Mark Gordon Smith

Mark Gordon Smith spent his early childhood in Tuscany while his father was stationed at the port of Livorno along the Tuscan coast. This initial exposure to Italian culture led to a life-long love of all things Italian.

He is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point. After leaving active military service, he worked in sales and human resources for several extensive healthcare and telecommunications companies.

In 2001, he moved to Florence, Italy, for three months and wrote his first book, Tuscan Echoes, A Season Italy. Last Season of the Lira and Tuscan Light, Memories of Italy followed in 2005 and 2008. He is working on a third Italy travel memoir and a novel that takes place during the Renaissance in Florence.

In 2003, he founded Private Italy Tours LTD, a tour operator offering four unique itineraries across Italy. Clients stay at a villa, local cooks are brought in for meals, and easy day trips bring Italy to life for our clients. Mark also offers custom itinerary planning for those who wish to visit Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Bavaria, France, or the Netherlands on their own and wish to have the logistics and support all taken care of.

Mark has led over forty-five classes on Travel in Italy, Conversational Italian, and Art and History of Renaissance Florence at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Asheville, Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, and Pawley’s Island, SC and at Brunswick Community College. He has been privileged to study Renaissance Florentine art and history at the Accademia Delle Belle Arti in Florence (The Academy of Fine Arts).

Research for his books has provided opportunities to work directly with the staff of the Soprintendenza BAPSAE (Beni Architettonici, Paesaggistici, Storici, Artistici ed Etnoantropologici) in Florence, who have provided access to unique and rare treasures across Florence and Tuscany. He has also been involved in Italy-based art restoration projects on works by female Renaissance artists.