Hey

I am looking to travel to Italy from Zurich at the end of September, we will be driving down and im wondering does anyone have any good ideas on where to go.
I have been to the main places in Italy, Rome Venice, Verona and Milan but have never drove around!

Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks
Leah

The Amalfi Coast is spectacular to drive. Take your time & stay somewhere on the way.

Thanks a mil ill look into that, could be cool

Your requirements are very vague.

How much driving do you want to do? Do you want to focus on sights or on food or on ....?

I will throw something out there.

Florence, Pisa, Elba. Give my love to Napoleon

Cinque Terre is beautiful and relaxing. But walking around there definitely gives a much better view (and easier) than driving it.

Lago di Garda - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Garda

WE are driving to the Dolomites in October. I've wanted to go ever since my grandmother went and brought back a tourist book - that was over 30 years ago! I can't wait. It would be a good starting or finishing point.

I have family in liguria and have visited the Cinque Terre, Lerici, Santa Margharita, Via Reggio - all beautiful!! And the most amazing seafood and gelato and of course the Ligurians are famous for focaccia and pesto. If you do go - you must also find and try 'farinata' is is a giant crepe made of chickpea flour. They are huge - you just buy and piece and pay by weight.

If you do Toscany - besides Florence, Pisa I would recommend Lucca, San Gimignano (a bit touristy but very pretty) and Sienna. If you like red wine - the village of Montalcino is famous for it!

Great!! Now I want to go!!

The Amalfi Coast is stunning but takes over 12 hours to drive there.
I did the SR 222 a few years ago from Florence to Siena. It's some of the best in Tuscany.
If you haven't been, a detour to Ravenna on the way there/way back is worth it.

We love the less touristy parts of Tuscany: Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Bagno Vignoni.

You could stay at Il Poggio agroturismo in Celle sul Rigo next to San casciagno dei bagni, lovely suites and apartments, fabulous views and restaurant. www.ilpoggio.net

Not so far to drive is the Ligurian coast. Camogli is a lovely small town, you can walk to Portofino and visit another pretty famous harbour.

http://www.google.ch/search?q=Camogl...-8&sa=N&tab=lw

http://articles.cnn.com/1997-05-22/t...s?_s=PM:TRAVEL

But did you realize that Italian trains are very cheap, and you will see lots more from a train window than from behind a driving wheel.

You can definitely make a stop at Como.

The market is fantastic and the lake very nice.

Hi
We drove down to Genova from Zurich recently. Its about a 41/2 hours drive. Lovely beach town, many other beaches are easily accessible by road. You can drive down to Monteresso (one of the villages of the Cinque Terre) from Genova which is about an hours drive and see Cinque Terra as well (you'll have to leave the car and do the other villages by bus/walk/ferry). The drive upto Monte Carlo from Genova is also beautiful.

The end of September is, generally speaking, a good period: meaning you should still get good weather (even though rain is also very common in the north) while avoiding most of the "internal" traffic of tourists (a lot of people still only get/decide to take holidays for the month of August).
Many options for the seaside have been mentioned (consider also the Venice area is about 3 hours away from Milan, but I would really discourage using a car since the highway exit is constantly a nightmare), I just wanted to point out that September is also grape picking time in most wineries, so an alternative idea for a walk in the countryside plus a bit of tasting could be to look for an agriturismo in Piemont.

I would suggest you Abruzzo Region. It is about 9h driving from Zürich. Mountains, country side, seaside all in a 1 hour driving. Amazing food, people and places... not very touristic though.
Here are some links...
http://www.sextantio.it/
http://www.costadeitrabocchi.net/

If you need some more info just contact me.