tdiddy23

Was hoping to have some fine tuning of my trip this fall (Sept 20- Oct 1).

As planned now:

3 nights in hotel Rosa Alpina, Badia, Dolomites; going to do some day hikes, relax in hotel etc

Considering 1 night on lake garda in an upscale hotel

4 nights Piedmont, booked Villa Altea in Mango 20 mins outside Alba, focus here will be food and wine

2 nights Milan, booked tickets to Opera on last night

Fly out
We will rent a car.

Couple of questions :
1. On Sunday Sept 24, worth spending one night on the lake? Too late in season? Would we be better off driving straight to Piedmont area? Perhaps one night in Verona instead?

2. Villa Altea in Mango close enough to Alba/main wineries etc? Not the typical sort of place we'd stay but got good reviews and already stretched out hotel budget with first place. Think we'd be better off with a standard hotel in town?

3. Would you add an extra day in Milan instead of Piedmont (or instead of Lake Garda)? Unlikely we will be back any time soon

Thanks so much for input!

massimop

It won't be worth spending a night on the lake if it is raining. At that time of year you can pretty much make it up on the spot -- wait until you know what the weather is -- with 2 exceptions:

1) Verona hosts a lot of trade fairs, so booking a hotel last minute can be a problem. Plus, it is a nuisance to drive a car into Verona, so if it is raining and you'd rather not be lakeside, consider alternatives for the overnight. My picks would be (depending on weather) Trento, Lodi, Pavia or Vercelli

2) The Piemonte cheese fair in Alba and other touristic events in Oct in Piemonte make it hard to book Piemonte last minute in October

As for adding a day to Milan, 2 more things to consider:

1) Malpensa airport is an easy point of entry or departure for trips to Italy. Sure you won't be back again?

2) Your trip, up until Milan, is almost entirely devoid of locations with significant art & cultural sights, or urban buzz. If you really enjoy either, there is a lot to enjoy in Milano. If you have been dreaming of beautiful scenery and vineyard lunches, you aren't obliged to spend extra time in Milan to be a cultural tourist.

As to the question about a hotel whose prices stretch your budget but gets middling reviews: There are lots of great b&bs around Alba and wineries in Piemonte, and not necessarily a lot of great places to eat inside Alba. If you are planning an eating vacation in Piemonte, figure out first where you are going to be eating dinner, then try to find a b&b convenient to those trattorie or restaurants.

Jean

Where are you flying in and out?

If you're landing in Venice, were you considering driving immediately to Badia? That's easily a 3-hour drive.

If Sept. 20 and Oct. 1 are your travel days, and the nights in Milan are fixed, I'd pick the Dolomites (with a couple of nights in Verona or at Lake Garda) or the Piemonte (with a couple of nights in the Aosta Valley area). Not both the Dolomites and the Piemonte.

tdiddy23

Thanks massimop for the tips. I hadn't thought about leaving one night accommodation unbooked but maybe that's the best option. I'll take a look at the other spots and see if any really jump out.

Thats helpful to know re food in Alba. I've often found staying in nearby countryside a bit more charming and relaxing than in a town so maybe we will just stick with the place we have. Reviews are good and close enough to some restaurants i have my eye on, just had a couple bad experiences with small b&b style places in the past (ie locked out returning from dinner, awkward breakfast conversations etc) but the cost savings vs a place like Relais San Maurizio is quite significant.

Jean, thanks for your feedback. We are flying into Munich and out of Milan. Pretty excited for both Dolomites and Piemontes so not likely to change this (we have already done hike from chamonix-zermat so felt dolomites more unique). Am quite comfortable with long distance driving.

Byrd

We really liked staying in Trento last fall. It's such a pretty place, full of big beautiful trees, with several interesting sites.
We took day trips by rail, including to Bolzano to see the "ice man". Grand Hotel Trento is lovely.

massimop

If I'm not mistaken you can easily take a fast train from Munich to Bolzano or some other Italian alpine city (Brunico? Bressanone?) with car rental offices. I would think there is an enormous cost savings to renting the car in Italy if you are dropping it off in Italy. Plus it is much easier to handle the short-distance mountain driving. If you have never been to the Dolomiti, the mountain passes are challenging. In fact, if you like the plan to take the train into Italy to rent the car there, study a map to see which is the least demanding route to Rosa Alpina (i.e., through a river valley rather than over a mountain pass). It might be that it makes sense to overshoot a bit south on the fast train and "backtrack" than get off at the first stop in Italy with a car rental office.

As for your Piemonte b&b, if you confide your lock-out bad experience to the proprietors they can reassure, and it is always good to have a cell phone, whereby you can text message or call proprietors when you are leaving a restaurant to let them know you're soon arriving.

After a couple of restaurant meals in Piemonte its unlikely you'll want breakfast anyway. just an espresso and cookie you can take out onto the terrace and enjoy while you look at the view.

tdiddy23

Thanks again everyone, here is my report.

We landed in Munich, drove to Dolomites staying in val badia. Did Cinque torri open air museum hike and puez odle alotpiano in val gardina. Lucked out with some great weather but snow skirting sides of the roads, blown away by how pretty this area is. Ate at our hotel restaurants all three nights, as my wife was pretty tired (and not too pleased with me ) after second hike. Restaurant St Hubertous impressively demonstrated the Tyrol cuisine, the more casual restaurant was quite pleasant as well.
We then drove down beside lake garda stopped for a few photos, stopped and sampled some wine in Valpolicella (Fratelli vogadori was luckily open on a Sunday with an advanced phone call) and picked up a great bottle of Amarone. We stayed in a small town near our restaurant that night, Del Pascatore. Called Hotel Palazzo Quaranta. People were friendly, good breakfast, cute little village square. Del Pascatore was great, best meal of trip, lived up to expectations and then some. The tortelli with pumpkin will not be forgotten any time soon.
Next day we drove to Cremona, walked around the town, really pretty piazza. Then went to Pavia, had lunch in Antica Osteria del Previ. Was decent local food, nothing spectacular. Neither Pavia or Cremona felt overly touristy at all glad we stopped. Drove on to Piedmonte, we stayed in a really eccentric but beautiful bed and breakfast villa althea near Mango. We ate at Trattoria Coccinella, Osteria Veglio, Il centro (lots of truffle classics) for dinner, all recommendations from chowhound. For lunch L’aromatario, first taste of tajarin with truffles in Nieve after wine tasting, matteo morra which we just stumbled open after barolo tasting, was empty a bit upscale ,very good, more truffles. Had lunch at Piazza Duomo, heard mixed reviews but wanted to try a modern place with all our traditional meals, went a la carte to avoid disappointment. Really enjoyed the meal start to finish and would recommend. Interestingly truffles here were the cheapest of all restaurants contrary to what I’ve read elsewhere.

Visited Ca’ Del Baio, lovely wine and people; Paolo Manzone, similar great people and wine, enoteca regionale del Barolo and Barbaresco worth a stop to sample at your own pace.

Last stop was Milan. Explored the city, went to Pasticceria Marchesi, luni panzerotti, had an apertivo at Ceresio 7, great vibe and spot; grabbed some breakfast food at Peck. Did some shopping in zona solari, checked out corso como. Duomo rooftop. We ate dinner at Seta, very solid cooking, had too much wine to remember much more but was a good spot. Last night we went to Teatro Scala, wonderful opera.

We both really loved this holiday, best trip in a long time. Dolomites are spectacular, would love to go back skiing some day. The food of piedmonte blew me away, every meal was really solid, friendly people. Loved the cuisine of this region much more than Almafi or especially Tuscany. I typically prefer French food over Italian but Piedmonte/Del Pescatore may have me rethinking this. The aged Barolo/barberessco that we could afford particularly in the traditional restaurants vs back home in Canada was also unbelievable. My new favourite wine. Would go back to this region in a heartbeat.

massimop

People who like French food often prefer Piemonte to the olive oil regions of Italy, since butter and cheese really dominate the Piemonte table. I share your feelings about Tuscan cuisine, but since I tend not to eat much butter, meat or cheese, I'm a shoulder shrugger about Piemonte's cuisine. although I do appreciate its wines, rice dishes and chocolates.

Just in general northern Italy has enough income to support the Michelin star places like Del Pescatore and Piazza Duomo, so you'll find more fine dining experiences there than points longitudinally south of Cremona. If you plan another trip to the Dolomiti, consider swinging the other way next time to tour Friuli-Venezia-Giulia if you have an appetite for adventure.

You were quite lucky with the dry warm weather -- so dry some areas north of Torino suffered fires this year.

ekscrunchy

Thanks for the report. I'm playing around with a few ideas for a trip next year. Never been to Dolomites and would visit in late spring or late summer.

Did you find Rosa Alpina worth the price tag? Any comments on the hotel?


I checked their booking system and they appear to be booked from late September through the end of 2018; perhaps they've not opened those dates yet. Also booked most of spring. Again, fear with the scenery-based trips is that we would encounter poor weather...anyway, thanks again for the report..the food sounds outstanding.

JoyC

Hi tiddy23!

Thanks for your wonderful report. We are doing exactly the same thing next year - Dolomiti and Piemonte areas. We have been to the Dolomites, skiing in the Val Gardena area but wanted to see the area without the snow in early Fall.

I wanted to ask if the cost of your car rental was not prohibitive - renting in Munich and returning in Milan?

tdiddy23

Couple points.

The car rental was expensive, probably an extra 300 euros or so for Germany to Italy one way. If you have time alternative was to train into Bozen and rent from there. The places I looked into didn't have automatic cars available so we just ate the extra charge of Munich one way, was worth the reduced hassle imho.

We got a really good rate on Rosa Alpina near the end of their season. I think they close between summer and winter so that may be the issue. Service at the hotel was excellent, as was the sauna/spa. Room itself was well appointed but not spectacular or anything. Breakfast was amazing, overall I'd probably say its worth the full price just don't expect a crazy room.