish to be overwhelmed in a large group of people getting on and off busses every day and eating in tourist restaurants made to handle groups of 50, then this is the dream trip for you.

Alan and I take genuine care to make this the trip of a lifetime and our returning guests attest to that. Cocktails under renaissance frescoes before exquisite multi course dinners and the best dinner conversation you can imagine in which we discuss the hidden nuggets we discovered that day is what you will get on this Excursion.

We will stay in very tastefully appointed rooms in Renaissance era palazzos which have been converted to wonderful B&Bs by our friends Elena and Fanny in Genoa, who will be creating beautiful and tasty breakfasts each day for our group. In Bologna we will stay in a hotel attached to Bologna’s Institute for the Blind in the old city center steps from the main Piazzas, museums and churches.

Each day will be carefully curated to take in some specific aspect of culture. Bologna we will visit the city’s museum, the Basilicas of the city, to include St Dominic’s tomb on which is an angel carved by a 19 year old Michaelangelo, walk the longest covered portico in the world, and take a trip to Modena to see its center as well as taste Balsamic reductions at a shop in town.

In Genoa we will explore the walls of the Genovese Republic on the mountains above the city, the multitude of breathtaking churches in the old city center, to the 11th Century Abbey of San Fruttuoso in a blue water cove available only by water taxi or moderate hike, to small museums with rich collections of art, to the seaside village of Noli up the coast from Genoa.

Each evening the group will dine together at restaurants that are truly local and truly worth remembering. No tourist traps. The best steak you’ve ever eaten in Tuscany. Fresh foccacia, fresh pesto that Genoa is famous for, and farinata which you can travel throughout Italy a dozen times and not taste outside Genoa. And seafood lovers will find delicious dinners of fish fresh from that day’s market.

All-inclusive price of $4000 per person per week covers breakfast and dinner each day, cocktails in the B&B before dinner, wine each evening with dinner, all tour tickets and train fares to any local destinations,. Guests will have one free day to explore on their own. Airfare is up to the guests which allows you to fly from any gateway and choose their own class of service as well as any additional days of your choosing on either end if so desired.

Please contact me at tom.ruby@bgcts.com or Alan Cornett at culturaldebrispodcast@gmail.com for more information or to book your spot.

Friends, Alan Cornett, host of the Cultural Debris Podcast is joining me to host a Cultural Debris Excursion to Genoa in Autumn 2022. This is a small group (6 guests plus the two hosts), highly curated  excursion that will explore the cultural debris of Genoa, Italy. This is a nearly completely missed jewel of Italy and of Mediterranean culture.

We will stay in very tastefully appointed rooms in Renaissance era palazzos which have been converted to wonderful B&Bs by our friends Elena and Fanny, who will be creating beautiful and tasty breakfasts each day for our group.

Each day will be carefully curated to take in some specific aspect of culture, from the walls of the Genovese Republic on the mountains above the city, to the multitude of breathtaking churches in the old city center, to the 11th Century Abbey of San Fruttuoso in a blue water cove available only by water taxi or moderate hike, to small museums with rich collections of art, to the Mediterranean Maritime Museum.

Each evening the group will dine together at one of Genoa’s local restaurants that are truly local. No tourist traps. Fresh foccacia, fresh pesto that Genoa is famous for, and farinata which you can travel throughout Italy a dozen times and not taste outside Genoa. And seafood lovers will find delicious dinners of fish fresh from that day’s market.

We are taking this small group from Oct 22nd-29th. We are considering adding a second group the following week as we are receiving a lot of interest.

Price includes breakfast and dinner each day, wine each evening with dinner, all tour tickets and train fares to any local destinations,. Guests will have one free day to explore on their own. Airfare is up to the guests which allows guests to fly from any gateway and choose their own class of service.

Please contact me at tom.ruby@bgcts.com or Alan Cornett at culturaldebrispodcast@gmail.com for more information or to book your spot.

Cultural Debris Excursions are headed to Bavaira the first two weeks in July!

Alan Cornett and I are building on the success of our Genoa Excursion from October 2022 and leading intimate small group trips to Salzburg, Austria and Oberammergau, Germany the first and second weeks of July 2023. Each week is limited to six guests.

Salzburg, the ancient city on the Salzach River with the castle of the Prince Archbishop on the hilltop in the middle of the city, Mozart’s Birthplace and setting for the Sound of Music is dead center in the Cultural Debris wheelhouse. It is a place filled with culture, visited by those who know where to find the best hidden gems, but mainly overlooked by the masses of foreign tourists.

We will be staying in the center of town in a Seminary guesthouse within walking distance of all the important sights. We will spend a day walking the city and exploring the castle. We will take the Sound of Music tour, visiting the filming locations and seeing the gazebo. We will go to the underground salt mine in Berchtesgaden from which the city takes it name and we will visit the prettiest alpine village in Austria when we go to Hallstadt. Each day will start with a delicious breakfast together and each day will conclude with cocktails and a dinner together at a wonderful restaurant with long discussions on the days topic and reading.

The week on Oberammergau will be based out of the truly delightful and intimate Gastehaus owned and operated by Tom’s friends whose family is a centuries old anchor of the village. We will walk the town and visit the woodcarver shops. We will visit the Neuschwanstein Castle which is Disney’s model for their own centerpiece. We will take the gondola to the top of the mountain above the village and those wishing to can hike to the top of the mountain opposite another day. We will learn about the Passion Play and how the village put it on over 500 years ago and why it continues to do so for international crowds ever decade since.

You are welcome to select either week or both! As we mentioned, each week is limited to six guests to keep it intimate and easy to manage around a dinner table. Please contact me at tom.ruby@bgcts.com or culturaldebrispodcast@gmail.com for details and to reserve your spot. Visit @culturaldebris on Twitter as well as @alancornett and @bgcts to see more about these Cultural Debris Excursions.

The Leadership Experience is a seminar, either overseas or domestic, for small groups of leaders focusing on critical thinking and leadership. The small groups will see different cultures and operating environments and will apply their observations to their own organizations and challenges. The Leadership Experience is an interactive seminar facilitated by Tom Ruby. Ideal size is 4 leader participants, however, as few as 2 and as many as 8 participants can make for a very rewarding seminar.

The seminar participants choose ahead of time one of several locations and itineraries. Normally, the itinerary will be about one week including travel. Some itineraries are shorter and others can be longer. Leadership Experience participants will engage in a syllabus facilitated by Tom to encourage discovery, discussion and application of lessons to their own individual situations. By walking through foreign cities and towns, participants will take the time to see the things – customs, building styles, food, work cultures – that they might otherwise miss if they weren’t deliberately taking the time to reflect. Participants will discuss with each other their observations while walking and over shared meals every day. By the end of the seminar, the discussion will naturally get to the deep levels of application to their own operational situations.

In front of Hamburg Mayor Statue

Leadership discussion in Park

Overlooking Nice France

In front of Ettal Abbey

BGCTS has itineraries prepared for Creede, Colorado, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Southern France, Sweden, and Singapore. However, if you wish a different destination, we would be happy to discuss options with you. As an example, the Germany itinerary includes 3 days in Hamburg and 3 days in Bavaria (Munich and Oberammergau) to see, learn about and discuss how two great cities of the same country could be so drastically different and what that implies for business and planning. The Serbia itinerary looks at a country at the crossroads of multiple invasions of Europe throughout history, and the social and cultural impact that has had on the population. Stops include Belgrade to see the fortress at the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers, the Turkish fortress of Golubac built into the side of a mountain, the town of Kladovo where the ruins of a Roman palace still remain from the time when the emperor Trajan diverted the Danube River to build a bridge across it. Those Bridge pillars still remain today. Finally, the participants will see a small village where more than 400 American Airmen were rescued in a daring operation during World War II.

Present day Hamburg, Germany

Present day Munich, Germany

Belgrade

Sharing meals at carefully selected local restaurants, meeting local people and learning key cultural tidbits that might otherwise be missed, and discussing readings assigned prior to the trip will make for lifelong memories and leaders better able to notice factors that affect their business’s bottom lines that they might otherwise have missed.

Nearly every business sets expectations for annual training, professional development and off-site continuing education. For about the same price, but more likely less money than the company would spend to bring in a high paid consulting firm to talk to a room full of bored leaders itching to get back to their desks, your organizations can send its people abroad and in return see recharged leaders applying new lessons learned.

The Friends and Family Vacation is a highly personalized, curated, get-away for a small group of friends or family, either overseas or domestic. The small groups will see different cultures and operating environments and will apply their observations to their own organizations and challenges. The Leadership Experience is an interactive trip guided by Tom Ruby. Ideal size is 4-6 participants, however, we are happy to discuss your group size and needs.

This experience is not a professional seminar but focused on enriching your friendship or family circle through a shared experience which you otherwise might not do. Not everyone has the inclination or time to research and put together itineraries that are specifically geared to your small group. Shared experiences are extremely powerful bonding forces that remain with participants for the rest of their lives. We remember several trips we’ve taken with small groups of friends which are discussion points more than 20 years later. These trips often form the jumping-off point for subsequent family trips and business ventures.

Sharing meals at carefully selected local restaurants, meeting local people and learning key cultural tidbits that might otherwise be missed, will make for lifelong memories and strengthen the foundation of any close circle of friends and family.

Nearly every person and family budgets for vacations. For about the same price, but more likely less money than your group would spend on a trip to some resort, we encourage you to consider traveling to a place you haven’t and might likely not otherwise visit. Let us do the planning and guiding while you’re there. You’ll build memories that are far more valuable than knick knacks on a shelf.