Hello all, My wife and I are going to Italy for the first two weeks of October. We are flying into Nice,France and renting a car there as it’s half the cost of renting in Italy. Our plan is to rent a villa in southern Umbria for a week and the other week is open at this point. We are looking for another area to be based out of for a week somewhere between Umbria and Nice. We would like to have Umbria be our southern most point and work back towards Nice.
I have been to Italy on four separate occasions (Umbria,Florence,Rome,Venice) and my wife has not been to Italy. We are open to an apartment in a smaller town or a more semi rural experience in a villa. I’m wondering what area/experience people might think would best compliment our stay in Umbria? We’ve been throwing around the ideas of somewhere on the Italian Riviera or somewhere in Emilia Romagna. While we’re not huge museum goers we do love our food,seeing artisanal food production and anything related to authentic and local foods. Seeing local sights,markets, hiking around a bit etc.. Are there places from Cinque Terre on up thru the Italian Riveria that one could spend a week at that wouldn’t feel too DisneyLandish? The idea of a week near the sea potentially appeals to us. On the other had some charming area of Emilia Romagna (either smallish town/village or countryside) holds appeal for us as well.
I’ve tried to give as much detailed info as I can so people have an idea of our priorities. Any help with brainstorming this part of our trip will be greatly appreciated! I only discovered this site a few weeks ago and it is truly a wonderful resource.
Welcome Vance. I like Liguria very much and believe that it will provide you with a great contrast to your time in Umbria. Landscape and cuisine could not be more different. You could possibly split your time between two Riviera locations. South of Genova is more popular with tourists. You could spend your entire time there with the CT, Portovenere and the larger coastal towns between la Spezia and Genova, but there is much to see to the west of Genova too. I like Finale Ligure as a western Ligurian base. Umbria is a fairly long haul from Nice. I have done that drive from Spello to Nice and I can tell you that you will be spending a lot of time in the car. I am not sure that it makes much sense to rent in France if Umbria is your destination - even if the price is better.
Matt, Thanks for the response! Our gut has been to want to explore that coastal area and we'll do some research regarding it.
Just as an FYI, the price differnce between renting in Nice ($574) and Italy ($1052) is $478 dollars. Even when I back out the addtl fuel and tolls as estimated by ViaMichelin we're still ahead $325 which is important to us. It will be a bit of a drive from Umbria (6.5 hours) however we've decided it's worth it. The scenery we'll see on the way will be a bouus.
Several of our clients have told us about insurance issues when renting a car in other European countries and then driving in Italy. I would triple check this serious issue very carefully to avoid surprises!
