Italy bound

A friend and I are going to spend the last week in May driving down into Northern Italy and back to Munich. What are your must-see recommendations for off-the-beaten path? We want to eat, drink and enjoy the ambience of Italy. Do you think we need to line up hotels in advance, or just wing it?<BR>Thanks,

Rex

If a hotel to you is not much more than a place to sleep, then there are many interesting towns in northern Italy were you can likely find a room without a reservation. It can be an interesting method of discovering lesser known parts of Italy; you might have to go from town to town to find a room at certain wrong times.<BR><BR>Of course, you might find yourself giving up 30-60 minutes from your trip every time you want to find a new hotel, versus sacrificing the same time (or less), on a Sunday morning, in the comfort of your own home, securing reservations on a site like <BR><BR>http://www.italyhotel.com or<BR>http://www.itwg.com or <BR>http://www.charmerelax.com<BR><BR>- - to name just a few.<BR><BR>Coming from (or headed back to) Munich through the Brenner Pass (south of Innsbruck), I found the town of Bassano del Grappa one of my best experiences ever in northern Italy. At least 10 hotels there.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

xxx

Rex<BR><BR>Tell us more about Bassano del Grappa. Is it on the train line between Venice and Munich? What did you like about it?

Nikki

Cinque Terra is great, but it is becoming part of the "beaten path" as more people flock there. Lake Como is excellent. Don't spend much time in Milan. Great art and churches, but you can do better elsewhere.

Rex

It might be, in an indirect way. My six years old Thomas Cook train guide book shows four trains daily between Venezia and Trento (157 km, 3 hrs 7 minutes) with a stop called simply Basssano, 60 km out from Venice. That's probably it.<BR><BR>I can't get www.fs-on-line.com to clarify (no response from server - - so it's not just www.fodors.com that has connectivity problems from time to time). We drove there from Verona, and it was well under an hour.<BR><BR>I liked Bassano del Grappa for:<BR><BR>1. the hotel we stayed in<BR><BR>2. shops, especially for foods we bought for a picnic lunch<BR><BR>3. a restaurant called "something ottone" - - see this thread for its website (crummy, but the restaurant was elegant and very nice)<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/messages.cfm?fid=2&amp;tid=1278860&amp;numresponse s=7<BR><BR>and the "crown jewel", <BR><BR>4. the civic Museum (website also listed on the same thread).<BR><BR>I hope this information is useful. You might try writing to Ben Haines for up-to-date info on train schedules, since he always has a current Thomas Cook guide.<BR><BR>His e-mail is either <BR><BR>[email protected]<BR><BR>or<BR><BR >[email protected]<BR><BR>You might want to try both; I have had some bouncebacks since he got this new e-mail address.<BR>

Bob

Here are some good places along the way:<BR>- Just south of Innsbruk there are some nice, little, quiet towns that are close to the highway; Igls, Mutters and Patsch. I stayed at the Hotel Mutterhof in Mutters last May that had a great view of the mountains (and the ski jump for the Innsbruk olympics) from our balcony and there was a streetcar stop nearby for the trip into Innsbruk. We paid about $90 for a double room. You should note that the the room rate at many of the hotels (and the hotels in the extreme northern part of Italy) is almost double the amount for a double room than it is for a single room.<BR>- Merano, which is about 25 minutes off the autostrada at the Bolzano-sud exit in Italy, is a great town with lots to see and lots of hotels. Instead of returning directly to the autostrada at Bolzano, try driving south on the "strada del vino" which is a beautiful drive and then get back on the autostrada about 20 miles further south. There are a lot of Austrian-style hotels (suprisingly, most of the people in this area speak very little Italian) in the small towns along this road which would also be nice to stay in. I stayed at the Hotel Steinegger near Appiano Sulla Strada del Vino which was a nice quiet area with a great view.<BR>- If you want to stay in a hotel further south, get off the autostrada at Rovereto-sud and drive about 10 miles west to the north end of Lago di Garda. There are many places along the lake to stay (Riva del Garda at the north end, Limone which is about 5 miles further south or Sirmione at the southern end of the lake are some good choices). Driving south along the west side of the lake is magnificent. <BR>- You could head east off the autostrada at Bressanone, Bolzano or Trento into the Dolimites and stop at Cortina. This is a good alternative if you don't mind driving slowly on roads with lots of hairpin turns. The kilometers will pass very slowly. Also, as Rex said, Bassano del Grappa is a great place to stop and is closer than Cortina. <BR>- I didn't make reservations in advance and didn't have a problem. Every place I stopped at had rooms available. This was an exception for me because I almost always make reservations in advance. However, I wanted to look at some of the hotels before making the decision to stay there and I knew that this wasn't the high season in that area.<BR>- Good luck. There are lots of good alternatives to choose from.<BR>

Mariarosa

Hi! We enjoyed the Dolomites very much during our trip there in March and definitely recommend this area! The food was definitely a mixture of Italian and Austrian (e.g, at the Alpine huts in the Seiser Alm, we had for lunch a delicious minestrone soup with a big sausage in it). Here are some possibilities:<BR><BR>1) Trento is a great small city - with a walkable center with shopping, a couple of castles, including the Castelo del Buonconsiglio a nice piezza, houses with frescoed facades, and a variety of hotels. The food in Trento was fantastic - we had a 6-course apple menu at Ristorante Chiesa. <BR><BR>2) Bolzano had a bit more of a an Austrian flavor than Trento. We liked Trento better, but Bolzano has an anthropological museum that houses Oetzi (sp?) a 5,000 year-old perfectly preserved guy. Even his clothing and tools were preserved. If you like this kind of stuff, you will find it fascinating. The Bolzano region has many castles that are open in May - go to www.hallo.com and order a brochure of the castles in the Alto Adige region (our brochure was in German, but it's worth it just for the pictures).<BR><BR>3) Castelrotto is a small town 45 minutes away by bus from Bolzano, right in the Dolomites. It is a very small and pleasant town with a very different character than the rest of Italy: frescoed houses, winding cobblestone streets, locals who wear traditional clothing, etc. It is really small and there's not much to do, but it can provide a night or a day of relaxation. From here you can easily reach the Seiser Alm and see some gorgeous mountain scenery (buses run contastly and it is less than 30 minutes). You can also easily reach Ortisei, another town which has very active tourism and many hotel and dining options. Going up in a goondola or a chair lift and just seeing the mountains is a beautiful experience.<BR>Enjoy your trip!