Experience
Selling to the world from a small town
A week outside the cities, inside companies based in towns of a few thousand people that sell across half the world without having an export department. You look at how they do it, and at what they have in place of that department.
On this page
Fact sheet
- Days
- 7
- Cities
- Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Fornaci di Barga
- Recommended season
- April to June and September to October
- Group
- 15 to 25 participants
- Language of the visits
- confirmed at the time of booking, site by site
- Schengen days used
- 7 out of 90, counting the day of entry and the day of exit
- Price
- Quotation on request
→ Request a quotation · Download the itinerary in PDF
In the quotation we write which sites are confirmed and which are being confirmed, one by one.
Itinerary day by day
Day 1 — Florence. Opening
In the afternoon, a two-hour opening session. The question of the week is handed out: what it really takes to sell abroad, when you have neither a sales office nor a network of agents.
Day 2 — Fornaci di Barga. A steel archive in a valley
A full day at the Archivio Storico Orlando SMI, on via della Repubblica: the archive of a steel company inside a village in the Serchio valley. It is the site that shows the heavy industrial version of the problem, before moving on to the light ones.
Day 3 — Sansepolcro. The most complete record in the catalog
A full day at the Aboca Museum, in Palazzo Bourbon del Monte, via Niccolò Aggiunti. It is the museum of a medicinal plants company, with three routes and rooms of stated capacity. From a town in the upper Tiber valley the company built a certified agricultural chain and an international commercial presence, and the museum tells the mechanism and not the legend.
It closes on Mondays on winter hours, which run from 1 October to 31 March. For large groups booking is compulsory.
Late in the afternoon, a two-hour working session.
Day 4 — Arezzo and Siena. The productive context
A day of guided survey and work, with an observation matrix on the small business fabric of the two cities and two working blocks of three hours in all.
Day 5 — Siena. The work, part one
A guided day in two blocks of three hours. Each team reconstructs the foreign sales chain of one of the companies seen: who finds the customer, who ships, who collects, who answers for the problems.
Day 6 — Florence. The work, part two
A guided day: each team writes the export plan of a Mexican product using the same chain, and compares it with the Italian model seen.
Day 7 — Presentation and closing
In the morning, ten-minute presentations and discussion. In the afternoon, closing and handover of the certificate of participation.
What you visit
| Place | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Aboca Museum, Sansepolcro | Company museum with three routes and capacities stated room by room, guided visit per group with booking, closed on Mondays on winter hours | Bookable |
| Archivio Storico Orlando SMI, Fornaci di Barga | Company archive of the steel industry | On request |
What this experience does not include today, and we write it ourselves
The reference route in this territory, the one American operators sell, includes four small manufacturing companies visited at home, between weaving, ceramics and confectionery. For none of the four is there a verified booking channel today, so we do not name them, we do not promise them and they are not in the price.
This week, today, stands on two confirmable sites and on a guided work structure much longer than the catalog average: four of the seven days are classroom and survey work. It is a decision, not a makeshift, but it has to be said beforehand, because a group expecting seven days of visits would find something else.
What is included and what is not
Included: admissions and guided visits to the confirmed sites, the booking and coordination with whoever receives the group, the guided working sessions totalling twenty hours, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group for all seven days, the final report handed to the institution that brings the group and the certificate of participation in the experience.
Not included: flight, transfers to and from the airport, travel between the Tuscan towns, lodging, meals, personal travel insurance.
The season, and why
You travel from April to June and from September to October.
From January to March it is not sold: inland Tuscany in winter has short days, slow roads from one valley to the next, and the main site moves to winter hours with one more closing day. August is out.
The reason, month by month, is on the Seasons page.
Logistics and capacity
It is the route with the longest internal transfers in the Italian catalog: the towns are close in kilometers and far apart in time, because you travel on valley roads. The program handed over calculates the days by time and not by distance, and the group changes hotel twice.
This is also the experience in the catalog that holds the largest group: the main site takes guided visits of up to thirty people and states its capacity room by room.
The recommended group is 15 people: it is the size that reaches the group rates without going over the access limits of the visits, which at these sites go up to 30. Above 25 the itinerary splits into two slots, the day gets longer and the cost per person does not go down. One of the rooms at the main site takes ten people: the visit is organized by rotation, and the program writes it down.
Cover
The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.
Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? This experience is, after Who comes next, the one with the most guided working hours in the catalog, and it fits naturally into an Istituto program with classroom hours, a piece of work to deliver and a certificate of attendance. → For groups
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Let us talk about this route
We answer within two working days with the dates, the day by day program and the quotation.