whatdoyoulove

My husband and I are in our late 20s and will be going to Italy the end of July to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I have spent a bit of time in Italy before (we actually got engaged there!), and I studied in Florence when I was in college.

I know we will be flying in and out of Milan and I am planning on spending the first 4 nights of our 8 night stay in a little village on the Riviera called Camogli (about 2 hours from Milan, near Cinque Terre). We stayed here for only two nights when we were in Italy last, and it was definitely not enough. We loved it.

We would love some advice on great cities/towns to visit for the remaining days of our trip. I have wanted to visit a winery, but I am not sure a good tour to choose that feels authentic. As much as I love Florence and Venice, we are hoping to not go anywhere overrun with tourists, or feeling like it is completely catered to Americans. We, like i'm sure everyone reading this, like good food, good wine and trying to have as authentic an experience as possible!

Ease of transportation is huge for us, we don't have a lot of money, and need to travel almost exclusively by train. Ideas I have, but would love recommendations further, are a winery tour (any specific recommendations?), I have read some lovely things about Bologna, is this worth a couple of days? Anyway, any advice would be great. We will probably spend the final day in Milan to have easy access to the airport.

Thank you!

sandralist

Maybe you would like to go to Torino? Lots to do, easy to get to by train from both Camogli and Milano, and loads of fun food and a great wine and cocktail scene in the evenings. Torino is really quite a contrast from Florence, and yet it is totally Italian and very important to the history of Italy. It is quite easy to go from Torino to Asti for a day trip, where you could explore sparkling white wine production. It's probably not impossible to find a tour out of Torino where you could visit Barolo wineries -- but don't know the cost.

You would definitely need to get a place with air conditioning in July. Check out airbnb.

If you prefer something much smaller, consider Pavia, on the train line between Camogli and Milan. Quite a few interesting things to see there in a beautiful univeristy town, and I'm pretty sure you could very easily set up a winery tour in the nearby vineyards, probably through your b&b or hotel or airbnb host, and probably not too expensive. You can also take a fast day trip to Milan or even Bologna, plus there are smaller towns around on the commuter trains.

Bologna can be very rewarding (you'd need to go through Milan to get there). I highly recommend a day trip to Ravenna as part of that stay. Maybe Ferrara too if you like to bicycle, or Parma if you like beautiful church frescoes. Hard to know what to suggest for a winery visit though. Not many in easy reach.

You need air con for all the places I'm mentioning (I'd even want it for Camogli in July, but you can survive without it).

sandralist

For a first year anniversary, sparking wine in the underground spumante cathedrals near Torino might feel quite appropriate (and cool in July):

http://www.iitaly.org/18826/undergro...ellars-canelli

yorkshire

When I visited Camogli, I paired it with a little dip into Piedmont. We wanted to use public transport, so we visited Asti and Alba, which were a snap to visit between Milan and Genoa. I'm sure winery tours can be arranged with the tourist office. http://www.langheroero.it/
my trip report: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...or-liguria.cfm

whatdoyoulove

sandralist and yorkshire - THANK YOU!!! So helpful already. I really appreciate it.

Sassafrass

Sandralist, I will use your advice also. Sounds like wonderful alternatives to the usual biggies.