We are in the early stages of planning an October trip. An objective is to focus on smaller towns and cities with the exception of a couple of days prior to flying home. Highlights of our past trips have been time spent at a farmhouse in Tuscany, a bed and breakfast in a hill town along the Duoro Valley, and time spent in the Salzkammergut. This is not to downplay our city time in places like Venice, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Lisbon, Madrid, London, etc. as we thoroughly enjoy wandering the side streets and discovering new things to us. Museums, castles, and churches are not the reason we travel.
We are an active couple in our late 40’s, in good physical condition, enjoy wine and food (fancy not required), and constant night life is not important.
We have the possibility to arrive in Dublin on September 30 after a five hour direct flight from our hometown, the flight home from DUB would leave on October 14. These flights are convenient and economical but unfortunately this airline does not partner with any airlines in Europe so we must book separate tickets from DUB to our chosen destination. This is not a terrible dilemma as we could enjoy a night or two in Dublin on the way home. This probably leaves us 10 or 11 nights at a somewhat warm destination before we head home to prepare for winter. Options we are considering are:
- central Italy north of Rome: Le Marche, Abruzzo, Umbria (fly to and from Rome)
- Italy south of Rome: Basilicata, Puglia, Campania
- southern Spain: Andalucia, Castilla La Mancha (I must add that I enjoyed being in Madrid)
- southern Portugal: south of Lisbon but maybe not to the Algarve (fly to and from Lisbon)
Is there any helpful advice or things we should consider to aid in our decision?