Planning an extended visit this autumn. We’ve visited several times in the past. Looking for any favorite suggestions re: places to visit, favorite restaurants, anything really. The whole country is game, although we’ll probably skip Rome this time.
Bonus points for anything off the typical tourist route but still charming and beautiful.
Anything you’d care to share? Grazie mille.
Off the beaten path might be relative. Years ago, Cinque Terre was seriously off the beaten path, but tourists have been finding it in increasing numbers, making Portovenere an alternative. Similarly, Lakes Iseo and Orta are solid alternatives to Como and Maggiore
Prego.
Are you going to Umbria? I could tell you lots. Most of it is off the beaten path.
I would also suggest going to Ostia Antiqua which is right outside the Fiumicino airport for Rome. If you have to kill a couple of hours before getting to your destination and checking in, it’s an easy spot and opens at 8 AM.
Thanks, @skieurope!
@greenwitch Itinerary is very open at this point. I’d definitely like to spend some time in Umbria. Years ago we visited Assisi and Perugia but haven’t spent much time there.
We were in Umbria in late September and Positano in early October last year. I greatly preferred Umbria, just because it was so lovely and so easy. October is still really, really crowded and crazy along the Amalfi Coast.
We visited Assisi, Gubbio, Spello, Bevagna, and Spoleto in Umbria, and also Montalcino and Montepulciano in Tuscany. They are all wonderful small towns to small cities. I really enjoyed wandering around all of them. Spello is known for a flower festival they have in the spring but there were still wonderful gardens all through the town in the fall. There was major street construction going on that cut down to the Roman level but you could still walk around on metal catwalks and most streets weren’t affected. A good spot is called Drinking Wine and we heard about it from an American woman we ran into who used to live in the town and has a farm nearby. There is also the original shop for Arte Legno, a shop that makes cutting boards and many other things out of olive wood (they sell to Tj Maxx in the US but the variety in Italy is just astonishing). They also have a shop in Assisi.
Assisi is still one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, although now you get wanded by the Italian Police if you want to go into the Cathedral. What a wonderful mix of tourists and religious pilgrims there!
Gubbio is amazing too. The story is that there was a wolf terrorizing the town until St. Francis came and tamed him. Then the wolf began to do good deeds. The wolf is buried there and there is a little chapel at the sight of the taming. There is a aerial cable car you can take to the top of the mountain. We didn’t take it but even from the “top floor” of the town (there are elevators) you could see Assisi and Spello in the distance. We ate at a restaurant called Taverna del Lupo and I had a wonderful dish made with guinea fowl, rosemary and juniper. H had a pork dish and it turned out that that was the signature dish of the restaurant and they came out and gave him a little painted plate to commemorate it. They also gave a us a whole booklet of the 50 or so restaurants in Italy that have special dishes, each with their own plate that the patron gets when they order it. All the plates are different.
We went to Perugia too but it is a true city and had a different vibe. We ate lunch at a wonderful place there that also has craft beer from local places. It is Osteria a Priori and H had a wonderful dish that was cooked outside on a rock, lol, and mine was pasta that was “mala-something” that means “badly torn”. It was delicious! This restaurant had a write up in the NY Times not too long ago.
Outside Perugia, in Corciano, we had dinner in a place called Il Convento. There we had what was probably the best dish of our trip: risotto with Sagrantino wine, porcini mushrooms, and shaved black truffles. All local and in season. We also had a dessert wine with biscotti to dip in it that was nice. This restaurant has a small parking lot in back.
Near Bevagna and on top of a hill in a tiny hamlet is a wonderful restaurant called Il Serpillo. They have a salad/cheese bar that defies description plus the usual amount of delicious dishes. It was amazing, and really in the middle of nowhere. We went on this trip with H’s parents and his Dad speaks Italian and would ask everyone where their favorite places to eat were and that’s how we found these place. Of course, we stumbled on a few ourselves but these were the memorable ones for Umbria.
If you go to Montalcino, taste the incredible Brunello wine. Here is is $40 - $70/bottle so enjoy it there and bring some home! That one was my favorite. And buy some black truffles or “truffle sauce” to bring home. We bought a jar and it had only 3% truffles in it and it was just incredible. So nice to share with friends.
I love ancient ruins and was thinking of traveling for hours to see an Etruscan necropolis on the coast that is a Unesco site but lo and behold, there’s one just off the highway in Ponte San Giovanni outside Perugia. We also went to the Bomarzo gardens, which are really a collection of follies in the woods, and that was fun too.
Thanks for taking the time to write up your highlights, @greenwitch! Sounds like you had a wonderful and memorable trip!
Late Fall is truffle season and restaurants will display their truffles proudly at the entrance. Definitely try some truffle dishes
Here is a list of the restaurants that give away the plates: http://www.buonricordo.com/piatti-en
H wants to visit Matera on our next trip. It is in the arch of the boot. It is one of the most ancient looking towns in Italy and several movies about biblical times were filmed there.
Last year my D turned me on to this website when I told her I had a fantasy of spending an extended time in Italy. It has some of the most unique and unusual places I’d never heard of before; I spent a rainy weekend reading every enrty…www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/italy/places
A few years ago we took the kids to Amalfi (my H’s family comes from there). We all loved it, except for the drive to get there–some definite motion sickness with the curvy road. The kids still say it was one of their favorite places we ever visited.
There are lots of charming towns in the area as well, and good walks. We hired a boat for fishing and snorkeling one day and are still in touch via Instagram with the operator 5 years later! Also named the kitty in my avatar after his boat (Squalo).
We spent a few days relaxing in Greve in Chianti after a two week trip through Milan, Venice and Florence. It’s 60-90 min. from Florence. The town is really small but it was perfect for a few days of rest before moving on to Rome.
We stayed at Fattoria Vitichio, an updated house from the 15th century (IIRC). It was divided into small apartments with very powerful air conditioning! On the property is a winery and they conduct wine tastings there, as well.
Love all the little Tuscan hill towns. We’ve been a few times before but will definitely be spending time in and around them again.
I don’t know your budget, but two hotels/inns we liked in Tuscany were Castello del Nero and Castel Monastero. The latter is particularly interesting as it’s a hotel that used to be a village and still has a small working chapel. Both are not too far from Siena. (These will be runners up in my best hotel thread comment.)
I don’t know how late in autumn you are planning, but if you would like a nice beach location to relax a bit, Ischia is a wonderful alternative to Capri or the Amalfi coast. It’s less expensive and there are fewer Americans. Ischia is a volcanic island in the Gulf of Naples with many mineral springs, so most of the hotels have great spas. If you go, I highly recommend a day at Giardini Poseidon. It is truly unique, a little slice of heaven on earth. 21 pools of differing temperatures of mineral water, natural sauna in the mountain, full spa offerings, private beach, clean, well-run. It’s a day like no other. Also, if you will be near Sicily, you might want to consider the Isole Eolie - Lipari, Stromboli, Panarea… We once stayed at a resort on the island of Vulcano called Therasia… Also just a bit of paradise.
Matera. Worth the trip, as it is unlike anywhere else. 2019 European Capital of Culture. Newly restored Duomo. Be prepared for lots of up and down walking, as well as a mesmerizing atmosphere, interesting art, architecture, history and dining. We combined it with a trip to Puglia, where we especially enjoyed a stay in a masseria near Ostuni. Happy planning.
I loved Assissi and the other hill towns. Loved Palladio’s Villa Rotunda. http://www.villalarotonda.it/en/visiting.htm
The Villa D’Este in Tivoli and especially it’s gardens are stunning. Amazing fountains. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_d%27Este