West Coast to Italy & Umbria & Adriatic Coast Questions

Umbria: Spello- a very pretty hill town with a permanent population living there. Many excellent restaurants, perfectly located to visit Assisi, Perugia, Montefalco, Bevegna. We did not like Spoleto, a lot of traffic surrounding it.
Adriatic Coast- Puglia, waterfront Polignano a Mare and Monopoli..both meet your requirements.
We have spent a week in both Spello and Polignano a Mare, on different trips.

Thank you!

Kim, I don't usually aim to spend that much time on the road, but as long as you make reasonable estimates on a mapping app, and add 10%, you can know what you're doing. I don't think you'll have that many options to fly to Naples, because seasonal flights will start to disappear after Sept 1.

Would you consider returning your car in Salerno, seeing Paestum, and taking the Frecciarossa train back to Rome, having started in Rome for Umbria?

I'm not an expert on Umbria, but I can't say enough nice things about Orvieto. And we really enjoyed Castiglione del Lago, and gourmet lunch/tastings/tours at Aviognesi Winery (advance booking required.) It was a great compromise between a microscopic artisal producer and the soul-less magnitude of a place like Antinori.

We have traveled to Marche east of Umbria on the Adriatic coast a few times. We drive from FCO (Rome). Naples would add on more drive time. There are many nice beach towns around Ancona. South of Ancona, there’s Sirolo; north is Senigallia. Pesaro is a nice small city. North of there is Parco Naturale Monte San Bartolo. Having a car in Marche is recommended. There are also great inland cities such as Ascoli Picero. Even further inland are great hill towns and dramatic scenery. We especially liked Sassoferrato. We have spent several weeks in Marche and missed many recomended places. Late September and October is a great time to go, since not too crowded. But if you’re sunbathers, I’d go earlier in September.

Which part of the Adriatic are you considering? You mentioned Naples, so maybe you are thinking Puglia, but you also mentioned Umbria so I though Marche as well. Like Becky, I enjoyed Senigallia and San Bartolo, and I also liked the Monte Conero area and Sirolo. In Puglia, all of the well regarded coastal towns have been covered pretty extensively here.

We loved Senigallia. Miles of sandy beach & great restaurants, including 2 Michelin-starred. Nearby places of interest included the 15th century walled city of Corinaldo, and the caverns of Frasassi. Gorgeous area.

Another favorite place on the coast was Trani, a scenic little port, also a great spot for good food.

Spello and Assisi are both good bases for exploring that part of Umbria. If you want to venture north, Gubbio and Urbino (just into Le Marche) are an easy drive. Suki mentioned other places in Umbria that I enjoyed visiting, but I'll add Deruta in case you like ceramics.