Early Planning - looking for less touristy Italy

What month are you looking to travel in? Wil you have a car or using the train system?

I'll go 2 ways here.
The first is your itenary looks good with the cities you have. Rome and Venice, some nice time in tuscany and the CT. If you want to visit the Amalfi coast and pompei you are close by in Sorrento. Looks like a solid first trip.
The 2nd is to me I would only go to one of CT and Amalfi coast as they are similar yet different. I would maybe swap out those 4 nights and add 1 extra night to either Rome or Montepulciano and then say hit up one of the lakes for 3 night. Lake Como or perhaps Lake Garda (I've visited the first last year and planning on the Garda next year). If you do Lake Como you can say fly into Milan (little cheaper then Venice) and head there then use the high speed train from Milan to Venice and continue your trip as planned.You can relax and enjoy the lake before some sighseeing in Venice.

A nice place in Montepulciano is Meuble il Riccio. I saw it in Rick's book and one of his tuscany stays. I stayed there for 4 nights this past August and loved it. We were 10 steps away from the Piazza Grande. If you have a car they have parking spot nearby to ask for when you reserve. The owner Giorgio was a great host, provided us with inforamation on nearby villages and some things to do. Ask him about his cars too. I'd recomend anyone stay there.

Thank you for the tips. We are going in May and are planning to have a car available for most of the trip (pick up when we leave Venice and drop off when we arrive in Rome).

I doubt there are many undiscovered gems left in Italy, the way Rick Steves stumbled across the Cinque Terra in the 1960s. But if you want to visit a part of Italy less seen by English-speaking tourists then go to the Adriatic side. The Gargano peninsula is beautiful and Vieste reminds me a bit of a Greek city with many whitewashed buildings (take a look at the pics online). There are hundreds of small towns along the coast and inland where you can make your own discoveries; Trani, Pesaro to name just two. You want to feel like you are in the Italy that Italians experience, the Adriatic is a place to see!

As John says, there isn't much in Italy un-discovered or un-touristy, and what is un-touristy isn't much worth visiting. A few less traveled locations (relatively) that are still worth going to might include Bologna, Ravenna, Lucca, Trieste, any number of Tuscan villages (or agro-tourist farms) and a good part of Sicily. There are a number of towns southeast of Rome that are not widely touristed but charming. With a car you'll have a lot of flexibility. I'd suggest finding a good spot in Tuscany that will allow some level of "getting away from the hoardes" and yet allow you to see some of the main cities and towns in that region. Plus that falls between Venice and Rome, which remain on your list (and rightly so).

As to small towns with charm that see few tourists, I can only recommend Ferentino, southeast of Rome. It's an ancient hill town that is in striking distance to Rome, Naples, Pompei and Salerno. Perhaps others will have similar suggestions.

Arezzo and Anzio come to mind. Arezzo is fairly close to Florence and Anzio is just south of Rome. *

I am thinking about Peschici, has anyone been? I couldn't find any info on a search on this forum.

What is the meaning of less touristy? With no American tourists or no tourists of any kind?
There are lots of places in Italy that are totally unknown to Americans, yet there will be plenty of tourists from somewhere else. 35 million tourists visit Italy from abroad plus many of the 60 million Italians visit their own country every year. They have to go somewhere and Italy is only as big as Arizona.

For Tuscany take a look at this:
www.borghiditoscana.net/eng/

The first post by Roberto is the best, most logical and clear advice on this thread. Roberto always knows his Mother Country very well!

I was in Italy in mid-May, there were very few tourists in Assisi or Orvieto except for day-trippers and not in great numbers. There didn't seem to be many tourists in Ravenna either. Florence was packed.

May would be a great time to spend 7-14 days in Sicily.

Sansepolcro, Rieti, Sulmona, Gaeta, Tropea, all have enough infrastructure to make you happy but without tons of tour buses.

I agree with Chani about Sicily.

There are no "un touristy" places in Italy? Really?

Re-read the posts and can't seem to find where anyone said there are "no 'un-touristy' places in Italy." But anyway, the OP seems to be looking for places that are more off the beaten path from the regular stops by most Americans and others. The key is finding something low-key and yet with accommodations and interesting things to do or nearby. There have been some great tips so far by those of us who have been to such places.

I appreciate all of the replies. In Greece we found that we liked the areas with local markets instead of souvenir shops and restaurants that were serving authentic Greek food as opposed to what we found to be common in Naflion and Athens. I understand that you can find those same types of areas in Rome or Venice, or Athens, or Nafplion, we just found that we really liked the vibe of spending some time in an area that wasn't dominated by tourism. That being said, it was clear that there were plenty of people there vacationing (primarily from other parts of Greece and Europe, but we did find a couple of people from the US as well), but they were like minded travelers who weren't there for souvenirs, etc. We would happily deal with language barrier issues in search of a more authentic experience (we spent several months "learning" greek before our trip and plan to spend at least a year with Italian).

We plan to visit Rome and Venice and are happy to deal with the crowds for the sights we want to see, but we want to mix that time in with other experiences as well.

James, where did you stay when you visited Tuscany this past year?

Actually May is an awesome time to go. The crowds will probably not be too bad. But if you want to mix the big cities of Rome and Venice with something else, John and Chani had some great ideas. The Southeastern side of Italy (Gargano area, Puglia area.etc) will be really quiet and absolutely wonderful. The people, food, sights are just wonderful. And maybe you could find a great Masseria to stay at. It's a fun four hour drive from Rome, or a quick plane or train trip to Brindisi or Bari. We drove down and flew back.

Read this great article about Apulia: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06Puglia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

But Sicily is magical in Spring! All the wildflowers are blooming, and the waters are wonderful. And so quiet and easy to drive and explore. Again, you can hop on a plane in Rome and fly into/out of Palermo/Catainia. Use Skyscanner.com to find flights on some of the lo-cost inter EU airlines. It is a huge island, but if you can spend a week, you can see part of it. I would also look at staying at a couple of Agritourisimos; meeting the local people that run these is always so rewarding. And you will want to come back!

We spent the better part of 2 weeks in Tuscany this past May. Three towns we especially liked, that are not much on the tourist circuit, were Anghiari, Sansepolcro, and Massa Marittima. We also spent some time, in the past, in the Veneto, where we found a number of attractive towns that fit the "less touristy" description. If you want their names, pm me; and I'll try to dig them out from my albums.

Yes, we've been to Peschici. It's beautiful but pretty much oriented toward tourism (not Americans, to speak of). I had seen online a beach path one could take to a secluded bar. That's where I really wanted to go, but on the day we were there the police were keeping people from going on that path. We never could figure out exactly why - there was some blasting going on or some criminal element being followed - ??? We enjoyed Vieste very much. And Trani was one of our favorite stops. We would like to return to Locorotondo. Different area, but consider Urbino and/or Ascoli Piceno.

I am glad Quirite mentioned Abruzzo. That region and Puglia are both somewhat new frontiers for North Americans. I found I needed Italian in both regions, by the way. Very little English spoken, or if they did speak English they kept it a secret. A week in either would be great! We found Puglia in May pleasantly cool.

You can also get away from other tourists even in popular destinations. Today we hike out of Vernazza, but instead of going along Il Sentiero Azzuro we went up, up, up to a Sanctuary. For an entire hour we saw no one else. In the next hour we saw 4 people. There are still places where teh hoards do not go. I can tell you places in Rome that are almost that good.

Laurel, don't you dare do it, except in a PM!

Since you mentioned Sorrento, you may like going a bit further, to the west coast of Basilicata. We loved the towns of Aqua Fredda and Maratea and stayed in a very nice hotel just a bit south of Maratea. It was Hotel Ristorante Borgo La Tana and can be found on the internet. The price is very reasonable and the food and wine very good. This is an area that is still not crowded with tourists during the off season, but I am sure that it is packed in July and August. I would go back here without hesitation as it is so beautiful.

Geography note: Basilicata has a southern coastal area.