suetibu

Hi,

We are planning a 2 -3 week trip this July.

1st week is planned : Amalfi coast -4 days (SET), Rome/Siena - 3 days (considering)

2nd week : week long rental, with car WHERE?


Background: We have previously visited Italy 3 years ago in May (1 week Siena, 1 week Montepulciano, 2 nights Rome). We love Val d'orcia and would gladly spend another week there, BUT is there another region we should consider??

Looking for: Peace and quiet, pretty landscape, living in an agriturismo close to a small village or in a small village. Willing to travel to Italy/France - hav'nt booked tickets but would be open-jaw. Not interested in museums/must sees.. Looking to relax, cook, drive, sleep..We live in NYC, so looking for a change of pace

Mille grazie,

S

ira

Hi S,

You are looking for an uncrowded region in IT or FR during the peak season.

You might wish to consider the Vosges in southern France.

Zerlina

The countryside in Italy - sea, mountains (or hills), lakes - doesn't really get too crowded in early July. It only starts getting bad in August, when Italians flee from the cities to the country.

zeppole

Consider le Marche in Italy, either in the countryside near Urbino or the countryside near Ascoli Piceno (or divide the time between both) or stay right in the middle in Cingoli or San Severino Marche


http://www.le-marche.com/

http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/ascopic.htm#

http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/urbino.htm#

http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/cingoli.htm#

http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/sansev.htm#


This is a great food and wine region. The driving is more mountainous than the val d'Orcia but the roads are excellent. The region is studded with agriturismi, and organic food is prized in that region. Lots of stunning natural beauty -- the Piano Grande, caves, rushing rivers, even cliff-beach towns in the south -- but also very pretty small towns, utterly untouched by mass tourism. NO crowds.

abbydog

I second Le Marche! In late June the only vacationers I saw there were Italians. Peaceful, beautiful, with amazing cities where there are more monks and nuns than tourists in the churches.

sheila

It Italy, look at the Apuanian Alps (the mountains about the Cinque Terre. beautiful; good food, but very little known.

In France, Gascony- but away from the coast.

toni_g_b

I couldn't agree more that le Marche would fit the description of what you're looking for. We were there in Urbino and surroundings in August and even then it was quiet and uncrowded. The scenery was majestic, the people very friendly. I'd love to return some day.

But another region to consider is Piemonte. We were there the 1st part of July, staying in both Alba and Torino. Again, quiet and uncrowded with wonderful scenery for country drives to visit nearby villages. By happenstance we would find ourselves in the various towns on market day and I don't know if I'll ever again taste such marvelous produce. We would make roadside picnics of cherries (who knew there were so many varieties), watermelon, cherry tomatoes, and a roll and salami. Simply amazing!

zeppole

I was about to include both Piemonte and the entroterra of Liguria in my response, but in July in can get very hot and muggy, and the logical escape becomes the close-at-hand seaside, which can be jammed with traffic and crowds, or the Alps, which can get very busy with heat-escaping tourists. But if you can get up in the hills with a pool, you will find it peaceful I'm sure, and picnics would be just the way to go.

It's not clear to me if sheila means the Apuan Alps near the Ligurian-Tuscan border, or the Marittime Alps which form the spine of the mountains the create le Cinque Terre and extend all the way into France. I agree that hte Apuan alps, on up into the Garfagnana, are unknown territory to most tourists (including me by and large) and that if you stick to the mountains above the coast between le Cinque Terre and France, in an agriturismo with a swimming pool, you can almost have Italy to yourself. About the only places with summer v tourist impact are areas right around le Cinque Terre (Montemarcello), Torriglia (near Genova) and around Apricale/Perinaldo/Triora near the French border. And it's all beautiful.

By the way, the NYTimes published an article today about escaping the crowds in July in Tuscany by going to the val d'Orcia in December. Snow and impassable roads aside, I think it is more interesting to go to an area of Italy that doesn't EVER get mass tourism.

suetibu

This is beautiful... Am looking now!!

Thank you,

S