How to See the Best Places on a Road Trip of Central Italy

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We then headed up the West Coast of Italy and visited famous places such as Rome, Amalfi Coast, Pompei, and Florence.

A stop in Tuscany to unwind before our road trip took us back to the small village of Moresco where we house-sat three dogs and two cats for 5-weeks until early December. Following the housesit, we drove to north Italy, through the south of France, then to North-East France and into Switzerland. Zurich would be our final stop for the year as we had a month-long housesit from mid-December.  This would lead to another highlight as two of our three sons would join us for Christmas.

 

Best Road Trip of Central Italy

Terracina, Lazio, Italy

Looking at the yellow sunset
Terracina, Italy

We spent 4 nights in the coastal town of Terracina, about 90mins south of Rome.
High above the city is the 4th century Temple of Jupiter Anxur on Monte Giove. It is a great place for Maura to take in the beautiful sunset looking towards the Circeo National Park.

Related Post:Terracina, Things to do

The Vatican Museums, Vatican City

Double staircase
The Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy

Maura on the famous Bramante staircase is the exit from the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel. It is a double-helix designed so people going up do not meet people going down. This staircase was built in 1932, but there is another in the Vatican built-in 1505, both have the same name.

 

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Night view of the vatican
Vatican, Rome

A night out at Trastevere  Rome with Luca and Daniela who we met at Arco Magno. We crossed the Ponte Garibaldi to see a nice view of St Peter’s Basilica glowing over the 15th century Ponte Sisto.

 

Florence, Tuscany, Italy

View of a large dome church
Florence, Italy

This is one of the iconic images of Florence, and of Italy. This shot of the Duomo or the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is taken from Piazzale Michelangelo.
Our long summer had come to an end, we had our first cold day for so long here, we both had to buy a jumper from the vendor in the Piazza. Actually, for €10, the tops were reasonably priced and we stayed warm.

 

Sienna, Tuscany, Italy

Large square filled with people
Siena, Italy

The Piazza del Campo is the main square in the city of Siena. Unique for its shell shape, it is a stunning piazza, and a great place to people watch. It is also where the Palio di Siena horse race has been run in July and August, for 500 years. Horses and riders dressed in the colors of 10 city wards contest 3 laps of the piazza in front of 40,000 passionate fans.

 

Spello, Umbria, Italy

Street with red flower boxes
Spello, Italy

A small town near Assisi, Spello is known as the town of flower-art. It seems every street is filled with flower displays like this, and of course, the perfume is lovely.

Every year on Corpus Christi (3 June 2018) the town hosts what could be the greatest flower-art festival on earth, the ‘Spello Infiorata’. More than 1000 people work overnight to create incredible carpets and pictures made from flowers. Book your place now. (This photo had nearly 20,000 likes on Instagram on the Italian_Places page.)

 

Our 6-week road trip came to an end on 31 October and we were back in Moresco for a 5-week housesit. We had moved from summer weather to winter weather with only a fleeting glimpse of Autumn, but it was exciting to see the nearby mountain ranges covered in snow.

 

Moresco, Marche, Italy

Sunset over a vineyard
Moresco, Italy

Early evening heading to a glorious sunset, looking over the vineyard next door to where we are house sitting. Maura likes sunsets so much more than sunrises, at least she is awake to enjoy them 😀😀😀. The local winery provides us with some really good wine at only €1.50 per liter.

 

Monti Sibillini National Park, Marche, Italy

View of countryside with snowy mountains
Monti Sibillini, Italy

We took a drive to the Monti Sibillini National Park. What a stunning drive it was, with several hilltop towns providing wonderful views over the valley to the mountains.

This is the town of Montefortino, at an elevation of 638m (2100ft) it has great views of the nearby mountains. Looking over the rooftop of a house towards Monte Zampa.  Nice to see the smoke rising from the chimney, we imagined a lovely fire, a slice of panettone, with a steaming bowl of cioccolata calda.