Vacation away from tourist (Rome, best, cheap, trips)

[Family Traveler]

HI,
I am new to this forum and I thought that I would ask a couple of questions about Italy.
I am wanting to explore the more local areas
What has been your experiences/recomendations?

[findinghope]

what exactly do you want to see or where do you want to go? are you looking for a tarticular season when it is less crowded?

[Mooseketeer]

Originally Posted by Family Traveler

HI,
I am new to this forum and I thought that I would ask a couple of questions about Italy.
I am wanting to explore the more local areas
What has been your experiences/recomendations?

Get the "rough guide to Italy" and get off the main roads. I think some touristic places are a must such as Florence or Pompeii and Herculaneum and the Italian Riviera simply because of how stunningly beautiful they are but places like off the beaten tracks Tuscany and Umbria are just wonderful. Fabulous little villages, real local Italian food, real country people.
I also love Sicily and Sardinia. And Puglia too .
The Northern Lakes are sublime but very crowded in the summer .

The trick is to just get off the main roads and let the spirit take you !

Italy is a wonderful country with so much to see and do.

We do home exchanges for our holidays and it is the BEST way to see a country like a traveller rather than a tourist. You meet the locals, you visit local shops, eat at local restaurants and get to see a side of the country tourists never do. We exchange homes and cars and it's also very cheap !

[Bob The Builder]

Originally Posted by Family Traveler

HI,
I am new to this forum and I thought that I would ask a couple of questions about Italy.
I am wanting to explore the more local areas
What has been your experiences/recomendations?

What is it you are trying to find? What tourists are you trying to avoid? There are many places where tourists do not go, but that is because there is not much there.

Off the beaten path of Florence, Rome and Venice you have the Marches (the Adriatic side), Then there is Sicily which is very cool. The Cities are beautiful.

Assisi, where I live is quite nice, historic and located in the middle of Italy. From here you can get a big jug of some nice Sangiovese out in Bevagna or Montefalco. You can take day trips to Todi, Gubbio, Orvieto and Siena. The train takes you straight into Florence or Rome in about 2 hours.

Over the millennium, each town does something to try to GET tourists to come to it with varying success. In Pisa they built lopsided towers on unstable ground. In Montone they went on crusades and came back with one thorn from the rose bush crown of Jesus. In Loreto they stole the stone house of Mary and claim that Angels brought it there.