A memorable summer team building experience on the Tuscan coast
Have you ever dreaded a business outing? Many business leader and employers have, but we can tell you who hasn’t: any of the teams we took for incentive and team-building trips to the Italian coast. Try as one might, it is impossible to resent a day at the beach!
Summer, of course, is the perfect season for it, although it is worth picking your timing accurately: Italian summers can be remarkably hot, therefore most beaches are best enjoyed at the beginning or the near the end of the season: you’ll still have the advantage of longer days and warm evenings, without the sweltering heat of midday. Team building activities held in June and September, therefore, generally benefit from outstanding weather, which translates into good spirits from the very first minute.
Planning the ultimate team-building activity on the beach
After more than 15 years in this industry, Team Building Roma has come to value a handful of guiding principles, when it comes to team building planning. First and foremost, a clear objective matters, and so does a task that mixes people from different backgrounds, ideally levelling the playing field. In other words, things are much more fun if nobody actually knows what they are doing. The activity, however, should also be easy to explain in a few minutes, leaving the remaining time for action: you don’t want your event to have the same vibes as a badly-planned table-games night, when one person explains the game and everyone else sits there puzzled trying to grasp it.
Outdoor team building adds a further advantage. Fresh air and open space loosen the hierarchies that govern the office, and conversations become franker once everyone stands on equal ground.
Incentive travel to seaside destinations applies the same logic on a larger scale. After all, if a change is as good as a rest, imagine what you could achieve by allowing your team to have both, while enjoying a stay at a stunning Italian beach resort.
Team building in Tuscany
On 12 June 2026, sixty members of the Ace Works team put these principles to the test. Ace Works has been a client for three years, and their latest brief called for a lively, physically engaging day for the entire group. Things are obviously easy when we already know our client and vice-versa: we know what makes their teams tick, how they think and, most importantly, what they expect. This means we can ever-so-subtly tweak the balance between a trip that feels familiar and satisfying and an experience that doesn’t edge into predictability and boredom.
In this instance, they had already chosen the venue, a beach club on the Tuscan coast, and that decision paid off immediately. Sand underfoot and a wide horizon created the perfect atmosphere.
For this setting we proposed carton boat team building. Each team designed and built a small vessel using only cardboard boxes and packing tape, with a handful of salvaged extras permitted. The finished boats then went onto the water, and the one that stayed afloat longest took the prize.
We choose team building activities like this one because they match good old fun with a healthy amount of friendly competition. Everyone gets a role, everyone holds a firm opinion about hull design, and the rivalry stays good-humoured because the only reward on offer is bragging rights.
The schedule was tighter than usual. Even so, the whole activity fitted into two hours, from the first cut of the scissors to the final splash.
Taking the beach by storm
How do you know that a team building activity is going to be a success? In some cases, you get a hint when people who are not even in the team want in. In this instance, the highlight came before the race itself: each team presented its decorated boat to the others, and the pride on display was unmistakable. Passers-by and children stopped to watch, grew curious and soon became enthusiastic spectators, cheering and participating, emotionally if not literally, in the race.
After all, Team building matters to all sorts of teams, whether their collaboration needs a boost or already runs smoothly. A group that struggles to work together gains a shared story to build upon, while a group that gels already gets the chance to extend that rapport in new and interesting directions.
The figures support this view. In an interview published by Cornerstone, the CEO of Strayboots linked a 5 per cent rise in employee engagement to 3 per cent higher revenue the following year. Gallup research, as summarised by Small Business Trends, points to a 21 per cent increase in job satisfaction among teams that take part in such activities.
A beach afternoon with cardboard boats may sound frivolous. Yet it connects directly to the numbers a finance director reviews every quarter.
Planning your own day by the sea
Location, challenge and a dash of friendly rivalry form a reliable recipe, whether the group numbers twelve or one hundred and twelve. Team Building Roma will gladly shape such a day around your company, your calendar and your coastline of choice.
Get in touch, and we'll create something your colleagues will mention at the next coffee break and for months afterwards.