Lazio.
Having been lucky to see the "usual suspects" Italy has to offer we decided to shake things up on our last trip to Italy. We wanted to branch out but also stay closer to Rome. Travelers land in Rome and scramble up to the better known and well trodden regions of Toscano. We did not and here's what we found. Hill towns tiny in comparison to Pisa and Lucca and Cortona but absolutely charming. The lush Sabina hills are here, and if you don't mind dealing with olive groves and vineyards you will not have to deals with crowds or rude tourists.
We stayed in a very well run B & B named La Toretta in Casperia, a cobblestoned hill town with a single parking lot at its base since no cars allowed except for the mini pickup truck used by the B & B to fetch us and our luggage on day one.
From "base camp Casperia" we day tripped to old monasteries, did a beautiful garden tour next to a perfect piazza, all unrushed and at our own pace.
Then there's the food.....The hosts at La Torretta sent us to a 1 seating a night farmhouse multi course dinner.
It did go on and on but in the best ways. Just us and 2 other tables! We were the only non Italians there. I can't remember the last time that's happened to me.
And if you go? Please do what we wish we had done and include time on the seaside, surf and turf?
Come down from the hills and unwind at Loggia Posta Vecchia.