Gina Stipo found the perfect hazelnut farm high in the mountains of a small town in Piedmont, a northern region of Italy where the Louisville-based restaurateur recently led a group of about a dozen tourists on a week-long trip.

She must have used a drone — or at least a well-trained bird — to find the location, joked guest Mary Knuff, who's traveled with Stipo before and who says she's amazed by the small, authentic places that Stipo has helped her visit. "She takes you to these places you'd never be able to find on your own," said Knuff of Texas. "Never in a million years."