Three or four week road trip in Italy in September - ideas welcome

[OhOneOhTwoOhThree]

DH and I are planning a road trip to Italy in September. We have plans in Palermo on 12/13 September but apart from that our time is our own.

We're previously visited Florence, Verona, Venice and most recently Naples, using advice from other MN threads.

We're keen to take in Milan, Siena and Rome (I've only spent an afternoon in Rome as part of a work trip) but would love any recommendations for more off the beaten track places. We'd like to eat good food, drink good wine and take our time, stopping as and when we feel like it rather than a strict itinerary.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Will you consider a car for a few days? The hilltop villages of Tuscany, especially San Gimignano, are worth a few days. We stayed in Agoturismos on the outskirts of the village

Loved Puglia - Monopoli, Polignano, Alberobello, Lecce. Last year we went to Calabria - Pizzo and Tropea - stunning scenery and best food I ever had in Italy. Ortigia/Siracusa and Taormina in Sicily as mentioned by pp are stunning - parking is tricky though.

Another vote for my family home of Liguria- Friday in Ventimiglia (market day), drive inland to see historic villages such as Dolceacqua, great campsite and pizzeria in my home village of Isolabona, beautiful village of Apricale, drive through the mountains or back along the coast to Bordighera and Sanremo, past Genova further on to Portofino, then on to the Cinque Terre. Or travel down through the Alps over the Grand San Bernard Pass, do Courmayeur and the rest of the Aosta Valley, on to Torino and reach the coast via the Val Roya if the tunnel and the road is fully open.

So pleased to see others raving about Bologna as I have just booked to go to Bologna and Ravenna in the autumn for my birthday.
I was going to suggest those two places (even though I haven't been yet). I have a friend from Bologna and he made it sound amazing with all the food and the porticos! As for Ravenna, another friend visited on a road trip a few years ago and he said the mosaics were the absolute highlight of his trip.

I loved Assisi so definitely worth a stop there!

When you go to Rome take the train out to Ostia Antica, the port of ancient Rome. It's incredible.

We went to Turin and I hadn’t expected to like it as much as we did. Seemed much more of a holiday place for Italians than a lot of other big cities. Food was fab. Am not really into cars but the car museum was great. Also the film museum was really good. It’s a nice place to stroll around generally.