Need all of your expert advice. We are looking for a beach town for about 4 days after we spending seven days in Spoleto August 18 -August 25th. Our itinary is: Arrive Munich for 11 days, then Rome 4 days, Spoleto 7 days and then we were thinking 4 days in Cinque Terre with our final night back in Rome @ Courtyard Marriott airport Rome. Having second thoughts about CT after hearing how much it has changed as well as the time/travel distance back to Rome with our children (ages 7 and 5 years at time of trip). We will NOT have a car, so must be easily accessable by train and cannot be too remote as my daughter has severe asthma & peanut allergy, so need medical facility pretty close. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? We were thinking that this would be the part of our trip where we relax, enjoy the beach & ocean, drink MORE great red wine, maybe enjoy a not too touristy small town...any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!
Of course the choice is yours, but you are going to be spending an entire day traveling from Spoleto to CT. Not an economic use of time IMO. In Spoleto you are close to the Adriatic coast in the Marche. Transportation is not fabulous - buses only - but you might consider San Benedetto del Tronto not far from Ascoli. It is NOTHING like the CT and I do not want to mislead you, but if you are looking for a thoroughly Italian beach vacation you can't beat most of the Adriatic beach towns. They will be filled with Italians in August so you must reserve very early. If it were me I would probably stay in Umbria and enjoy an extended land-locked vacation this time.
Spoleto is pratically at the same distance from both the Italian coasts, so you have at least two different coastal options. Like Matt said, you could reach San Benedetto del Tronto, or you could head further north towards Sirolo, Numana and the Conero area. As an alternative, you could drive west and head towards the southern Maremma beaches. Right next to the border between Lazio (ROme's region) and Tuscany there is Monte Argentario, which is an island that's connected to the mainland by two strips of sand and a bridge. One of the two sandy strips is WWF a natural resrvation, the other is used as beach. Mnte argentario ha two villages, Porto Santo Stefano is the main one and has ferries that depart several times a day to the Giglio Island, while Porto Ercole is an ancient fortress and a very interesting place to stay and/or visit. Monte Argentario is also quite a bit upscale, so you may opt for staying in nearby Talamone (on the mainland), yet another village built around a fortress, or even further nort in Alberese, the village itslef being quite bland, but it has lots of agriturismo places where you could rent a room + breakfast and dinner or a small apartment in a farm. For getting to the beach you will have to reach the nearby Parco Nazionale dell'Uccellina. Acess to the beaches by car is limited and you have to buy tikets, or you may reach them for free by bycile (about 45 healthy minutes each way) or, less healthy and marginally more costly, by bus from the villages orf Alberese and Rispescia. Heading sought, instead, you couod hit Montaldo di Castro/Montalto Marina, also with nice beaches and in the middle of the tucfaceous hill villages area (Pitigliano, Manciano, Capranica, Calcata, etc.). The western option requires a little more drive from Spoleto, likely, but puts you much closer to Rome.
San Benedetto dT is certainly an authentic Italian beach experience, but it's certainly neither untouristy nor small!
If you're not leaving Spoleto until Aug 25, the seaside crowds (wherever you choose) might not be too bad, though. We've spent the last few Augusts in Puglia, and have noticed that after Ferragosto (middle of the month) a lot of the Italian holidaymakers pack up and head back north: the beaches during the last week of August are relatively empty.
Jonathan
Posts: 2751 | Location: Stroud, UK | Registered: 18 November 2001
Thank you all - you have given me a lot of priceless information to ponder. I did realize the distance from Spoleto to Cinque Terre; that is one of the significant reasons that we were looking to stay/see some place new! Thank you again for your advice!
