About Us

Barbara Horlbeck, M.A., is an arts and culture professional with extensive global experience. She is a lecturer, writer, independent researcher, and adjunct instructor of art history, and has developed and taught a wide range of university-level courses. Founder of Arts and Influences, Barbara also developed in-depth seminars, several topics of which include “Arts of the Islamic World”, “Arts of the Ancient World,” “Arts of China, India, and Japan”, “Renaissance and Baroque Art”, and “Collectors, Collections, and the Modern Museum”.  As a docent at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for more than 20 years, Barbara led tours for educators, specialists, and the general public on the museum’s encyclopedic collections.  She has traveled in just 45 countries, including five continents and the North Pole.  Barbara adores helping our travelers develop a deeper understanding of the world’s rich artistic and cultural legacy, while, at the same time, she helps to place works of art and architecture in their broad historical context.

Grace Gary’s relationship with the National Trust began when, while in graduate school, she was chosen as a National Trust Maritime Intern.  She’s hard to pin down on how many years ago that was, but she admits to having served as a lecturer on more-than eighty Trust tours over a span of more-than thirty years.  She is also the author of two titles in the Trust’s “Information” series and served as director of the Trust’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office.  She also served as executive director of Preservation Pennsylvania, Longue Vue House and Gardens, Colonial Williamsburg’s Tourism Leadership Program, and Nemours Mansion and Gardens.  While at Nemours she oversaw an $80 million restoration program, which received the highest award from the AIA ever bestowed on a restoration project.  She and fellow National Trust Tours lecturer Dwight Young also co-authored “Nemours: A Portrait of Alfred I. DuPont’s Home,” which was published by Rizzoli.  She is a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and has a Master’s in architectural history from the University of Virginia, where she had the privilege of living on the Range in one of the original, Thomas Jefferson-designed rooms.

Current Tours

• Cruise Spain, Portugal and Morocco
• Sailing the French & Italian Rivieras - Sea Cloud II

Mary Werner DeNadai, FAIA, is a nationally recognized architect and Trustee Emerita of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her career spans four decades in the fields of historic preservation and classical architectural design and she has had personal involvement with projects that include the full spectrum of architectural styles, periods and building types. Mary has recently lectured on trips to the Rhine River, Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Peru, Eastern Europe, Cuba, the Canary Islands and Morocco. She has been acknowledged and awarded for her achievements by the American Institute of Architects, as well as by other National, State and Local organizations.

John Meffert, consultant on Heritage Conservation Services, has a long tradition with the National Trust. He has served as the Director for our Southern Office and was the director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, the oldest nonprofit organization in the United States, responsible for preserving the historic resources of Charleston, S.C. John has delighted many study tour groups with his lectures and insights on preservation, and receives rave reviews as study leader.

Current Tours

• Carolina Christmas Charm with John Meffert
• Sailing Around Sicily and Malta Aboard Sea Cloud II
• Charleston: An Insider's View with John Meffert
• Sailing the Caribbean: Treasures of the Lesser Antilles
• Dalmatian Coast & Italy - Dubrovnik to Venice
• Private Houses & Gardens of Bermuda
• Shores of Iberia - Portugal & Spain Aboard the Sea Cloud II
• Discovering Crystal Bridges: A World-Class Oasis of Art & Architecture in Arkansas
• Savannah - A Lowcountry Sojourn with John Meffert

Giuseppina Lucini was raised in Como, Italy, where she still lives today. Her family has resided  here for generations. Giuseppina earned her B.A.in Classical Literature at Liceo A. Volta in Como,  as well as an M.A. in Medieval History from Università degli Studi in Milan. Her active interest in art  and history as well as her fluency in English, Italian and French complement her open and enthusiastic attitude with travelers. Always a popular study leader, she looks forward to introducing you, through her lectures, to all that the Italian Lake District has to offer.

Current Tours

• Village Life - Italian Lakes
• Village Life Italian Lakes
• Village Life - Italian Lakes
• Village Life - Italian Lakes

Christine has worked with the scientific community, lectured on prehistoric art, and shared her knowledge and enthusiasm for the Dordogne region of France with visitors for the past 30 years. Her first visits to the caves of the Dordogne sparked an insatiable passion for the subject of Paleolithic art and she returned to the University of Bordeaux to continue her studies, resulting in a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Anthropology. Recently, Christine completed a book about the five major case sites in the Dordogne and the evolution of Paleolithic cultures.

Alide Cagidemetrio is Professor Emerita at the Università degli Studi di Venezia (Cà Foscari) where she served as dean of Modern Languages and created and directed the Cà Foscari Harvard Summer School. Having taught at Venice, Strathclyde. Harvard, Wellesley, and Udine, she currently teaches literature at NYU Abu Dhabi. Both Alide and Werner are prolific authors and editors; and they are currently at work together on Face to Face with Antiquity, which examines visitors to global sites of antiquity.

As Chief Legal Officer, he oversees the National Trust’s legal defense fund, which advocates for the protection of significant places and defends and strengthens historic preservation laws throughout the United States; the historic preservation easements program, which protects over 135 historic places throughout the country; and the full range of corporate law matters for the National Trust, including specialized areas of historic site management and museum law.
Tom has written and spoken widely on preservation law, the underlying purposes of historic preservation, and the future of preservation. For many years, he taught historic preservation law at the University of Maryland. A lifelong preservationist, Tom serves as a member of his local historic preservation commission in Shepherdstown, WV. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize in Historic Preservation in 2013, Tom is the author of Why Old Places Matter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018).

Current Tours

• America’s 250th: A Maritime Tribute to History & Culture

He has carried out both primatological and paleontological fieldwork in countries as diverse as Madagascar, Vietnam, Suriname, Yemen, and Mauritius. Trained in archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and in geology and vertebrate paleontology at Yale University, Ian has concentrated his research since the 1960s in three main areas: the analysis of the human fossil record and its integration with evolutionary theory, the origin of human cognition, and the study of the ecology and systematics of the lemurs of Madagascar.

Sara N. James combines her passion for art, architecture, and gardens with her sense of adventure and love of travel. She is Professor Emerita of Art History at Mary Baldwin University and a specialist in Renaissance and Baroque art. In her 30-year teaching career she taught broad range of courses, including Classical, Medieval, Renaissance (Italian and Northern), and Baroque art and architecture, as well as interdisciplinary honors courses. An avid gardener and garden lover, she is a certified Master Gardener and a member of the Garden Club of Virginia and the Garden Club of America. She has regularly traveled and lectured abroad with adult groups since 2016. Her publications include two books: Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry and a Vision of the End-time (Ashgate, 2003) and Art in England from the Saxons to the Tudors: 600-1600 (Oxbow/Casemate, 2016), as well as numerous chapters, articles, and reviews in scholarly journals. Sara holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Virginia and is a member of the Old Dominion chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society. She has spent three sabbatical terms at the American Academy in Rome and one at the Paul Mellon Centre in London.

Linda was on the NTHP National Main Street program’s management team working with over 200 communities.  As the director for Exchange Programs for the Countryside Institute she provided oversight for communities in 3 counties to implement sustainable environmental and economic programs. Her time as the Board Chair and Executive Director of Historic Congressional Cemetery saw the property go from being listed on the NT’s 11 Most Endangered to being listed as a National Landmark with a $4M endowment. Most recently she served as the CEO for Cultural Tourism for Washington, DC promoting the embassies, monuments, arts and neighborhoods as an integral part of the city’s economic development plan.  Her background in historic preservation, cultural tourism and community engagement will help each traveler better understand the flavor and significance of our stops along the way.

Current Tours

• Italian Lakes and Swiss Alps by Luxury Train
• Bordeaux to Lisbon An Epicurean Journey Aboard Le Lapérouse
• Italian Lakes and Swiss Alps by Luxury Train
• Scottish Highlands & Caledonian Canal

She is a specialist in the luxury arts of the Middle Ages with a particular focus on travel, trade, and cultural exchange among patrons and artists of the period. An alumna of Smith College and the University of Michigan, she organized the exhibition Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages in 2009 and was guest speaker at the Met’s first TEDTalks conference in 2015. She has been a visiting Museum Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, and has taught at the University of Sussex, the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, and the Graduate Center at CUNY.

Son of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, is delighted to be joining the lecture staff of our New Zealand program. In addition to being the first second-generation to climb Mt. Everest, Peter has climbed the Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each of the seven continents) and has been on over 40 mountaineering expeditions around the world. Peter is active with several Himalayan foundations that fund capital projects in the Himalayan region of Nepal. He actively supports outdoor youth leadership programs and New Zealand conservation efforts, including protecting the kea, the world’s only mountain parrot.

Mr. Bowe graduated from University College, Dublin, with a degree in architecture. He has published nine books on the history of gardens and is a consultant on the restoration of historic gardens, including the gardens of Sutton Place, once the English home of J. Paul Getty. His most recent publication, Gardens and Plants of the Getty Villa, explores the design, planting, and uses of the ancient Roman garden and describes how J. Paul Getty realized his vision to create such a garden in California. A sought-after historian and lecturer in both the United States and Europe, Mr. Bowe will present captivating lectures and lively on-site talks. He has accompanied many previous National Trust garden tours.

Few names over the past twenty-plus years have been as synonymous with the National Trust for Historic Preservation as David J. Brown. David served as EVP and the organization’s founding Chief Preservation Officer, where he led the Trust’s advocacy, educational, field work, research, and historic sites programs. A national leader, speaker, and author with a four-decade record of achievement in saving historic places and supporting thriving communities, David is the founder of Bearden Brown LLC, which works to build nonprofit leadership and grow organizational impact. An affiliate fellow at the American Academy in Rome and a founding board member of the International National Trusts Organisation, David brings an international perspective to his discussions of preservation, history, and architecture.

Current Tours

• Casablanca to Porto & Andalusia—World Voyager

David Vater is a Pittsburgh native and his ancestors have lived in the region since the 1830s. He is president of his own architectural firm and has served on the Board of Directors of the AIA Pittsburgh’s Foundation for Architecture, the Friends of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline, and Chatham Village Homes, Inc.

Current Tours

• Pittsburgh - Art & Architecture in the Steel City

Dr. Evans has curated the award–winning exhibitions The Glory of Byzantium (843-1261) in 1997, Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) in 2004, Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition in 2012, and most recently Armenia! in 2018. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Apollo Magazine and others have praised the exhibitions as among the most important cultural events of their years.

Charles Chamberlain received his PhD in U.S. History from Tulane University and worked for ten years as the Museum Historian at the Louisiana State Museum. His book Victory at Home: Race and Manpower in the American South during World War II (University of Georgia Press) was published in 2003, and he has written numerous articles on jazz history, Louisiana history, and American culture. Since 2014, Dr. Chamberlain has served as professor of history at the University of New Orleans, concentrating on graduate level Public History and Louisiana studies.

Current Tours

• An Ode to New Orleans

Jim Parsons is the co-author of four award-winning books on Art Deco architecture and has documented buildings and urban landscapes in communities large and small. He is an architectural historian, writer and preservation advocate with more than 20 years of experience bringing
historic places to life through interpretation and public engagement. Jim combines deep knowledge with a storyteller’s instinct, helping travelers appreciate not just a place’s beauty, but the history and ideas that give it meaning. As Programs Director for Preservation Houston, he leads tours, lectures and preservation-focused travel that connect people to the architecture and history of Houston and cities nationwide.

Leila Magarò was born in Florence and educated in England. On her return to Italy, she continued her studies in a wide range of subjects, including history, philosophy and history of art. She started to work as a tour leader and guide in her early twenties and has since traveled extensively, while at the same time pursuing a career in medicine. Her passion for architecture and the arts, focusing in particular on the Renaissance period and Italian history of art, has led her to attend several university courses and to give lectures in this field. Leila lives in Florence, but continues to travel for both pleasure and work, led by her love of art. Leila is a voracious reader of both fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys classical and jazz music, the theater and ballet, and she is an expert in both Italian and French cooking.

Current Tours

• Florence in the Serene Season

Claire Lesourd is a certified national guide and lecturer, with more than 30 years of experience in the Normandy tourism industry. She worked for the Caen Memorial Museum and was a  founder of the museum’s excursions on the D-Day Beaches. She also was in charge of the guided tours department of the Bayeux Tourism Office. She looks forward to sharing her personal knowledge of WWII history with you. Her mother’s family was living in Caen on D-Day and her paternal grandfather was part of the French Resistance. She is also passionate about historic heritage and art, particularly Impressionism.

Current Tours

• Grand Seine River & Normandy Passage
• Grand Seine River & Normandy Passage

Born in Poitiers, France, Christine Guyot now lives in Nice. With more than 20 years of experience in the travel industry, Christine brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm to your program. She has directed countless travel programs and has been a cruise director for Dutch, Italian, Swiss, and Greek travel companies. She also was a travel director for incentive travel agencies in Paris. Christine is fluent in French, English, German, Italian and Chinese, which she learned while studying at the University of Guilin. She also speaks Spanish and Dutch.

Her professional work includes residential design and visualization. A professor at Catholic University of America’s architecture program in Rome, senior lecturer at the University of Southern California study abroad program in Barcelona, and former Director of Yale College’s architecture program, she draws design inspiration
from her travels and the built environment. She excels in visualizing architecture and interior spaces and understands the impact of a space as a layering of functions and objects. Sophia earned a Master’s of Architecture degree with distinction from Harvard University and has extensive experience as a professional architect at I.M. Pei and Partners in New York. She is a member of the AIA Europe chapter, and served as the
chair of the Barcelona conference in April of 2016.

Felicity Aston is both the only woman in the world to have skied across Antarctica alone and the first person in the world to have traversed the continent purely by muscle power, which gave her a place in the Guinness World Records. Her polar career began two decades ago when she traveled to Antarctica as a meteorologist with the British Antarctic Survey. By age 23, she was monitoring climate change at the Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Her Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition was the first to ‘Tweet to the Pole’ and material from her “Pole of Cold expedition” has been developed into a traveling art exhibition.

Jim Laurie is a distinguished international broadcaster, writer, and media consultant who has witnessed many defining moments in Asia’s history over the last 50 years. He began covering Indochina for NBC News in 1972 and became the only American network correspondent to witness the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese in 1975. Laurie recently published a memoir of his early days in Vietnam and Cambodia: The Last Helicopter: Two Lives in Indochina. He is the recipient of a Peabody Award, two Emmy Awards, and an Amnesty International Award and has also co‑produced, written, and directed several television documentaries.

Giuliano Hazan was the only child of Marcella Hazan, the doyenne of Italian cooking who introduced Americans to authentic Italian cuisine with her landmark book, “The Classic Italian Cookbook.” When she passed away in 2013, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour reported that her influence may have been even greater than Julia Child’s, saying “there are people across the nation and around the globe who may not even recognize Marcella’s name but are eating differently because of her.” In 2025 a James Beard Award-winning documentary about her was released called “Marcella.”

Giuliano learned to cook “by osmosis,” as he puts it, because even as a little boy he loved to sit in the kitchen and watch his mother cook. By age 17 he was assisting at his mother’s cooking school in Bologna and was its manager and teacher less than 10 years later.

Hazan’s true passion has always been teaching the clear, genuine flavors of Italian cuisine. His style is accessible and authentic, without pretense or fanfare.  Hazan has been a frequent TODAY show guest and in 2007 the International Association of Culinary Professionals named him Cooking Teacher of the Year. He has appeared several times as a guest chef at the James Beard House. His cookbooks have earned him a James Beard Award nomination and the World Cookbook Award for Best Italian Cookbook in the English Language.

Together with his wife, Lael, Hazan runs an acclaimed cooking school in Italy. Their school has been featured on the Food Network and in Gourmet magazine. Food & Wine magazine and Fox News have listed it as one of the 10 Best Schools in Italy. Forbes named it one of the Top Five Foodie Destinations of Italy. Hazan has also taught the flavors and philosophies of Italian cooking to appreciative audiences as far away as Japan, on luxury cruise ships sailing around the world, and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Find out more at giulianohazan.com.

Current Tours

• Coastal Italy and Dubrovnik