Special but not to touristy places in Italy to go to?

Italy is full of amazing places where average tourists don't go because each of them wants to do what other tourists do, looking just for the "must-sees". So, in some places you can find just tourists who run from one spot to another without understanding anything about what they see, just caring they see the "must-sees", and other places, often as beautiful as the most touristy ones, totally ignored by tourists, where one can discover not only some artistic wealth, but also the real Italy lived by Italians, not the Italy selling itself to the mass tourists offering them what they want.

Anyway, Italy is large and one had to know to what area your friend wants to go, what reference they has. Basically, I would suggest to avoid absolutely: Cinque Terre, Garda Lake, Pisa, San Gimignano, Sorrento, Taormina. I don't say they are not beautiful, but they are the typical average touristy spots.

Rome, Florence and Venice are also full of swarms of tourists, but they are large cities full of interesting things to see, not all of them known or attended by tourists. So I wouldn't skip them totally, eventually I could suggest something in each of these cities not so touristy.

In addition, here you are a list of really beautiful towns where tourism is rare or almost unknown, from North to South: Aosta, Turin, Bergamo, Vicenza, Treviso, Mantova, Udine, Trieste, Parma, Bologna, Ferrara, Arezzo, Lucca, Perugia, Spoleto, Ascoli Piceno, Viterbo, Anagni, L'Aquila, Lecce, Matera, Palermo, Siracusa... Always noticing that Italy is large, going from one place to another is not always easy or fast, and it depends what reference they has. Aosta and Siracusa in the same travel is just nonsense. She should anyway choose places rather close and rather easy to reach one from another, and make a "reasonable" plan, avoiding turning around all Italy from North to South, what would be just a waste of time, energy and money.

I'm not sure that there really are any non-touristy places here, but there are some that are less touristy. In Mantova, the castle, palace and Palazzo Te are all among the palces that are worth a visit. The local specialties at the restaurants are good too. They also have a terrific music festival in the summer. Ferrara also has several historic buildings including the castle, and the Duomo. The Palio in May is definitely worth seeing. There are festivals in the small towns throughout Emilia-Romagna all summer. Cremona doesn't get as many tourists as some other places. Modena is also an interesting city. Other places to look into include Pavia, Marostica, Bassano del Grappa, Soave and Vicenza The old theater, the Duomo, and the baptistry in Parma are worth visiting. There are several good castles in towns in the area.

Touristic Places In Italy

Maybe the 'trick' is to go during off season - I've traveled in Italy in mid-September to early October, with wonderful weather. Smaller towns, such as Lucca, Siena, Verona, Trieste, Biella, all wonderful, all different with wonderful things to see, food to eat. Just get a good guide, such as Rick Steve's book, and trust him! Also, if you have some Italian, you'll have a much better time - talk to the locals, even in a limited way, apologizing for the bad Italian, and your experience is 10 times better! Use the trains, buses, drink lots of 'cafe' (no cappucino after lunch!), vino, gelatto!

It would help to know exactly where your friend will be in Italy and exactly when. In addition to lesser visited places, there are some interesting festivals and events like the Regatta of the Witches on the Grand Canal in Venice on the 6th of January or the Saint Anthony celebration in Dorgali on Sardegna where there's a huge bonfire on the 16th. Those are things that you can only experience during those particular days that most visitors would not get to see. But of course, things like that depend on whether she'll be in that area. Or there's the Fiera di Sant'Orso on the 30th and 31st of January - a huge arts and crafts fair: http://www.fieradisantorso.it/GB/indexGb.htm

She could probably go look at the Mount Vesuvius volcano, in the Bay of Naples? You can see the beautiful sunset (picture shown on the link down there vvv) It was voted first for 10 Top Most Magnificent Volcanoes, and there's a historical dig site, due to it's first eruption in 79 AD. It buried the city Pompeii but when it's ashes fell on the ground, it helped preserve everything it touched. Hope that helped? :D

Tourists are less inclined to travel south of the Amalfi coast. See guidebooks for attractions in southernmost Italy.

My bf and are going to Salerno. We are going to rome and its about 2.5 hrs away by train from Rome.

My reasons are, its a beautiful coastal place, but not crowded. It is the beginning of Amalfi coast so people just start from there, few stay there and enjoy salerno as such.

Try to visit Otranto Area, is stunning and full of history. Not packed. Also places like Castelluccio di Norcia are not packed but very beautiful.

Not trying to be snarky here.........but why would you go to Italy, land of a BILLION famous things to see.......and then NOT want to see any of them?

There's a REASON, all the touristy places, are crawling with tourists.........because the sites are mind boggling and spectacular!

I am reminded of my brother, whom I brought to Venice, and wanted to show him the Grand Canal.

He INSISTED that he did not want to see the "touristy places"....and instead, wanted to see the "real Venice", and then proceeded to drag me, thru the garbage strewn back allies and rat maze like streets, looking at such "real Venice" stuff, like hanging laundry, and over turned garbage cans.

He didn't want to eat in those pricey tourist plaza's.........he found some back alley DUMP, and they were as shocked as we were, to see us decide to eat there.

The food, was predictably LOUSY, and not any great amount cheaper, than sitting in St, Marks Piazza and getting the real deal.

You don't say, where in Italy your friend will be. That's like saying what are the secret places of America.

Where would you like to start?