Hi!

I'm keen to organise an 8 day (ish) trip next May for my partner and I.

I was hoping to organise a 4 day via ferrata trek followed by 4 days in a foodie city, relaxing and exploring. Happy to hire a car and do some driving, but have no idea where to start on any of this!!

I don't know whether to book accomodation and who to organise the walks with. Whether piemonte is the nearest "foodie" city to drive to etc.. etc...

Help and advice from the experienced members here would be hugely appreciated.

Kind thanks,
Helen

Piemonte is not a city in Italy, it is a region -- in the same way that Texas is a region of the US, or Manitoba is in Canada.

Anyway, it is not the closest "foodie" destination to the Dolomiti. The mountains of Trentino-Alto Adige themselves are foodie destinations, plus the neighboring region of Friuli-Venezia -- home of Lidia Bastianich . Both are considered wonderful food regions of Italy, and both have some of the very best wines in Italy.

To get insight into how to eat and drink fantastically during your trip next May, get your hands on Fred Plotkin's "Italy for the Gourmet Traveler." It covers every region of Italy in detail, with specific restaurant recommendations (some with lodgings too). The word "gourmet" in the title does not mean "high priced". It means delicious. Most of the recommendations are moderately priced, family run eatieries. They serve authentic traditional cuisine, much of which you can taste nowhere else on the planet. This book. has long been considered THE BOOK for the best guide to eating in Italy, and it has just been updated this year.

PS: In May, if you want to follow up your mountain climbing adventures with a pure foodie adventure strolling on flat sidewalks, you can consider driving down out of the hills into such amazing food destinations as Cremona, Mantova, Modena, Parma and Bologna. They are filled with art treasures too.

But you have plenty of time to plan. Plotkin's book will give you descriptions and maps that you can choose destinations with truly expert advice.

Some of the best food I have ever had in 16 trips to Italy was in the Dolomites---at the Hotel Grones in Ortisei. Also a fine hotel and a good centro location for day tripping in the Dolomites.

You might enjoy reading this from Bon Appetit:

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2...ly_at_its_peak

With this link you can read Mario Batali on the food of Trentino, where he also relies on Plotkin's recommendations, and you can click on the regions of Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia to talk about his admiration for cuisines as well, plus the Dolomiti or near to it:

http://www.mariobatali.com/exploreItalyDtl.cfm?rid=18

I would second Zeppole's suggestion of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in May. It is one of the best eating months there, what with sublime white asparagus in Tavagnacco and elsewhere, all sorts of spring vegetables and cheeses, new wine from the previous year, and sclopit, an herb that makes a brief annual appearance in risotto and elsewhere. Plus meadows full of flowers in the Bassa Friulana (the plains south of the wine zone). You can also do good hiking in the Carnia alps in the northern part of the region, basing in Tarvisio or Arta Terme.

May is quite early in the season for a via ferrata trip. Via ferrata are generally in the higher elevations in the Dolomites (where the terrain is steepest), and there will still be snow at the higher elevations in May. This is probably more of an issue for the approach hikes to the via ferrata than for the climbs themselves.

Also, many via ferrata are best accessed using ski lifts, some of which operate only during ski season and in the summer.

If May is the only month you can do this trip, you'll probably have to do some research to find via ferrata that are at lower elevations, and/or on south-facing terrain. If you can move the trip a bit later in the season, you'll likely have more choices for via ferrata.