You will find good value in these parts - this guide endeavours to show you the best deals in tours, accommodation and shopping. For example, it is possible to eat a pizza for €6.50 in a pizzeria, and house wine (which is usually very palatable) at €3 per half litre.

Marche 1 >

While your writer has visited many areas of Italy, he is most familiar with Le Marche, Trentino and Abruzzo. Moreover, these two regions are largely undiscovered, less frequented and in summer, lack the searing heat of more interesting southern Italian regions such as Puglia. We have tended to avoid famous locations such as Florence, Venice and Milan - there are many useful internet guides to these places.

There are several advantages about these two regions. Firstly, they are relatively undiscovered by foreign tourists and there is a certain sense of excitement when you tour them. While tourist facilities and accommodation is very good in these areas, they tend to cater for Italians. Thus, foreign tourists receive a very warm (and also curious) welcome - the people who live in these parts do not tend to venture beyond them, yet have a warm and hospitable nature. Being recognized as disadvantaged areas, they have had a lot of investment in infrastructure in recent years - the road network is much improved while bus and train links vary enormously.