Backroads of Italy

If you want to rent a car for part of your trip, get the DK Eyewitness Guide "Back Roads Italy"

The Michelin green guide is also good for back roads.

I assume you are driving; there are cities where your car will be useless (like Venice, Rome, Florence) so you may want to start in Venice and then rent the car on your way out. In the other cities, you can stay just outside the city center and find parking (pricey), or stay well outside the city and daytrip in (use peripheral parking lots).

Are you planning on visiting a couple of regions, or spreading out through the entire country?

I think that Cristiano Bonino of Food.Stories.Travel (http://www.foodstoriestravel.com) could help you in organizing your trip. He is northern italian and now he organizes travels eating and learning, connecting with local food producers who care about the environment, support the local community and believe in sustainable practices. I traveled with him once and I had an unforgettable experience
Luella

Look at the towns that are members of the Borghi Piu Belli d'Italia organization. The descriptions are in both IT and EN. These are often beautiful and unvisited towns, such as Tellaro and Dolceacqua in Liguria, which can make a nice necklace when mixed with more famous cities. The only caveat is that beautiful can be deserted as well, so cross-reference with another source.