mykailadudley

Hi. My sister and I, 21 and 17 years, are planning on a trip to Italy around early July. Right now we are faced with deciding whether or not we want to fly into Florence and bum our way to Cinque Terre and Elba OR to go to Sardinia. Either way we DO NOT want to go the tourist route. We want scenic views and landscape, hiking, food, activities, and utter relaxation. Ideally, we would like to be close to a beach, but nothing near big resorts. Think traditional and cultural, nothing built or made up to appeal to visitors.

I would like ideas/advice on which route to take in Italy, whether to visit multiple cities or spend our time in Sardinia alone. Additionally, if anyone recommends staying in Sardinia please provide the best places to stay with neighboring cities and the easiest ways to get there.

I've just been reading so many forums and I just needed to start my own so I can get straight answers for my own. Help!

mykailadudley

Also any thoughts on whether I should include bologna in my trip? I guess I should have mentioned that I don't plan on spending too much time in Italy. I would say 10-14 days max.

willperson

In July cinque Terre will be crawling with tourists, I mean everywhere. You wil here more English than in NYC. It is a beautiful place and one must go before they die but summer is not a good time to relax or be away from tourists.

neckervd

Go to 5Terre if you like English speaking crowds.
Go to Sardinia if you like nature, hiking, beaches and mainly Italian tourists.
Avoid Costa Smeralda, a international snob appeal area where everything costs 5times more than in the rest of Italy.
Good beaches all around the Island; do some research and come again with more specific questions.
Low cost flights from all big European airports to Alghero, Olbia or Cagliari. At least daily ferries from Civitavacchia (Rome) to Olbia, Porto Torres, Arbatax and Cagliari.
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/
http://www.arst.sardegna.it/
http://www.villasimius-costarei.com/spiagge.htm
http://www.santantioco.net/
http://www.sardegnaturismo.it/
http://www.sardinien-bilder.de/tipps...nde-sardinien/
http://www.sardiniapoint.it/6885.html
http://www.paradisola.it/vacanze/catAds.asp?cat_id=23
http://www.sardinien.com/sport/wande...ta_del_sud.cfm
http://www.sardegnadelsudovest.it/paesi/mare/index.htm

Dickie_Gr

Avoid Costa Smeralda is just ridiculously overstated. The billionaires go for a reason, it is one of the most stunning coastal areas of Europe. The only very expensive resort is Porto Cervo which can be 12 euros for a coffee. However, the rest of the coast between Santa Teresa and Olbia has a huge mix in the levels of accommodation offered.

We have a done a two centre trip in the past, worked out really well. Stayed in Lucca for a week and visited Florence from there as it is a short day trip. Then took the ferry to Elba for a week which is very laid back and has a very "local" feel.

Personally, I don't like the feel of some Italian coastal towns. Generally, Italians own or rent holidays villas spend large amounts of the day hanging around the beach and then have family meals back at their villa.

Areas like Sardinia don't have a huge choice of restaurants in relation to the visitors and the towns aren't that vibrant.

Corsica is very different, may be worth looking at the south of the island which has ferries to/from Italy, has beaches as good as Sardinia and has vibrant towns like Bonifacio.

On Sardinia, Olbia is a large enough city but has very little to interest. Alghero and Cagliari have interesting historical areas and good beaches. Both are very well served by Ryanair, Easyjet and Meridiana.

By the way early July is far too early for Sardinia to be very busy. Most Italians take holidays between the last week of July and the end of August. Early July is a perfect time to go, we have visited a number of times during at this time.

Personally I would look at the area around Santa Teresa, it is easy to access the interior of the island, has ferry access to Corisica (one hour), easy ferry access to La Maddalena (30 minutes) and is very close to the Costa Smeralda.

Would you want a hotel or house rental?

dulciusexasperis

You say you want, "We want scenic views and landscape, hiking, food, activities, and utter relaxation. Ideally, we would like to be close to a beach, but nothing near big resorts. Think traditional and cultural, nothing built or made up to appeal to visitors."

Of course you are ignoring the fact that those same things appeal to many tourists. So I think you have to get a bit more realistic in your expectations. You can look for places with LESS tourism but don't expect to find NO tourism. If that were the real case, where would you even find a bed to rent?

In any popular tourist destination area there are almost always less crowded villages or towns you can consider. That is what I think you need to be looking for.

With only 10-14 days, of your two choices I would pick Sardinia. Have a look at the Cala Gonone, Dorgali area.

Dickie_Gr

I missed your strong point about avoiding tourism.

For once dullsex is correct and in particular in relation to Sardinia. Most of the coast which is developed has been developed to attract tourism. Cala Ganone is lovely, small and laid back but it is still essentially a tourist resort.

Bosa is less touristy, as is Saint Antioco but essentially the Sardinian coast is stunning, it attracts tourist.

sandralist

Hi mykailadudley.

The first time I ever went abroad was with my sister when I was 17 and she was 20 and we had a great time for 3 months. Hope your trip is as happy as mine was.

The islands of Sardinia and Elba are really developed for tourists and visitors, although most of them are Italian visitors, if that makes a difference. To get away from the tourist service industry and find towns that are more about producing something like wine, you generally need a car.

Along the Italian Riviera, you can find towns that are pretty and that have practically no tourist profile. and they also have a train station, so it gets easy to move around and do some interesting things and you can even visit le Cinque Terre or some other famous spots, plus get in a lot of hiking.

Do some google searches to see pictures of these towns.

Bogliasco
Chiavari
Zoagli
Bonassola
Sarzana

Also, don't overlook Genoa as part of your plans. Some cruise ships pull into the port but the city is overwhelmingly not about tourism. In between Genoa and the French border, you can find loads of towns along the train line that are totally off the radar for American tourists but still have a lot of charm and great food. (Albenga, Alassio, Noli, Bordighera...) However, there is not much hiking there because it is flatter.

As for Bologna, it is a tremendous small city with 90,000 people your own age. It is the "youngest" city in Italy in that regard (young people outnumber old people 3 to 1, which is not the norm in Italy). If you like pasta it is tops for pasta, and it is not touristy at all except around some of its old food markets. It also has incredible train connections to loads of other places of interest that have very few tourists -- you can visit Modena in 20 minutes, ditto Ferrara (although that gets more tourists) and you are not far from Mantova, Ravenna, Padova and Milan.

Bologna is flat, but you can climb the several hundred stairs up to San Luca,

sandralist

Here's some pictures of Bogliasco

http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/sea...ords=bogliasco

Here's Chiavari

http://www.shantihouse.info/newsite/...riato%201.html

http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/sea...words=chiavari

Zoagli

http://papillon971.blogspot.it/2011/...re-italia.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pumpki...t/tags/zoagli/

Bonassola

https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bonassola

bvlenci

[[ Generally, Italians own or rent holidays villas spend large amounts of the day hanging around the beach and then have family meals back at their villa. ]]

Only a very small number of Italians have villas near the beach. Parts of Sardegna are frequented by very wealthy Italians, and in those areas perhaps there is a dearth of restaurants, although I find it hard to imagine wealthy Italians who don't frequent restaurants regularly.

Most Italian seaside towns have tons of restaurants.

Dickie_Gr

I take it you haven't been to Sardinia.

Most of the development on the coast is tourist driven, small scale villa developments owned by Italians. Most of the villas are small and not expensive and the number of restaurants in the towns are small compared to the size of the developments.

Take trips between Santa Teresa and Bonifacio, not difficult to see the cultural differences.

"Most Italian seaside towns have tons of restaurants"

I wasn't writing about most Italian towns, just those on Sardinia.