Italy - your favourite region/place

[WhatWouldHopperDo]

We are going to be booking a trip to Italy for next October for DHs 60th.

He knows he wants to go to Italy but not sure which area. We’ve only been to Rome.

We want scenery and relaxing rather than city and sight seeing. We’ll be going for a week and it’ll be 8 adults and 2 tweens. (happy to hire cars if we want to do different things).

Any recommendations? DH think he might like Sicily but we are a bit clueless and having started researching, everywhere looks amazing!

We spent a week in Ischia in a botanical garden in Forio, with sea views to die for.

Ischia also has several thermal spas, each with lots of pools. Negumbo and Poseidon (the latter was walking distance from our apartment) were our favourites.

October can be cold in Italy, we were just in lake Garda at half term and some days the rain was incessant. I’d def say Sicily just to get better weather.

Cinque Terre

To add to what I posted earlier - I love the Italian lakes but wouldn't go in October. We went to Liguria end September last year and whilst weather was mostly good the boats weren't running due to wind. I think you need to head south to get good weather.

I notice that a couple of posters have recommended Cefalu in sicily. I third the recommendation. We loved it. We went in 2017 and found that most of the holday makers were Italians, which made it feel more "foreign" to us, which is what we prefer. We found a restaurant a little off the beaten track and the owners made such a fuss of us because we were English and gave us some local delicacies on the house to try.

I loved the place.

Oh, and the cannoli are to die for.

Don't overlook Sardinia.

As a couple of others have said, you may find northern Italy a little chilly at the end of October . I would normally recommend a stay at Lake Garda - which is beautiful in itself but if you stay near the south of the lake you have easy access to Venice and Verona by train . And Bologna too. Travelling up to the north of the lake there is stunning mountain scenery . However we went once in October half term and the evenings and early mornings were pretty cold (as in needing a coat). You certainly wouldn't be doing any swimming etc unless you have an indoor pool.

We have recently visited Sardinia, which was lovely . We flew into Olbia, stayed slightly inland and visited many of the resorts on the Costa Smerelda. However we noticed that even in the middle of September it was clear that the main tourist season was over, and in the resort towns there were very few restaurants open at lunchtime. It may be different if you go to one of the larger cities or further south .

I think in general, coastal resorts in Italy have a very short season as I can recall visiting both Tuscany and Puglia in May half term and noticing the same thing .

I think the recommendation of Tuscan inland towns / cities/ countryside is a good one for that time of year .

Rome ♥️ it's like my second home now, you have to spend a while to see it properly however. It's taken 3 trips to see more of what it has to offer (not just the usuals like Colosseum etc)

For me Sicily. It is a beautiful place although you will need a car to get around. Forget Palermo, go to somewhere on the east side of the island. You have beaches, Mt Etna and once you get away from the coast it is like going back in time.