Italy in early November. Good food, good hotels. Where?

[thatoldchestnut]

First holiday abroad since divorce nearly 10 years ago- so this is a real treat.
Plan is 2-3 weeks . Dd mid 20s and me mid 50s. Younger Ds may be joining us for some part.

Likes are really good food and beautiful scenery. Not really into art, but love old churches and history.

Places we will be going so far:
Venice
Dolomites

Previously been to and liked:
Lucca
Siena
Tuscany smaller historical towns generally loved
Bologna
Cinque Terre
(Went to Italian Lakes and wouldn’t go back particularly in November).
(Didn’t enjoy Florence as found too busy in main season but DD keen to go as day trip so keen on any recommendations).

Dd not been to Italy. Plan will be to get train then possibly hire a car (never driven abroad!)

Been to Rome 30 years ago and thinking of starting there- so flying into Rome and flying out of Venice or Milan.

Any recommendations or thoughts on November in Italy and where to go?

Thank you ☺️

What about Pompeii and Herculaneum?

I got the Lonely Planet Best Italian Roadtrips book in my stocking today as we’re going in October. Recommended!

I’ve heard that Turin is fab. I really want to visit Ostia Antica as part of the Roman section of our trip. There seems to be a lot of love for Lecce way down south, Puglia in general v modish right now apparently (we’re not going…). The book also mentions Modena a lot. My absolutely unmissable return will be to Ravenna, I’d also like to go back to Ferrara which I remember being very charming.

We will be browsing agroturismo.it for much of our accommodation, though we will also use the equivalent monastic/convent site for inexpensive basic accommodation in order to splurge when we really want to.

Naples in November 24 - well I wouldn’t have missed it, but hell’s bells it was wet. We were much luckier with Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius weather but I really felt there wasn’t much point to the rest of the Amalfi coast at that time of year. That might just be me though. I didn’t hate it at all, we had fun, but without much sunshine it seemed unexciting. We did catch a glimpse of local residents in relaxed mode I think.

Thank you. Definitely expecting rain and poor weather, but hoping the compensation is less crowds -so some popular places may be more accessible .
Ravenna was on my list of places to go.
Good to know the Amalfi coast not a great idea at that time of year.
I hadn’t considered Pompeii, Herculaneum for this trip as heading in the wrong direction to the Dolomites, Venice Northern Italy end point.

Bergamo is lovely, especially the Cita Alta bit. Very reasonable prices and amazing food. We also did a couple of day trips to the south lakes, iseola, desenseo and they were lovely too. Cheap flights into Bergamo as well.

If you’re worried about driving abroad, you might want to look at taking the train for bits of it. Years ago, we did quite a lot of Italy by train and were really impressed by how straightforward it all was. We only hired a car for a few days when we went into the hills of Tuscany.

I would not recommend driving in Italy, unless you hire a tank.
Trains are good, they were quite cheap (when I was there).

Agree about the trains. Clean and efficient and CHEAP!

we also did “Treno di Sabors” which is brilliant!

I did interrailing many (35!) years ago and found Italian trains pretty good. The only thing was Rome and pickpockets on the metro and am a bit hesitant about the area around train stations in cities generally (as they can be some of the worst areas).

I am thinking more the Dolomites more accessible by road; although driving in winter in mountainous region may not be advisable. Confident UK driver , but have never driven in Europe.

It’s whether we keep to the Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany areas for 2-3 weeks in winter?

Treno di Sabors looks really interesting. We are both big foodies.

Bologna and Parma are fantastic for foodies. If you hire a car do not go for a tank…. Some roads are tiny! A Fiat 500 much less stressful than a massive Mercedes! I was in Genoa in November. It’s not an obvious tourist stop, but was fab!

Verona

If you like art and want to stay north, then Padua would be a good shout - it’s a proper Italian city but has some wonderful frescoes and would make a good base for visiting Venice and Verona.

Verona would also be a good option and we enjoyed Mantua.

Agree with @Interpink that Bergamo is great, also a fan of Bologna. Maybe try Trieste? The architecture is fantastic, as is the food

Been to Verona years ago as day trip and really enjoyed staying in Bologna previously .
At the moment I’m thinking of us flying into then staying in Bologna again and using it for train day trips to visit Ferrara and Ravenna (maybe Mantua, Parma, Modena although that seems like we would just be back and forth on the train) .

Might then redo Florence as next base as it’s so quick to get to and dd is keen and revisit Lucca (which I loved) from there, although have been previously more to this area than anywhere else. She was also keen on Bergamo, but I can’t see how I can make this work without doubling back on train journeys.

I feel I can’t give Rome the time it needs my combining it with all these but maybe it would be better to start in Rome then go to Bologna and miss out Florence?

Plan after the sight seeing is to catch a train up to the southern Dolomites and then spend a week relaxing with some gentle walking and swimming in a heated pool in a hotel.

Then come back on train to Venice to finish as this is where we are meeting up with others .

Basis for where to go is-
I love old churches and history more medieval period onwards. My ideal day is wandering somewhere beautiful then having a great meal! Can’t bear crowds. I also love nature and need a bit of decompression time on holiday.