Vaughneofoz157

Hello,

My wife and I will be visiting Italy for the first time in May. We are both in our lower-twenties and are hoping to find some unique/ adventurous things to do. We're starting our trip with 3 days in Venice, 2 days on a quick detour to visit friends up in Berlin, back down to Milan to catch a train to Cinque Terre for 4 days, 6 days in Rome, and the remaining 4 days in Tuscany. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the final leg of our trip? We will have a rental car upon arriving in Rome, and were battling between exploring tuscany (based in Chianti) or driving down to Amalfi or even Sicily in hopes of finding some adrenaline-inspired, adventurous activities? Or if anyone knows of any such things in Tuscany, that would be helpful as well! Skydiving, paragliding, canyoning, ATV's, jet skis, skydiving, scuba diving etc.

Thank you!

IMDonehere

First a disclaimer, we have never done of those activities in Italy.

Although we think Tuscany is lovely and interesting, Sicily is one of our favorite places in Italy. The food, the landscape, and antiquities make it special.

annhig

Hi Vaughan,

i hope i can be allowed to say that at the moment, your itinerary is a bit confused.

firstly, [and I'm sure that there IS a good reason for your having decided to do this, only you don't tell us what it is] can you re-oranise your trip so that you go to Berlin first? You will lose a lot of time flying from Venice to Berlin and back to Milan only 2 days later. it would be so much easier and quicker to go from Venice to the CT by train

secondly, you say that you will have a car when you arrive in Rome, which is exactly what you don't want! You can get a train straight from La Spezia [the main station near the CT] to Rome without changing trains [there are several every day] so you don't need a car to do the journey and you definitely don't want to try to drive in Rome.

thirdly - Where are you flying out of?

Turning to your main question, if you want to go to Sicily for the end of your trip you'd be better off flying there from Rome, but again, you're spending a lot of time travelling for a relatively short period of time on the ground. I would pick Tuscany or the Amalfi, and leave Sicily for a longer trip, but again, the main question is where you fly home from, because you want to put that place last.

hope that helps a bit - if you come back with a bit more detail, we can try to help you some more.

sandralist

People go hot-air balloon riding in Tuscany, but possibly not in May. Won't get your adrenaline racing, but there are wild hot springs in Tuscany not far from Siena.

People go white water rafting in southern Umbria, which would be a fine subsitute for Tuscany, easy to get to from Rome. Not far from the white water rafting opportunities, you can go paragliding in the Piano Grande if the weather is clear.

You can probably find some cave and canyon exploration in Tuscany and Umbria if you contact clubs that specialize in that for travelers.

There is surfing in Levanto (next to le Cinque Terre) and pleny of snorkeling/scuba diving on the Italian Riviera.

sundriedtopepo

As Sandralist says, have a look at the Piano Grande in the Sibillini Mountains, in Umbria. You might enjoy Perugia, a young hearted university city, before driving on to Spoleto, and across a breathtaking drive through the Sibillinis to Castellucio, which is popular with hikers mountain bikers and paragliders.

http://www.umbriantravel.com/?p=380

Google Sibillini paragliding for photos. From there it is a short drive to Ascoli Piceno and the Adriatic coast.

IMO it would be a waste to go all the way to Sicily for only a few days. Sicily is like a country unto itself, cannot really be explored in such a short time.

bvlenci

I know of several hang gliding spots in the Sibillini mountains, in southern Le Marche, and probably also in nearby Umbria, but, again, I don't know if they'd be active in May.