sophiesophie

I will be in Venice in early Sept. A friend may join me for part of my trip. My original plan was to be in Venice for 3 nights, then go to Greece for a week. She may only take a week off, so she will probably not be going with me to Greece. I can change my flights and hotels in Greece, so I was thinking of staying a few days longer in Italy.

Is there an area of Italy we could get to by train - winery area - and stay a few days? I would prefer a slightly less popular wine area (prefer to avoid Chianti or any others you think are overrun with tourists). I would prefer not to rent a car. I really like traveling by train. Eventually, I'll need to get to an airport to catch a flight to Greece.

I was trying to find local train schedules from Venice and nothing comes up that goes through central Italy. (I used today or next week for the schedule- just to get an idea of where I could head towards.)

Or - we could visit a winery in the Venice area?

sophiesophie

I am searching today for train schedules to towns in Tuscany and it is now listing them. (Maybe the link wasn't working very well the other day.)

I would still appreciate any suggestions on an area to visit!

PWMTrav

I'd suggest taking the high speed train from Venice to Florence - the Frecciarossa is really nice, and fast. Then changing trains to a regional from Florence to one of the towns connected by rail. To really get off the tourist path, you will likely have to find a town that doesn't have a train station. I can recommend a driver in Florence if you want to do that.

Tuscany as a region is really well-marketed to tourists, so you're really not going to find a lot of small holes in the wall, but as a starting point do some research on Montefollonico. That might be for you. It's not un-touristy, but it gets relatively less traffic while still having some places to stay and restaurants. It doesn't have an English wikipedia page of its own, so that might be a good sign for you Transportation would look like this - http://www.rome2rio.com/s/Venice/Montefollonico

CaWino

Verona is about an hour west of Venice by train. I plan to spend two nights there is September after leaving Venice. I think they are known for white wines in the region. The town of Soave (wine by same name) is about 25 minutes east away from Verona by car. I have never been there but understand that it is lovely. Some friends tell me that town of Soave is worth a visit. The town of Monteforte d'Alpone, also east of Verona, hosts a raucous wine festival in September. BTW, the web site www.rome2rio.com is an excellent tool (downloadable app, too) for travel options. I have also found http://www.italiarail.com to be more user friendly in searching for train fares and schedules.