Italy - please share your favourite places..

[Luredbyapomegranate]

Long trip planned 😀 surprising ideas /rarely visited bits especially welcome

thank you!

Genoa is great, granted it has been many years since I was there but I remember it being lovely.

Lake Garda …absolutely stunning
Venice ….so magical…my children were 3,6 and 8 and they were all bowled over !

Sant’Agata Sui du Golfi . Small town on the Amalfi coast where no one spoke much English at all, and they loved our very blonde kids. When I retire, I’m going back to the cookery school as my treat

I second all this. I also love Naples, it's dirty, busy, chaotic and chocked full of history, art and attitude.

If you visit Positano - aka Italian St Ives - take one of the free boats from the harbour to one of the tiny secluded bays away from the madding crowd. We went to one with a restaurant attached. It was delightful.

Also: if you're up north, Cinque Terre is well worth visiting. Give yourself time to walk between a couple of the towns.

Also north, Siena during the palio is a true spectacle. Spend the day there (the race barely lasts a minute), you will not be sorry you did.

Don’t rule out Naples, it gets a slating that is undeserved! Once you get well away from the railway station (arse end of town) it’s a beautiful city with loads to offer and is a great jumping off point for Vesuvius, Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi coast etc.

Also, consider train travel between cities. Cheap, fast, clean and the most gorgeous scenery. My favourite European country by a mile.

I second Naples. We have family there so I spent summers in Naples as a child, some really beautiful places but sadly an undeserved bad reputation

Ravello, sorrento, positano, capri

Lake Como

If you are near Rome, Lago di bracciano is gorgeous, close and surprisingly quiet and secluded

Fruli Venezia undiscovered gorgeous area near Trieste on Slovenian border. We blundered there my accident gorgeous beach resort on Venetian lagoon stayed 6 nights then 2 hours on to Venice.

Ravello

Dropped off there for an hour by our driver on a private tour excursion from a cruise ship.

6 year old DD asking her 12 year old sister (said in a wide eyed moment of wonder that only a 6 year old can do)
”where are we?”
DD 12 (in her very best deadpan voice) replied “heaven”.

I really wish I’d captured that moment on video because we truly were in heaven. To have 2 children both stood in wonder like that was very special.

Beautiful, stunning place.

Certaldo is my favourite which is nearby its stunning and amazing vineyard hotels nearby

Ischia is incredible - Italians holiday there and it has no tourist rip off trap at all. Stunning scenery, we stayed in the castle and the view back over the causeway is something else. Lots of restaurants you can only reach by boat.

cinque Terre - we stayed in riomaggiore but each of the five has its own charm and you can hop between each on the coastal train (insane views) or via some of the amazing hikes (also insane views)

Oh and Ravello!

Procida is also lovely but more a sleepy fisherman’s village of an island, there’s not a huge amount going on.

Pontremoli- also near Mulazzo. Gorgeous

ravenna- extraordinary UNESCO site with incredible 1000 year olds mosaics and no queue to see them.

fano on the east coast - walled city by the sea with fab music scene.

Cinque terre massively touristed out. Much more magical is the train trip from chiavari/ portofino/portovenere upwards - loaded with delicious sleepy seaside villages without hordes of tourists and the train teeters along the ocean like the Devon/ Cornwall coastal train.

Punta Ala (Tuscany)

Went there 5 or 6 times as a child. The beach there is (chefs kiss) amazing!

Ohhh amazing thread I'm planning a month in Italy..

Puglia and Basilicata. The Gargano, whitewashed hill towns like Locorotondo, beautiful sea side villages, trulli, Matera....

Aside from the obvious (Rome, Venice, Florence... all of which I loved). Procida, which is the smallest of the islands off Naples. Not much to do except sit on the beach and eat sea food but it's a stunning island and often overlooked for it's larger neighbours Capri and Ischia so much less busy - though that was a few years ago now!

Had one of the best meals ever in this place:

www.tavernadellagelosia.it/it/

In Ostuni in Puglia in the south - a beautiful white washed hilltop town - my mum & I found it down a tiny street, trying to get away from the tourist restaurants. Knew we were on to a winner when we saw the menu was only in Italian & had about 3 choices per course. We ate wild boar pappardelle & chocolate panna cotta, drank out of earthen ware cups, on a beautiful plant filled terrace.

Ah, if we're swapping restaurant recommendations in Puglia....

www.altrabucco.it/

Ostuni is lovely OP. I also had an amazing meaty lunch at Cisternino, where there are lots of traditional places which cook meat of your choice in traditional ovens.

Val d’Aosta in the north is amazing. It’s incredible to come through the Monte Bianco tunnel and drive down past Courmayeur and into the valley. Gran Paradiso national park is stunning.

Torino is the Italian home of hazelnuts and chocolate. Do I need to say more 😁

Down by the coast Sestri Levante near Genoa is gorgeous. All the buildings are yellow and orange. It’s dreamy. Over the Adriatic side Milano Marittima is a town underneath a canopy of marine pines. It’s like something from a movie.

I fourth (or whatever number) San Giminiano. It’s not quiet but it’s worth it.

I like Ischia for the spas (Negombo and Poseidon). I have been back a few times for those (… but it can be touristy and restaurants can be expensive).

I used to have to take the train from Pescara (when it was the main Ryanair airport!) to Naples, and that route was stunning. I love an Italian train ride.

Nobody seems to have mentioned Puglia and, in particular, Otranto. We have had blissful holidays down there. I don’t care much for the Trulli etc. but we have spent weeks and weeks camping in Otranto.

Bergamo was a nice surprise. We had a beautiful holiday up there (… having always assumed that it was just an airport!).

but just as important in Italy is not where you go but what you eat.