annhig

It is possible that this trip may not happen, [DH not showing his customary enthusiasm, for some reason] but in the back of my mind and moving towards the front I have the following plan:

fly into Bologna [two reasons - I've never been and Ryanair have really cheap flights there out of Bristol], stay 2-3 nights, then work out way over to the Tyrrhenian [west] coast ending in Orbetello or Porto Ercole before flying home from Rome on Easyjet 12 days later.

my main question is where to stay between Bologna and Orbetello - looking at the map, we can choose between the obvious route which would skirt Florence [which I've no desire to return to on a driving holiday] or to take what looks like a more interesting route via Ravenna, Arezzo, Cortona?, and Pitigliano.

not having stayed at any of these places, I've no idea which would make the best bases, and how long to stay in each. we would be travelling in about a month's time, pre-booking the first 2 nights and possibly the last 2, but otherwise just seeing where we end up. On the whole we like to spend our nights in towns where there are shops and sights to see and we can walk to a new restaurant every night and drink a bottle of wine without worrying about driving.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts you may care to share.

bobthenavigator

Good for you Ann!
Keep that fertile brain active and always dreaming.

If this trip were mine I know what I would do---assuming no car. I would see Parma and Perugia. If you have not done Lucca I would consider that. Just my thoughts!
I know you love Orbetello.

PalenQ

Perugia is one of the nicer places I've been - a large university city with just a pleasant joie-de-vivre feeling and a great base from which to hop to nearby Todi and Gubbio - two really neat old smaller towns as well as to Assisi and Cortona and so many other neat towns.

Stayed in Arezzo once and though it was a nice town IMO cannot compare to Perugia, Assisi, Cortona - has some old parts but fairly modern compared to others in look and feel.

Orvieto is of course en route to Rome and makes a sweet stopover as well.

TDuTwo

Hub and I based in Perugia and loved it. Except for Cortona, where we didn't go, loved the towns Pal mentioned above. We also loved Spoleto.

Hope the trip is a go!

bvlenci

I myself really like Arezzo; I consider it the quintessential Tuscan city, meaning the real Tuscan, not the tourist-industry Tuscan. I really like it better than Perugia, and definitely more than Cortona.

I suppose you wouldn't consider a diversions into Le Marche?

sandralist

Without knowing what time of year you are traveling it is harder to make suggestions. It is already warming up in Bologna, but given your past posts, I would have thought Bologna would be the kind of Italian city you would enjoy for more than 2 or 3 nights. I think you would want to see the morning market in Modena, among other things, and the birthplace of Luciano Pavarotti.

Then I would train to Ravenna for 2 nights without bothering with a car until you are done.

Then with the car I would take a route from Ravenna to Urbino, Gubbio, Perugia (but watch out for the jazz festival), Orvieto, Pitgliano, Porto Ercole.

If you are going without reservations, you might have to visit the name spots but sleep a few miles elsewhere -- often turns out to be quite charming. Agriturismi and alberghi ristoranti can be a lot of fun. But if you prefer a town, there are plenty to choose from if you are not fixated on ones you have heard of.

sandralist

By the way, if you would rather go to Arezzo than Perugia (I like them both equally) then I would pick a road tripping route that got me to lunch or sleeping in some of the following towns, in this order:

Ravenna>Urbino>Sant'Angelo in Vado>Arezzo>Lucignano>Buonconvento/San Galgano>Porto Ercole>Pitigliano>Orvieto>Rome

sandralist

I just realized you did say you would be traveling "in about a month's time." I don't think you need to worry about reservations (or the Perugia jazz festival).

In the last part of May the town of Lucignano does its La Maggiolata festival. Definitely soemthing to see if you are in the neighborhood

http://www.togethertuscany.com/2014/...ata-lucignano/

thursdaysd

I used Ferrara as a base for a day trip to Ravenna (loved, loved the mosaics!) and enjoyed it much more than I expected. It is a nice (flat!) city for wandering or cycling around, and has a moated castle/palace that was worth seeing. I stayed here: http://www.borgonuovo.com/

TDuTwo

We easily trained to Ravenna from our Bologna base. Faience, Ferrara and Parma were also on the list but we ran out of time. So you could be carless.

annhig

thank you all, I knew that you could be trusted to come up with enough ideas for several trips.

I can see that we could probably base ourselves in Bologna for a week or so, but we would probably stay 3 nights [possibly including a day trip to Ravenna] then pick up a car and follow more or less sandralist's ideas, including Lucignano on a Sunday! [nice idea, thanks].

I think that we would probably omit Orvieto as we went on a day trip from Rome as few years ago, and would prefer to see a few new places preferably with fewer tourists.

blvenci - I would certainly consider diverting over into Le Marche but it would have to be at the expense of somewhere else. Where would you particularly suggest? I should like to end up in/near Orbetello as I know that being able to swim in the lagoon is one of the things that may sell the trip to DH.

sandralist

I don't know which of my two itineraries appealed to you, but here is another one if you decide to take a day trip to Ravenna by train rather than have a car.

Rent the car in Bologna on your last day in Bologna about 5pm and drive to Savigno to have dinner and spend the night at Amerigo dal 1934.

The next morning I would drive to somewhere in the Mugello area north of Florence for lunch and bit of sightseeing (Scarperia? Vaglia? Londa?) before heading on into the Arezzo/Lucignano area.

You might want to avoid Arezzo proper on a weekend unless you are very keen to be part of its antiques market. Generally speaking, when I have a car, I like to go to places that don't have train stations, figuring those are destinations I'll be able to get to some other time.

If you are going directly from Bologna to Arezzo, and you would like to spend a night in Arezzo, then consider taking the train to Arezzo, and only picking up a car in Arezzo when you truly need one (and you will need one to get to Lucignano on a Sunday).

If you end up sold on the idea of Le Marche, I had a nice stay at Hotel Nene right outside of Urbino, which included a memorable meal at their restaurant. I would probably only go mid-week however, since I imagine it gets weddings once the weather turns nice.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...no_Marche.html

annhig

thanks for the ideas, sandralist. I think that the idea of yours that i liked most was this one:

Ravenna>Urbino>Sant'Angelo in Vado>Arezzo>Lucignano>Buonconvento/San Galgano>Porto Ercole>Pitigliano>Orvieto>Rome

I would forget about Orvieto, and go to Pitigliano en route to the coast, and try to fit in a night at the ristorante-albergo Nene which as you say, would be nice for a mid-week stay, but probably not a weekend.

annw

What a wonderful trip is brewing!

Let me plea for Ravenna -- walkable, pleasant old center (no cars--bikes and people!), reasonable prices, lovely passagiata, World Heritage mosaic sites; Basilica of San Vitale must not be missed! Good food -- evening snacks with drinks at the local restaurants then good Emilia-Romagna cuisine. If you consider staying over a night or two the prices are much lower than Bologna much of the time given the conferences in Bologna that jack up those prices.

If I had more time in the area and wanted to get out of Ravenna on a future trip I would go for Modena and Parma.

I've also spent some time in Perugia and loved it -- staying up in the old town (you take tiny red cable cars up from the train station--they also have multiple gigantic escalators) you experience gorgeous views, another wonderful passagiata, good food and drink. From Perugia I've visited Spello and Assisi, staying overnight in Assisi to capture the mood after the day tourists have left.

Arezzo never did capture my heart; i may need to give it another chance.

A lifelong dream is to get to Urbino; haven't made it yet but eager for a trip report

Brooke_Herron

Loved Ravenna, and Parma (sounds like this is cut out though), out of all these spots. Charming, beautiful cities I would love to have wandered around more! The mosaics in Ravenna, and just a great city to walk around, not as busy or hectic; I plan to go back

Have a great trip!

sandralist

If you go with a plan to do Ravenna as a day trip from Bologna, and you also want to include Urbino as part of this road holiday, then check into the logistics of leaving Bologna by train for Pesaro, and picking up a rental car there, rather than driving all that distance from Bologna.

If you decide to go to Ravenna and overnight there, then pick up a car in Ravenna in the morning and see the mosaics inside the basilica of Sant'Apollinaire in Classe (about 10 kms south of Ravenna) and then drive on to Urbino. (For a special treat, stop in Sant'Arcangelo in Romagna for lunch.)

For what it's worth, for a trip of 12 days, I would think twice about including Bologna, Ravenna, Urbino and Arezzo all in the same trip. All four are cities with substantial attractions, and while it is possible to just spend a focused day in each, it can feel pretty dissatisfying. Arezzo is probably the least surprising if you have seen other Tuscan art cities and the easiest to postpone for a future trip -- or, if you are headed to Lucignano this trip, it is easy to squeeze Arezzo back in if you find you are running ahead of "schedule" and have the energy and interest. But I would either drop Arezzo or drop Urbino, and thus leave yourself more time for poking around smaller no-tourist towns like Sant'Angelo in Vado, Lucignano or Buonconvento, or Magliano in Toscana near Orbetello.

If you don't mind day trips, you might want to see Pitigliano as a daytrip from Orbetello. That way, leaving Lucignano, you could see the abbey of San Galgano on the way to Orbetello, or Buonconvento on the way (or both).

One other tip: In Ravenna, visit the chruch of San Francesco and look under the altar.

nononora

Ferrara - don't overlook Ferrara! Marvelous.

bilboburgler

I suspect I cannot interest in riding a bike up the PO valley taking Padua, Ferrara, etc.

Don't forget the monestry above Buonconvento (to the east) there is also a restaurant about a mile before the monestry the "little" something which Mrs Bilbo and I staggered into and had a great meal. There is easting at the monestry at the gatekeep but it looked expensive and comments from customers were un-impressive.

Vttraveler

I haven't been to most places you are considering other than Bologna and Ravenna. The trip you are planning is one my husband and I would like to take so I will be interested seeing where you decide to stop. Ravenna is amazing and definitely worth a day trip if not an overnight.

annhig

Thank you all so much for your continuing ideas and suggestions. however, I now have an update on our plans - if we go at all, it will only be for a week or so. boo hiss. so this will be a trip centring on Bologna and where we can get to within that very short time.

so these are my new questions - stay in Bologna and do day trips? or stay somewhere else and do day trips? or rent a car immediately on arrival and go to?

I'm looking at the possibility of doing a big loop going up to Ferrara, then the Po delta, [Comacchio looks interesting] down to Ravenna, and back to Bologna. or should we go the other way to Modena and Parma?

How much of that could we reasonably fit into a week? would we run into problems with ZLTs in those places?