The Road From Rome to ????
 

DH and I will be travelling to Rome for a conference in mid July 2013 and plan to stay over for approximately 2 weeks after the conference. This will be our third trip to Rome and we have also visited Florence and Venice as well as our favourite...a driving tour of the hill towns of Tuscany.
I am looking for some suggestions for places to visit in Italy in July, either with a rental car or using public transportation. Would love to hear from others who have travelled through Italy during the summer months (in the past we have been to Italy in early spring and fall). We are retired teachers with an interest in history.

the Amalfi Coast area is fabulous - day trips to Pompeii, Capri and along this famous coast - well served by public buses - a thrilling bus ride along sheer drop-offs.

Sicily also makes a wondrous place to poke around in for a week or so - again good train service including overnight trains from various Italian cities.

Trains are a great way to get around Italy - for lots of great info on Italian trains I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sources - www.trenitalia.com - score discounted tickets here if you want to book weeks in advance to guarantee getting those limited in number tickets - all the schedules and regular fares; and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id12.html; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com. If traveling enough and wishing to have full flexibility to chose what trains to take once there then investigate the Italy Railpass - otherwise if you want to plug yourself into a hard to change train-specific ticket way in advance that could be the cheapest way.

why not take off into Umbria - wonderful hill towns and cities, Lake Bolsena - then turn west and work your way down the Tuscan coast to the lovely lagoon and beaches near Orbetello?

that would fill 2 weeks or so beautifully.

If you have not done Pompeii or The National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, it really is worth going to see. It has one of the world's best collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, including mosaics, sculptures, gems, glass and silver, and a collection of Roman erotica from Pompeii. Many of the objects come from excavations at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and nearby archaeological sites.

You can arrange a day trip by bus tour or it's easy to ride the train and go on your own OR rent a car and take yourself. Not difficult and a very interesting historical event/site.

An ad here show going to both Pompeii and Herculean. I guess it depends on how you view history..... I loved it! It was one of the highlights of my visit to Italy.

see: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR..._Campania.html

I was going to suggest almost exactly what annhig did. The Amalfi Coast is lovely, but it will be absolutely jammed in mid-July, and hot (yes, it will be hot in Umbria/Tuscany as well, but likely not quite as bad and with more opportunities to seek out shade, and there are lots of spas for cooling off). I'd rent a couple of places in different spots, each for a week, and do daytrips - the possibilities are endless.

I would start in Orvieto, using it as a base for a few days while driving around some of Umbria to the east, then move to a village in the historic Etruscan country to the west, which includes Lago di Bolsena Civita di Bagnoregio, Pitigliano, Sorano, Vulci, etc. Also, north of the lake, the southern end of Tuscany. You could stay in Aquapendente, or our favorite tiny, tiny town of Torre Alfina, although it is a little bit out in the country (a wonderfully nice woman has a couple of B&B rooms there). Or stay on the lake in Bolsena.

For two weeks you could visit the Alpine Lake area and the Piedmont, stopping in Bologna and with a little detour Ravenna on the way.

You might want to take a look at my trip report; it is getting old, but the sights don't change that much:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-lake-como.cfm

(yes, it will be hot in Umbria/Tuscany as well, but likely not quite as bad and with more opportunities to seek out shade>

I'd be the Amalfi Coast towns have a lower max temp in summer than steaming hot Umbria - Florence, in nearby tuscany has mid-summer highs in the mid-90s I believe - I'd bet the sea cools the Amalfi towns a bit - one reason they have become a summer retreat I think for Italians.

Yet crowds on the Amalfi can be stiffling but so can places in Umbria - at least the hot spots most want to see like Urbino, Todi, Perugia, Assisi, Cortona, Gubbio, etc. But you can find less known towns that are not whereas the whole Amalfi Coast can be gridlock in mid summer till the end of August.

which is why I suggested Lake Bolsena and the southern tuscan coast, Pal.

with an air-conditioned car that is.

Thanks to all who have posted trip ideas!! Any comments on whether Cinque Terre would be as congested as the Amalfi Coast?? We do have the option of heading elsewhere in Europe as well in July-August as we already have a return trip to Rome planned in April 2014 and could head to Amalfi at that time. Any other suggestions??