Help with Italy Itinerary - Wine Trip
 

Hello!

My husband and I are planning a last minute trip to Italy this September. My husband is in the Hotel/F&B business and this is primarily the reason we are going - to taste great food and drink wine. But the idea of relaxing in the middle on the coast is quite appealing to me!

Unfortunately I didn't know how much great advice I could get from more experienced travellers on this post...so I booked our tickets both IN and OUT of Malpensa Airport near Milan. Would have been better to leave from Rome but ...oh well!

Here is our current Itinerary (still under construction) Any advice suggestions would be more than welcome!!

Arrive Malpensa 6 am Friday, Sept 8 - pick up rental car drive to piedmont (alba, asti)

Alba/Asti/Barolo - Fri and Saturday Nights

Sunday Morning - Drive down Coast to either Cinque Terre area or Viareggio - Stay Sunday and Monday night

Tuesday Morning - Early drive to Banfi Vineyards - Scheduled tour and lunch, Spend Tuesday and Wednesday Nights in Montalcino with day trips to area towns.

Thursday- Drive to San Gimignano for day and night

Friday Drive to Stresa on Lake Maggiore...(LONG DRIVE!!)

Sat - Leave Malpensa Airport 9:45 flight.


It just seems like sooo much driving...but what to cut out? Help!!

I would take away

Thursday- Drive to San Gimignano for day and night

Friday Drive to Stresa on Lake Maggiore...(LONG DRIVE!!)

add a night or 2 to somewhere you are already staying. Less is more.

have a fun trip.

Wow, 8 nights and staying in 5 different places is way too much IMO. You'll feel dead when you get home and only be "tagging" places. When we go to Europe over that number of nights, we stay in no more than 2 places and visit locations from there. If you've never been to Italy, trust me, you'll be back. Don't try to do to much and vow to come back!

I agree with everybody here saying that it looks a bit cramped!! I'd skip the San Gimignano and Stresa bits and probably stay in two locations and daytrip from there: southern Piemonte and Montalcino? Last night near Malpensa, probably... (if the 9.45 flight means 9.45 a.m.)

Yes, it is too much moving around packed into too short a time period. Two nights in Piemonte is simply too little-- Barolo, Barbaresco, the Barbera D'Asti region, Dogliani, Acqui Terme. Each has a decidedly different wine, and the regional cuisines of Piemonte delight the most well traveled gourmet. From South Piedmont, to Portovénere (close to but much prefereable to the CT as a destination from which to tour for a myraid of reasons) is approximately 2 hours.

If instead you were flying into Rome or Florence, then the Maremma/Tuscany area would make more sense. But you have a very short vacation and are utilizing Malpensa. Maximize your time this time by seeing (and experiencing) Piemonte and the Ligurian coastline.

You can split your time between Piemonte and the coast (I suggest Piemonte over Tuscany because of your flights in and out of Malpensa) and you will have spent less time in your car and more time enjoying the beauty.

If the Banfi tour is written in stone, then you will need to go, and you will enjoy it. But Piemonte has thousands of incredible wineries which offer those types of tours and more.

In any event, enjoy!!!

Thank you all so much for the insight! I agree...I think we should have limited ourselves to just the piedmonte...however the Banfi people have been so wonderful in helping us and we feel we need to do that...so I guess we are going to be doing to much!

I wish there was a fast way to get between these two regions but it doesn't look like that is the case....next trip I will know better.

Thanks again! Especially the tips on Piedmonte!!

I totally agree with Bellacqui, 2 days is too short for serious wine touring in Piedmont, which is in many people's opinion the best area in Italy for red wines, and you will be here in September at the start of harvests and festivals season.

Since you headline this post a wine itinerary, IMO one needs a <u>minimum</u> of 3 full days to experience Piedmont's wine hills, centred around Asti and Alba (and lets not forget belle Acqui Terme), a week is better if you had the time. Presumably you must go to the Tuscan vineyards because of your husbands business, so I would skip Cinque Terre and just go to Tuscany, and then skip San G, come back via Stresa if you want a night closer to Malpena on the lake. Or if you can skip Tuscany, then you can relax and do a day or 2 in Liguria (although the best wines come from around Albenga not CT)and some time on Maggiore, which is also close to the Ghemme and Gattinara wine areas.

Thank you all so much!

We have decided that we must focus either on Piedmont or Tuscany...not both. But what a decision!

Based on our helpful friends in Tuscany - they are working so hard to help us- I think we will focus in that region this trip...but I am taking notes from all of you knowledgeable piedmont fodorites! We must come back - that is evident!

Thanks again!

Good idea--you will return!

We will be waiting for you in beautiful Piemonte, teakdog, have a wonderful time in Toscana.