What are you normally doing around the first advent weekend? Baking christmas cookies? Already visiting the first christmas markets? This year I packed my camera gear, sun glasses and some lighter clothes and traveled to Italy. 2 girls, a car and the long route from southern Italy back home to Vienna was my way starting this christmas season. Rome – Naples – Trani – Salerno – Amalfi coast – Sorrento – Pompei – Orvieto – Arezzo – Levanto – Cinque Terre – La Spezia – Verona – Marostica – Bassano del Grappa – Vienna. 7 amazing days with so many beautiful places, great food and different coffee variations.

Recommendations

Where to stay: During our road trip we stayed in many nice hotels but one was really outstanding: Villa Margherita in Levanto. This hotel is a restored Italian Villa with a lovely garden and an amazing sea view – and probably the best breakfast in Italy!

What to do: Italy is always worth a journey and every season and every region has its oddities. In the past, I’ve only been to Italy in spring and summer but autumn really has the potential to become my favorite season there. The weather is still great and therefore perfect for city trips with sight seeing or hiking holidays – with way less people than in spring, no queuing, nearly empty roads and parking areas and first row seats in all cafés and restaurants.
When it comes to must-see-places I can recommend nearly every place I’ve been on this journey. But if I need to choose 3: Pompei because I’m really into archeology and it’s such an impressive area; Trani because it’s a lovely small seaport town; Arezzo because it’s a beautiful town with a medieval center and a very special flair (and Benigni’s “Life is beautiful” was shot there);