Italy
Organised Tours
toot-tours.com
Deciding
Where to Go
Sicily is fantastic and has great cathedrals, Greek
ruins, hiking and nice ocean views. So you can do some sightseeing and
relaxing.
Capri is breathtaking, the views from Villa Jorvis are amazing,
and there are lots of nice walks to take - some pretty challenging!
Some
advice for Napoli. The best two places to stay are Hostel of the Sun and 6 Small
Rooms. The HI hostel there is miles away from the action, and the Pensione
Mancini is the dodgiest place in all of Europe to stay at, with fold out beds
piled into a room, barely functional toilets, chain smoking arrogant staff,
dodgy location with a 6am market openning up right beneath your window... stay
there at your peril!
South and southeast of Siena are
Montalcino, Montepulciano, and Pienza, all very Renaissance and picturesque.
Cortona is a gorgeous hill town. Siena itself is very photogenic.
Some of
our favorite (and somewhat off-beat) spots were in lower Tuscany: the hot
sulphur springs of Saturnia, the tiny town of Sovana, and the lovely "tufa" town
of Pitigliano.
We liked the Italian Riviera. San Remo has this faded
elegance about it.
Camogli was a very nice town, good eats there, some of the
best gnocchi with pesto I've had. In Siena we stayed at the Hotel Duomo,
there were four of us in a somewhat ugly room but it was right off Il Campo and
the staff were friendly.
Seasonal Travel
We found a
few places closed in Italy in August, but no many. It certainly didn't impact
us.
Onward Travel
Taking the ferry from
Italy to Greece is wonderful. Just be sure to allow yourself enough time in
Greece, it takes awhile to get from place to place.
