Help - Last Minute Italy Planning
 

Ladies & Gentlemen,

We are a couple flying in (sept 29 evening) and out (oct 9 morning) from Malpensa airport. We have been juggling around our dates, but unable to come up with a final itinerary and need your help. This is our third visit to Italy and we have already done with Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice (cities) in previous visits. We heard a lot about agritourismo in Italy and in this trip we are planning to do lot of farmstays in a vineyard or olive farm and if available go for wine harvesting festival/olive picking part. We also do not plan to drive a car, so its either train/bus or taxi.

Kindly let suggest what cities/town we should stay (we are looking to spend 3-4 nights in 2 destinations and another day or two in Milan) and if you can recommend any places to stay/restaurants (I eat everything, but wife is vegetarian), we would greatly appreciate your help.

Regards,
Reddy

What you are looking for, agriturismos in cities/towns and no car, are incompatible. Public transits of any kind, travel through population agglomerations. Agriturismo are farms where there are more land than people. You will not find agriturismos in cities/towns. Meal is another issue. Unless the agriturismo offers full board, you have to get out for lunch and dinner to a nearby town possibly many kilometers away. How would you do this without a car especially coming back late at night?

If you choose not to drive, you have hardly scratched destinations reachable without a car.

Just around Milan, there are Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. Just to the south are numerous cities in Emilia Romagna especially Bologna.

Then there are many other cities in Tuscany reachable by public transit: Siena, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Cortona, etc.

Going more south there are Umbrian cities well connected by trains: Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto, etc.

Then there are Napoli, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, and Capri.

Train/Agri do not mix well but some of the highest density of the train system is around Bologna. So I'd look at Ferrara, Modena, Palma, Padua, Ravenna etc etc. If you look at google maps you'll see loads of stations in the middle of no where. I guess you've also seen agriturismo.it

Don't ignore the concept of staying somewhere with free bikes, this area is littered with bike paths and quiet roads so you can pop off to town if you want to.

I totally agree with everything greg and bilboburgler say. If you do not wish to drive drop the agriturismo idea. On the other hand, you needn't give up on the grape harvesting idea.

If I was in your situation this is what I would do. I would consider and research two of the following three areas...Cinque Terre, Lake Como and/or the Dolomites. All are easily accessible from Milan and all are very close to vineyards, particularly the Cinque Terre. Just 30 minutes, by train, northeast of Lake Como on the way to Sondrio/Bernina Pass/St. Moritz you will find vineyards. In the Dolomites you will find them on the southern approach to Bolzano/Bozen.

It is late in the summer season so you may still be able to find rooms. I would begin looking at Vernazza (Cinque Terre), Varenna (Lake Como) and Castlerotto/Kastelruth (Dolomites) for accommodations then work outward from those locations if you cannot find any.

Buona fortuna e buon viaggio!

It's quite common in Italy to overnight in this kind of accommodation called Agrtourismo, but they are restaurants too. So you can have great meal.

If you don't want to rent a car in Milan you can explore by train the lake region, like Garda or Como. Peschiera has a train station and maybe some agritourismo could offer a transfer, because it's true that they are almost farms and that is good for your wife, because in this place they grow up their own vegetables.

I did a great experience not the Como lake, where we had a different experience, because we booked a couple of nights in a B&B managed by a great family. They cook for us an homemade pasta, it was so good!

We had also a great photo shoot day, that we book in advance, its was like a second honeymoon!

Have you ever been to a lake in Italy?

I didn't say you cannot go to agriturismi without a car. What I pointed out is that the railway network is pretty dense in the Po valley and you can use the haystack stations to get very close.

The final leg of the trip might require a taxi or even (dare I say it) a couple of feet. But with the success of this electronic thing called a phone it is possible to sort out how to get to places.

So for fun I looked what agris are near Monselice (walled city, near spas etc). There is a lovely one at Ca' Orologio, and here are the local taxis http://baone.virgilio.it/cat/TAXI.html

On the side of a bunch of hills with vines, not a bad place to stay.

I note from their publicity
"Guests can sample organic wines produced on site, or day trips to explore the Euganei Hills, or why not borrow one of the agriturismo’s bikes and head off to one of the region’s cities of art, from Padua to Ferrara, Verona to Venice, or a charming medieval village such as Arquà Petrarca, Este and Monselice.

In summer, there is also a swimming pool available with sunbeds."

"There is a very valuable restaurant-pizzeria in Baone 3 mins walk. The agriturismo is particularly well run, whether the apartment very clean an"

If you find the search tool on the website tough just click on the friendly chat icon to get their help in the selection.

I've never stayed here but I have stayed in these hills a few times, Monselice once and riden a bike on the bike path/quiet road that surrounds the hills. A lovely place and with the train you can visit Padua or Ferrara very easily.

Do you want me to look out others, or does that give you a flavour of what to do?

Thank you all - this is my first post and I really appreciate the time taken to reply to my query.

Greg - I totally agree with you and have similar concerns and that is the main reason for me to come here and ask for help from seasoned travelers.

Bibloburgler - Thank you. I am looking at places which can provide either an airport pickup or a shuttle service from a near by town (assuming I can get there either by train or a bus). I will try the places you suggested.

Jim - Thank you, I will look at the places you suggested and I am open to travel to Tuscany/Umbria. I have booked Milan as point of entry to Italy but we are willing to travel all the way down south if we find a good place.

Pascal - We didn't visit any lake in Italy yet, would love to stay near one. Please let me know where you stayed and I will contact the host and see if they can accommodate us.

Once again, thank you guys for taking your time to help me out!

Regards,
Reddy

Sorry for my late replay, quite busy time at work.

MVSR: We stayed at Lake Come and the name of the Agriturismo was "agriturismo Shakei seconda nature" I found the card in the photo album.
I remember a train station not far away from that place.

The lake Como is an amazing place in terms of hospitality, food and panoramic views. Como City as well is a good place with everything you need.

I have to recommend also the photo shoot day if you want to do something different, try to google Pixaroundyou (is the company name) and look for Luisa (the photographer).

Have a great vacation and good luck!
P.