Slow trip

21 slow days of food and wine: Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, Chiavari, and Corigliano-Rossano

March through the Veneto brings lake trout to Malcesine's tables before the season turns toward tourists, while the Ligurian coast around Chiavari and Lavagna still nets anchovies in the cold water where they're at their most delicate. These three base towns, separated by four hours of driving north to south, allow you to follow the Italian calendar of food rather than the tourist one, moving from Alpine wines in the foothills above Lake Garda to vermentino and pesto on the narrow Cinque Terre-adjacent coast, ending finally in Calabria where the bergamot harvest is just closing and wild boar roasts fill the restaurants of towns like Rocca Imperiale and Corigliano-Rossano. You'll stay still long enough in each place to learn which restaurants the locals actually frequent and which vendors at the market know your name by day four.

21 days · March · food & wine-first · easy walking

Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella

Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, 5 days

Base yourself in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella and make these your day trips.

4 towns · qualifying pool of 6 from 14 candidates

Lakeside towns in the provinces of Verona and Trento. olive oil country and wine territory.

Getting around

Rent a car for this corner. Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, your base, is on the rail network. Only 1 of the 4 towns have a railway station; the day trips assume driving.

Day 1 · Arrive in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella

Settle in. Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella is your base for the next 5 days. Take the afternoon to walk the centro, find your bearings, eat something local.

Province: Verona

Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella

The Valpolicella DOC gateway northwest of Verona, where the Gargagnago frazione anchors Amarone production and a hilltop frazione holds a Lombard-era pieve.

Picked for:art and history · plain

Day 2 · Day trip to Trento

First outing. Head to Trento for the day. Take the slow road, leave time to wander, be back in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella for dinner.

Province: Trento

Trento

The Alpine capital on the Adige at 194 metres, where the Council that reshaped the Catholic Church met in a castle still standing above the city.

Picked for:food and wine · plain

Day 3 · Day trip to Brenzone sul Garda

Out again, this time to Brenzone sul Garda. Same rhythm: leave after breakfast, return for evening in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella.

Province: Verona

Brenzone sul Garda

Sixteen lakeside hamlets strung along Lake Garda's east shore, where olive trees still outnumber the year-round residents.

Picked for:food and wine · lakeside

Day 4 · Day trip to Riva del Garda

Out again, this time to Riva del Garda. Same rhythm: leave after breakfast, return for evening in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella.

Province: Trento

Riva del Garda

The north tip of the lake at 73 metres, where the Trentino mountains close in on the water and a Habsburg port town stayed bilingual into the twentieth century.

Picked for:food and wine · lakeside

Day 5 · Day trip to Malcesine

Last day trip in this corner, to Malcesine. Make a day of it, then back to Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella.

Province: Verona

Malcesine

The northernmost Veneto town on Lake Garda, where Goethe was nearly arrested for sketching the Castello Scaligero in September 1786.

Picked for:food and wine · lakeside

Chiavari

Chiavari, 12 days

Base yourself in Chiavari and make these your day trips.

5 towns · qualifying pool of 16 from 48 candidates

Coastal towns in the provinces of Genova, Savona, and La Spezia. Bandiera Blu coast, olive oil country, and Borghi Più Belli d'Italia.

Getting around

Chiavari, your base, is on the rail network. 3 of the 5 towns here have a station; the rest need wheels. A rental car makes this corner simple, a rail-plus-taxi version takes patience.

Day 1 · Arrive in Chiavari

Settle in. Chiavari is your base for the next 12 days. Take the afternoon to walk the centro, find your bearings, eat something local.

Province: Genova

Chiavari

The Tigullio capital between Portofino and the Cinque Terre, a 27,000-person Genoese trading town built around a thirteenth-century grid of porticoed streets.

Picked for:food and wine · coastal

Day 2 · Day trip to Lavagna

First outing. Head to Lavagna for the day. Take the slow road, leave time to wander, be back in Chiavari for dinner.

Province: Genova

Lavagna

The Tigullio town that gave its name to slate, and its counts to a line of popes.

Picked for:food and wine · coastal

Day 3 · Day trip to Sestri Levante

Out again, this time to Sestri Levante. Same rhythm: leave after breakfast, return for evening in Chiavari.

Province: Genova

Sestri Levante

The Tigullio town of two bays, split by a peninsula where a river once silted an island to the shore.

Picked for:food and wine · coastal

Day 4 · Day trip to Ameglia

Out again, this time to Ameglia. Same rhythm: leave after breakfast, return for evening in Chiavari.

Province: La Spezia

Ameglia

A hilltop borgo at 89 meters above the mouth of the Magra, the Lunigiana edge of Liguria where the river meets the Gulf of Poets.

Picked for:art and history · coastal

Day 5 · Day trip to Portofino

Out again, this time to Portofino. Same rhythm: leave after breakfast, return for evening in Chiavari.

Province: Genova

Portofino

Three hundred and fifty-five residents, the smallest municipal territory in the metropolitan area, and the harbor every superyacht in the Mediterranean wants to anchor in.

Picked for:nature and walking · coastal

Day 6 · Day trip to Noli

Last day trip in this corner, to Noli. Make a day of it, then back to Chiavari.

Province: Savona

Noli

The fifth Italian maritime republic from 1192 to 1797, a walled coastal town with the Romanesque basilica of San Paragorio outside its gates.

Picked for:art and history · coastal

Day 7 · Day in Chiavari