Affordable Italy: Couture, butchers, and picnics
You've booked the trip of a lifetime to the land of la dolce vita and decided, once there, to enjoy Italy the way Italians do - with spontaneity. That's exactly what my travel partner and I did when we sped out of the Florence airport and onto the autostrada on a brilliant summer's day. Here's a primer on some of our discoveries:
Since we had both long ago logged hours at the Ufizzi and sipped Campari in Siena's Piazza del Campo, we decided to breeze through Chianti in favour of the hill towns of Umbria. Well, that's not entirely true: There was a required stop for dinner at Dario Cecchini's eatery, Solociccia, in Panzano. He's the Dante-quoting butcher made famous in Heat, a tell-all tale of life in the kitchen with explosive Italian chefs. It was a night to remember with lots of fabulous meat and a real-life hug from Cecchini who had enjoyed more than a few glasses of the local red and sang arias into the wee hours. (For more on fabulous Italian foo, Fall in love with Lucca.)
Our first night was in Bevagna. We chose to spend three nights in this walkable Umbrian centre perfectly situated for day trips to the surrounding hill towns of Todi, Gubbio, Spoleto, Foligno and Orvieto. Our hotel (Palazzo Brunamonti) was reasonable (all hotels during the trip were less than $150 night), clean, and the staff was cheery.
Traveling off the beaten tourist path
Next stop was Urbino, in the less-travelled province of Le Marche. After much research, we sensed this area was off-the-beaten-track. We weren't disappointed. Thoroughly Italian, Urbino is a university town brimming with energy and a rich past. Two nights at the small, perfectly situated Hotel Raffaello meant we had lots of time to explore the historic centre.
Leaving at dawn one morning, we skirted the east coast, stopping for lunch on a small terrace overlooking the Adriatic Sea.
En route to Sarnano, I insisted on a stop in Montappone, one of Italy's famous hat towns. In this tiny village, where if you blink, you miss it, some of the country's most exquisite couture headpieces are fashioned. After I bought a pink confection, we carried on to the Hotel Eden and its mountain-view rooms. Next door, the world-famous spa Novidra is as fascinating for its imaginative Italian interior design as trademark treatments.
If you love meat, then Norcia is a must to visit. So famous are the butcher's skills that hundreds of years ago, this was where young boys with great voices were sent when their voices started to change. The butcher's knife turned them into castratti. No wonder Italian butcher shops are simply called norceria; long ago, Norcia was also a centre for witchcraft.
Next: A perfect day trip, and restaurants to restore the taste buds.
