my wife and i are spending 3 weeks in italy in may. we have been to italy twice mainly hitting the major urban destinations - rome florence, venice, naples along with amalfi coast and pompei and vesuvius. this time we plan to see more of the rural side of italy. our first week we are going to spend in the eastern part of campania and the last week in tuscany -barga. we need recommendations for central italy - umbria? abruzzo? le marche? want to stay in one location for a week, don't have to see everything. would like a base where we could take day trips to small towns and villages, perhaps run out to the adriatic. even though i taught history for 35 years, we don't tend to seek out historical sights. instead we try to absorb as much of the local culture as possible.
a week in rural central italy in mid-may
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Assisi as a base in Umbria.
We did 10 days there last year and with day trips to Lake Trasimeno, Deruta, Spoleto, Cortona, Gubbio, Spello and Perugia.
These are just a few of the possibilities. There are many more found in this forum.
Assisi is not normally considered a base but we have spent much time there. It is very beautiful, serene and relaxing. Most tourist day trip there so the evenings belong to you and the locals.
THANKS, JIM21
We stayed here earlier this year and fell in love with Le Marche. If you are interested in cooking and food the cooking lessons may be of interest to you!
http://www.latavolamarche.com/html/
Your Barga location will be too far to explore Siena, Chianti and southern Tuscany, so I'd consider spending the week somewhere south of Siena. Or maybe near Cortona for easy drives to several towns in both Umbria and southern Tuscany.
We just returned last night from a wonderful trip. One of the highlights was Frances Lodge outside of Siena. It was about 10-15 minutes drive from Siena so dinner in town was easy (once you figured out parking; we used the S Francisco lot and took the 5 escalators up into town). We loved the lodge, and especially the innkeepers Frances and Franco. They helped us plan intineraries for 3 days, including some stops we didn't know about. Each came with a map and their directions. We had easy day trips south and north and one day in the Chianti region. Siena is central enough for some great day trips.