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How To Salvage Your Italian Vacation
How To Salvage Your Italian Vacation
ForbesFollowWinston Ross, ContributorUpdatedTue, June 30, 2026 at 6:25 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleUpdatedTue, June 30, 2026 at 6:25 PM UTCA backstreet in Randazzo, the unpretentious Etna hill town that serves as the base for Marco Zagami's Island of Wonders tours.
Winston RossNot long before my passport was set to expire in 2025, I booked a flight to Vietnam. Foolishly, I didn't check to see that most countries won't allow entry on a passport with less than six months of eligibility, nor did I realize it might take a few weeks to process a visa application. I thought I had plenty of time to plan a stress-free trip. I was wrong.
Frantic, I scoured the internet for a fix and found one: ItsEasy.com, which after a few clicks, a couple of selfies and a $39.95 service fee had a new passport, a visa application and a passport card in my mailbox with plenty of time to spare for Vietnam. The trip was saved, and I vowed to do a better job planning travel the next time.
Then came a six-week jaunt to Europe, and another rookie move. I booked a rental car through the platform Discover Cars but failed to read the terms: the agency that would actually hand over the car might require an international driver's permit, a meaningless paper pamphlet handed to anyone who pays a fee to an auto club like AAA and waits long enough for it to arrive in the mail. When I got to the rental car counter, the company demanded the permit, then refused to issue a car, even after I found an online vendor willing to grant one instantly. No other agency had a vehicle available. I had to travel by train and bus to my next destination, then back to the Bologna airport to try again.
A trail through the Dolomites near Cortina d'Ampezzo, where the elevation runs 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the valley floor.
As a destination, Italy has exploded in popularity since the pandemic and the airing of the Max hit series The White Lotus, which broadcast just a sliver of what the country can offer visitors. Tourism to Italy has climbed well past pre-pandemic levels, with the country now drawing more than 50 million international visitors a year, behind only France and Spain in Europe. The result: its most celebrated landmarks (Rome, Venice, Florence) are overrun. While it's hard to argue against the great canals, the Sistine Chapel or the Colosseum, there are plenty of other ways to experience the Boot's food, people and landscapes. But traveling well here requires more planning than you might expect. Hotels, restaurants and trains fill up. Airports run out of automobiles.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHere's how to get the most out of your Italian vacation, no matter what's standing in the way.
A sculptural pendant light against gold-tiled walls at Hotel Milu in Florence, where contemporary art is woven through every floor.
Flying To Florence? Keep It Quick
Florence is among Italy's most crowded cities, but fear of missing out is a powerful draw, and many visitors fly in to start their trip there. If you do, stay in the heart of the fashion district at Hotel Milu, a 14th-century building on Via de' Tornabuoni that doubles as an art gallery, with contemporary works tucked into every hallway and stairwell and a rooftop terrace looking out over the city's rooftops and hills. It's a five-minute walk from the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio, close enough to see the major sights without losing a whole day to lines, and far enough from the river that the worst of the foot traffic passes you by.
After wandering the same landmarks everyone else came to Florence to see, disappear into Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura, the one-Michelin-star restaurant tucked inside the Gucci building on Piazza della Signoria. Chef Takahiko Kondo runs the kitchen day to day, threading Japanese technique through Italian ingredients without losing the thread back to Modena, where Bottura made his name; the tortellini in Parmesan cream is the dish locals still bring up first. One dinner here is enough to feel like you got something out of Florence without surrendering your whole trip to it.
Inside the vinegar cellar at Il Borgo del Balsamico, where casks of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar age for years in seven different types of wood.
Too Touristy? Try Emilia-Romagna
AdvertisementAdvertisementEspecially if you've already seen the country's most beloved cities, skip them altogether. Rent a car and tool around Emilia-Romagna, the region that gave the world Parmesan, prosciutto, balsamic vinegar and tagliatelle, and which somehow still sits in Tuscany's shadow despite the arguably better claim to Italian food. You won't be surrounded by the crowds that flock to nearby Florence, but you will be eating well. Tour one of the family-run Parmigiano-Reggiano caseifici outside Parma or Modena to watch wheels of cheese aged for two years or more on wooden shelves stacked floor to ceiling, a process that has barely changed since the Middle Ages. Learn how balsamic vinegar is aged in a succession of progressively smaller wooden barrels at Il Borgo del Balsamico, a method largely unchanged for centuries and one that some families still treat as a kind of inheritance, passing down barrels from one generation to the next.
The resident cat keeps watch at the entrance to Antica Corte Pallavicina, Massimo Spigaroli's historic relais on the banks of the Po River.
Take a pasta class from Michelin-starred chef Massimo Spigaroli at the Antica Corte Pallavicina Relais, a historic hotel on the banks of the Po River in Polesine Parmense, where Spigaroli's family has been curing culatello in the cellars beneath the property for generations. Bologna itself, often overlooked in favor of its more photogenic neighbors, has the porticoed streets and the university crowd to make a worthwhile city stop on its own, with a food scene that rivals anything you'll find in Rome. This region invented what most of the world thinks of as "Italian" food.
Morning light on the stone farmhouse at Ronco Bertolo in the Bolognese Apennines, where Eleonora Francis's family has worked the land for three centuries.
Too Hazy? Head to the Bolognese Apennines
If it hasn't rained in a while, northern Italy's skies can turn gray with smog, a side effect of the Po Valley's industry and its trapped air. But it doesn't take much of a drive to find a blue horizon. Ronco Bertolo is a brand-new apartment-style B&B tucked into the Bolognese Apennines near Loiano, run by a woman whose family has farmed the property for three centuries. The farmhouse dates to the 17th century, but the road serving it wasn't built until recently; for generations, the only way in or out was on foot, along the same mule paths used to ferry hay and timber down from higher pastures. It feels like a farm stay, minus the noise and smell of livestock, with the kind of quiet that makes you realize how loud the rest of your trip has been. And if you ask in advance, Eleonora Francis will prepare a home-cooked dinner on arrival, often built around whatever her brother is harvesting that week on the family's adjoining farm. A short walk down the hill sits a neighborhood abandoned some 60 years ago after a landslide; around 300 people once lived there and left for good, their stone houses still standing in the forest, doors hanging open to rooms nobody has slept in for decades.
Pietradolce, the Faro family's winery on Etna's northern slope, where pre-phylloxera vines as old as 150 years grow in volcanic soil. Screenshot
Too Cold? Sizzle in Sicily
AdvertisementAdvertisementCompared to much of Europe, Italy is a warm destination, but especially in the winter it can get chilly even in the south. The answer is Sicily, but not just for its beloved beach scene. The island has spent the last several years building out an adventure-sports identity to pair with its already considerable food and wine credentials. The ideal home base for everything from skiing Mount Etna in the winter to snorkeling the coves near Taormina in the summer: Donna Carmela, the Small Luxury Hotel nestled into a sprawling plant nursery between bustling Catania and touristy Taormina. Why a plant nursery? Because its founders, the Faro family, built a small empire in Sicily from an ornamental plant business that grew into one of the largest Mediterranean plant nurseries in Europe, exporting more than 5,000 varieties to 60 countries. The Faros have since built Donna Carmela, the Pietradolce winery on Etna's northern slope, the Radicepura botanical garden and art park, and renovated villas nearby that can be rented out by families in search of a bit more privacy.
There's enough on the Faro properties alone to occupy a long weekend, but the wider area has more to offer. Marco Zagami runs a dozen-plus different tour styles through his company, Island of Wonders, based in the unpretentious hill town of Randazzo on Etna's northern flank. Guests can sea kayak the coastline near Taormina, body raft through the basalt-walled Alcantara Gorge, and mountain bike along Etna's lower slopes, learning along the way about the volcano's eruptions and its place in Sicilian myth.
The sauna at Grand Fasano Hotel.
Too Hot? Cool Off at Lake Garda
When the valley temps sear, push north. First stop: Grand Hotel Fasano, on the shores of Lake Garda in Gardone Riviera, a belle epoque property that has hosted travelers since the late 19th century, when it served as a hunting lodge for the Austro-Hungarian royal family before the lake became a resort destination in its own right. With a private dock leading right from the property, the cool waters of the lake offer a respite from soaring temperatures, as does the plunge pool in the renovated Aqva Spa, which also houses Finnish saunas, Turkish baths, hydromassage facilities and a spa garden on the lake. The spa is open to all guests without appointment, a rarity at hotels of this caliber. The property has three restaurants: the Michelin-starred Il Fagiano, Magnolia and Osteria Il Pescatore, all overseen by chef s Maurizio Bufi and Chef Valerio Dallamano, who draw on the lake's own fish and the citrus and olive groves that ring its shores. Jars of no fewer than six different kinds of candy sit in the lobby, a small, slightly old-fashioned touch that feels right for a hotel of this vintage. Gardone Riviera itself is worth a wander, with the eccentric Vittoriale degli Italiani, the former estate of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, a short walk from the hotel.
A wooden hut in an alpine meadow in the Dolomites
Too Crowded? Go Vertical in the Dolomites
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Dolomites are Italy's answer to the Swiss and French Alps, and not only is the air clear once you reach the right elevation, it's generally 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the valley floor. On the way up from Lake Garda, stop at the Dolomiti Paganella Bike Area near Andalo, which spans three mountain zones across more than 80 kilometers of trail served by nine lifts, enough terrain to occupy a rider for several days without repeating a run. The drive from Bolzano to Cortina d'Ampezzo cuts through river valleys and past pale limestone towers that grow taller the farther north you go.
The bar at Ancora Cortina, a 1826 hotel reimagined by Renzo Rosso
In Cortina, two sister hotels stand out. There's Hotel Ancora, built in 1826 and recently reimagined by fashion magnate Renzo Rosso and designer Vicky Charles, at the center of Corso Italia with 35 rooms, all with Dolomite views, a 200-square-meter spa and the Brave Club, which draws a lively crowd until late.
The rooftop spa at Hotel de Len overlooks Cortina's valley and the Dolomites
A few doors down, Hotel de Len is a 22-room timber hideaway built from reclaimed stone pine and fir; the sixth-floor spa looks out over the Faloria massif and Cortina's bell tower, with a Finnish sauna, steam room, ice waterfall, outdoor hot tub and a sensory shower path. Downstairs, the speakeasy-style Bar de Len trades in barrel-aged cocktails; the restaurant's signature is the Piatto Quadro, four courses served simultaneously on a single square plate, each meant to be eaten in whatever order you like.
Too Bustling? Retreat to Castel Badia
AdvertisementAdvertisementFor a little alpine town, Cortina can get hectic on weekends, when day-trippers from Venice and Verona pour in by the busload. The answer: Castel Badia, a Leading Hotel of the World perched on a hillside in San Lorenzo di Sebato, South Tyrol, about an hour northwest of Cortina by car. The 11th-century castle was first a fortress, then a Benedictine monastery, before Emperor Joseph II turned it into a military hospital in 1785 as part of his broader dissolution of religious orders across the Habsburg empire. It sat in various states of disrepair for much of the 20th century before a multiyear restoration brought it back. The hotel reopened in late 2025 as a 28-room property with a subterranean spa housing indoor and outdoor pools, two indoor saunas, a steam room and a hammam, all carved into what was once the monastery's cellar and crypt. At Stube Badia, the menu works with South Tyrolean ingredients, leaning on alpine cheeses, game and mountain herbs foraged from the surrounding hillsides rather than the tomatoes and olive oil more associated with Italian cooking farther south.
The wood-clad exterior of Hotel Saltus, with views of the Dolomites
Too Italian? Try the Italy That Used to Be Austria
South Tyrol spent most of its history as part of the Habsburg empire and didn't transfer to Italy until 1919, after the empire's collapse following the First World War. The region still feels more Tyrolean than Italian: street signs are bilingual, the architecture is alpine, and the food leans on speck and strudel rather than prosciutto and tiramisu. Check into Hotel Saltus in San Genesio Atesino (Jenesien), a family-run eco-property at 1,100 meters above sea level on the plateau above Bolzano, and you might forget you're in Italy altogether. The 18-meter infinity sky pool floats above a panorama of UNESCO-listed Dolomite peaks, close enough to touch on a clear day. The Forest Spa, tucked into the surrounding spruce forest, offers a Finnish sauna, a hay sauna, a steam room and the cherished ritual of "aufguss," a choreographed sauna infusion ceremony common throughout Austria and Germany, in which an attendant pours water scented with alpine herbs over hot stones and waves a towel to circulate the heat through the room. The hotel itself is built from clay, limestone and reclaimed spruce, all sourced within a short drive, an approach that owes more to the building traditions on this side of the old border than anything typically found farther south in Italy.
Cimone Enduro District is a small mountain-bike outfit run by four local riders based at the foot of Monte Cimone in Sestola, in Emilia-Romagna's Apennines. They guide enduro and e-MTB tours through the trails of the Cimone area, part of a larger network with around 70km of enduro/downhill/freeride track and lift access via chairlift.
Too Spendy? Find Fanano
AdvertisementAdvertisementRonco Bertolo isn't the only good value in Italy. Just across the Apennines from Loiano lies Fanano, a quiet mountain village in the Cimone district, easy to walk and a fraction of the cost of anything in the Dolomites. Down the hill from the village center is a new service center (hotel, restaurant and bike shop) that opened in early 2026 as the headquarters of the Cimone Enduro District, a mountain bike association that has spent two years reclaiming and maintaining roughly 60 kilometers of singletrack trails on the slopes of Monte Cimone, the highest peak in the northern Apennines at 2,165 meters. Michele Poli, one of the district's co-founders, told me in an interview that the trails follow old village roads that residents used for centuries to reach homes deep in the forest, paths that fell into disrepair as the surrounding villages emptied out over the last half-century. "We are following the natural trail, the historical trail," he said, "and this is also the characteristic of the area." The association is one of roughly 16 recipients in Europe of Santa Cruz Bicycles' Dirt Project grant, which funds trail maintenance for small volunteer-run networks; the money went toward an ATV for hauling chainsaws and equipment into terrain too steep and narrow for a car. The district now runs guided rides departing straight from the service center, along with a small fleet of rental bikes for guests who arrive without their own, so a visit to Fanano requires no car and very little planning beyond getting yourself to the village.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
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