My wife and I hope to go to Italy for 2 weeks in April 2011, and I'm doing some very preliminary planning/fantasizing. We want to spend a week in Venice, then train or drive somewhere more rural for a week in the country.
On our last trip we spent a week in Venice and then a week at an agritourismo in Tuscany. I'd like to do something similar this time, but maybe a bit closer to Venice--somewhere we can use as a base for driving around and exploring back roads and small towns. I'm not looking for specific lodging recs, but a general geographic area that we could reach in a few hours from Venice with scenic towns and good food/wine.
1. the area around Perugia for trips to interesting places in Umbria such as Assisi, Gubbio, etc.
2. The area around Parma and Modena for trips to cheese and balsamic vinegar makers, and/or to Bologna for all-around fine food, a day in Florence (1 hour by train), etc.
Charnee Smit: Italian in a previous life.
Posts: 409 | Location: San Leandro, CA | Registered: 21 September 2007
Hi Chuck - If you want to stay close to Venice and have a good base in a country atmosphere i would suggest looking into Asolo to the north of Treviso.
Friuli Venezia Giulia, northeast of Venice, has some of Italy's best wines. It's an intriguing region, once the crossroads of trade for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Venetians and the Slavic states, so you see this exotic mix in the food and architecture. Pretty scenery in mountains, hills, seaside too. I especially liked the pretty town of Cividale near Udine and city of Trieste.
Fred Plotkin, author of Italy For The Gourmet Traveler, loves this area and wrote a splendid book on it, La Terra Fortunata, focusing on food, history and the different cultures.
I like Margaret's suggestion. This is an area that gets bypassed a lot by visitors in Italy. Besides the excellent food and wines, there is a lot to do and see in this area too...
One slightly off the beaten track option, is the wetland conservation area near Comacchio. I'm not entirely sure it's what you're looking for, but thought I'd throw it in as something in the vicinity, and a potential antidote to the Venice crowds.
regards
Ian
Drink coffee, do stupid things faster
Posts: 306 | Location: UK | Registered: 20 September 2008
A few years ago, we stayed in a great little agriturismo about an hour from Venice. From there we visited some Palladian villas, Padua, Treviso, Vicenza, and Verona. My report for that part of our trip starts here.
The week before that, on the same trip, we were in Bologna, and the first part of that trip report describes the day trips we took from there. I'd recommend either of those areas as very rewarding to visit.
- Roz
Edited to add: I just noticed that the URL for the agriturismo where we stayed has changed since I posted my trip report. Here is the correct link: Villa Mocenigo
Taking you in a different direction, but Udine is a beautiful town with access to the parts of Italy that still carry a lot of Austrian influence. A very different look, sound, and feel from other parts of Italy (but maybe similar to what you would be getting in Bolzano).
Posts: 722 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: 22 May 2006
Consider the hilly area to the south between Bologna and Modena. Few tourists, small towns, scenic drives, wine trails, balsamic vinegar factories, parmesan cheese making operations, great food, with the possiblity of trips into Bologna, Modena, Parma, Ferrara, etc. (I recommend the train, which is quite convenient, vs driving into those cities). The only drawback is a derth of places to stay in the countryside, but there are a few. See my rental review of Ca Gioiosa.
---Marlene
Posts: 643 | Location: Boston, MA | Registered: 11 May 2004
I suggest Verona as a very good location for you. Its just one and a half hours drive to Venice, a couple hours to Milano, one and a half hours to Bologna. Close to the mountains of Northern Italy and Dolomite if you want to go north into hill towns. Its just minutes to Lake Garda and the Bardolino and Valpolicella wine region. Autostrada connections to North, South, East and West are right there. And of course there is Verona with it's Arena, Roman Theatre, and beautiful historic churches and art. Why not chose Verona?
Yes, to Verona for all the reasons mentioned! It's only an hour to Trento too. Plus the hills are beautiful, it's in wine country (isn't all of Italy), Garda, mountains. perfect base.
Posts: 627 | Location: Logan, Utah, USA | Registered: 02 June 2006
Originally posted by MikeOhio: I suggest Verona as a very good location for you. Its just one and a half hours drive to Venice, a couple hours to Milano, one and a half hours to Bologna. Close to the mountains of Northern Italy and Dolomite if you want to go north into hill towns. Its just minutes to Lake Garda and the Bardolino and Valpolicella wine region. Autostrada connections to North, South, East and West are right there. And of course there is Verona with it's Arena, Roman Theatre, and beautiful historic churches and art. Why not chose Verona?
For my money, this is the best answer here. It has everything you asked for Villas a plenty nearby to visit, fascinating Vicenza, wine, great food (lots of it) and the Austrian flavour a stone thrown further north. If you want, you visit Trento from here too. At 120kms is only about one hour by car.
Except that the original request was for someplace more rural and scenic. I really liked Verona, but it is not rural. Perhaps someone knows of a place in the country with easy access to Verona and other nearby places of interest.
Actually, Chuck, if you want to tackle the drive to Piemonte, that is a more scenic area than Emilia-Romagna and the Veneto. This is not to put down those regions, which have much to offer, but the generally flat terrain there is much less scenic than the Piemonte. We also have quite a few reviews of favorite agriturismos in Piemonte.
