About Me

My first trip to Italy - summer 1983.

At twenty-six, I moved with my husband to London for a three-year stint as an ex-pat.  We lived in a 400 square-foot flat in Notting Hill, made life-long friends, ate roasts on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the pub culture.  We also took full advantage of being closer to the rest of the world and traveled to 20 countries. We moved back to the States when I was 5 months pregnant with our oldest daughter.  

Growing up, in the years between those big travel moments, I traveled extensively to Europe and at least once a year to Italy with my parents and younger sister, including to a small Italian island where we spent the most incredible summers and where we met friends we still keep in touch with today.  While in college, I worked at the Italian consulate in Washington, DC hoping it would give me the Italian travel fix I craved. Spoiler alert: it did not.  I graduated from the University of Maryland and went on to earn my CPA because, while I dreamed of a career in travel, more specifically as a flight attendant, I ignored my instincts.  I also met and married my travel partner for life.

In my thirties and early forties, my primary role was as the CEO of my family, working as a bookkeeper for various small businesses and volunteering hours of my time for causes important to me or my girls.  I still traveled, this time with 2 kids in tow and still always to Italy, and delighted in planning elaborate itineraries for my family.  As my girls got older, I decided to pack a new kind of bag—this one with a laptop—and launched Ashley Wood Travel.

With this chapter, I’m thrilled to share my passion for travel and my love of Italy by crafting dream trips that spark the same excitement in you that travel has always sparked in me.

Here’s to many more Italian adventures together.