If you’re an Italophile, you’ve likely been to most of the big cities: Rome, Florence, Milan and Venice. Maybe even Naples, Bologna, Turin and Palermo. But what about Italy’s small towns that aren’t often written about, the true gems of the country? Which ones do you visit and why?

That’s where See You in the Piazza comes in. This new book by Frances Mayes, bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, is your new stealth guidebook for discovering the small “off the tourist trail” Italian towns and villages.

In this packed account of their year and a half of Italian road tripping, Frances Mayes and her husband Ed (and for a few months her 15-year old grandson, William) drove through Italy from top to bottom in their Alfa Romeo (could it be any better?).

They drove at a leisurely pace, often pulling off the highway to stop at a village that sounded interesting, while on the way to their next town.

In doing so, Mayes has created a “small towns of Italy” agenda where the stars are towns such as Merano and Vipiteno in the jagged peaks of the Dolomites, Trani and Ostuni in recently fashionable Puglia and Piscinas and Cagliari on the island of Sardegna.

Note: The pictures in this post are from our travels to see Italy’s small towns, not the ones featured in the book. There are so many small towns to visit – it’s an endless journey.

You could read See You in the Piazza as an armchair traveller, but at some point(s), you’ll surely think, hey, I could fly into Milan, rent a car and head north to the mountains. Or, fly into Rome and visit the small towns of Puglia. In both cases, get out a map and track the route laid out by Mayes.

Even if you only had a couple of weeks, you could do much worse than simply follow directions.

It’s obvious that Mayes is accomplished at both journaling and research. For every stop on the way, you’ll learn about where they ate, what they ate, what wine they drank (many inspired choices!), where they stayed and how they enjoyed it all (mostly, but not always).

Next in order of importance for Mayes and her husband are art and churches, which in Italy are often one and the same thing. Italian churches give you the increasingly rare experience of seeing art in situ, in other words, paintings that are still in the buildings for which they were commissioned. (Quick observation: that this exists is one of the miracles of both Italy and the art world – rather than hanging in a big-name museum in Rome, Florence, London or Paris, masterpieces hang in small churches in obscure villages accessed by crooked mountain roads. Mind-boggling!)

Mayes comments on many of the paintings, pointing out details and often comparing them to paintings by other artists who have addressed the same theme.

Whether she’s describing acknowledged masterpieces or unheralded, but still noteworthy paintings and frescos by local artists, you feel like you’re in good hands with Mayes.

I wish I could stand next to her, seeing what she sees.

Mayes’ encyclopedic knowledge delights and surprises.

She and Ed were in a restaurant in the coastal town of Gaeta, south of Rome. The restaurant featured a modern mural, based on a 14^th century marriage scene. In the new version, the artist has the models dressed in period costumes but features the faces of contemporary local residents. The locals can drop in and see their cousin or uncle as he might have been so many years ago.

Mayes asked her husband Ed, “Do you think Cy Twombly liked or loathed this?”

For a second, I wondered why would the American artist Twombly have an opinion on a mural in a restaurant?

Mayes explains it in the next paragraph. Twombly kept a house in Gaeta for over 30 years, so Mayes assumes he would have dined in this restaurant and seen this mural.

It’s little detours like this that put a smile on my face. (They decided he would have liked it.)

Aside from her skills at note taking, Mayes relies on at least two other important sources of information: the series of Blue Guide books for the regions of Italy, and novels and non-fiction books that are relevant to the town or region where they happen to be.

The Blue Guides, not as well known in North America as in Europe, are, to use their own words, “scrupulously edited guides, compiled for the independent educated traveller wanting to avoid the monotony of international uniformity.”

Although started in London, within their catalogue the Blue Guides offer the most complete series of guides for Italy. Their only North American guide is for New York.

While some see them as “dry”, they are incomparable for the level of detail especially in the areas of art, architecture and history. They’re not quickie lists of “Top 10” for anywhere.

Mayes mentions the fiction and non-fiction books she’s reading in passing, and sometimes provides further information in the handy notes that are appended to many of the chapters. It’s an easy way to add to your own travel library.

The notes sometimes include URLs to relevant articles she’s come across. Helpful.

As if all the details on locations, attractions, churches, art and meals weren’t enough, Mayes often includes recipes that she’s managed to inveigle from various restaurant chefs. There’s even a handy index at the back of the book.

Again, not your run-of-the-mill recipes. How about, from Sicily, crispy octopus with velvety chickpeas, wild fennel and lemon zest? See page 372.

Reading this book, I wondered whether Mayes deliberately left off some towns that she didn’t want “discovered”. I don’t know. She doesn’t seem to mind that Under the Tuscan Sun made her precious town of Cortona famous, or that tourists seek out her house and stand at the gate to gawk. In fact, she’s mentioned that she is thrilled when visitors leave little gifts or offerings in her mailbox, and that sometimes she comes down to chat with them.

I assume there was some editing and pruning involved, but this is quite a long list of towns from top to the toe of Italy.

Of course, with so many well-preserved Italian towns and villages, I’m sure Mayes could write this book a dozen times, each time with different locations, and still come up with delightful itineraries.

Whenever you read about Italy, you’ll read about food. It’s inevitable. Over the years, I’ve collected a list of food writers in Italy. Here are three of my favorites.

Some of you may know Wendy Lyn as the food guide / writer / ultimate insider of “Paris is My Kitchen”. We’ve taken two food tours with Wendy in Paris and loved them both.

Now, on Instagram, Wendy has launched Venice is My Kitchen. Once again, she knows every restaurant, chef and sommelier worth knowing, who’s using the best local ingredients, sourcing local organic wines and just generally having a good time.

If you’re heading to Venice, avoid the tourist trap joints and follow Wendy’s lead on @VeniceIsMyKitchen. You can’t go wrong. (A little in-joke: if you go on a food tour with Wendy, ask her what to do with a leftover half bottle of wine.)

While Wendy doesn’t cook much at home, which means no recipes, Elizabeth Minchilli most certainly does, and that means lots of recipes.

She’s the author of three wonderful books, Eating Rome: Living the Good Life in the Eternal City, Eating My Way Through Italy and The Italian Table and a phone app Eat Italy which has sections for various Italian cities. (I’ve got them all and we often cook from her books.)

Elizabeth and her daughter Sophie also lead food tours and host week-long stays in Rome and Umbria.

Even if you’re just living vicariously, it’s worth signing up for her newsletter. It’s packed with useful information and fun to read.

Katie Parla is based in Rome but casts her gaze south all the way through Sicily with a focus on classic, disappearing and lost recipes.

She’s written two books: Tasting Rome and Food of the Italian South. We have them both and have recently been cooking from the second one.

Katie and her crew also do food tours in Rome (we nearly did one, but we couldn’t line up our dates). Sign up for her newsletter. Always worth reading.

If you’re heading to Italy and are thinking of renting a car, read our tips on renting a car in Italy first. Thank me later.

Read about the exceptional week we spent in Venice in September – including opera at La Fenice.

I went back to photograph Venice for 11 days. I came home with about 3,000 shots. Here are my tips for shooting in Venice.

Join us in learning about Mariano Fortuny, a true renaissance man of Venice, and make sure you visit his palazzo.

Read about the extraordinary kindness from Italians we experienced every day in Italy.

Take advantage of our Top 5 Tips for visiting the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s in Rome.

This account of Monticchiello, a small Italian hilltop village, will open your eyes to its history and brush with annihilation.

We planned to go to Cinque Terre, but didn’t. Why not?

If you’re planning a “small towns of Italy” tour, you’ll want a GPS. The signs on the highways are reasonable, but as soon as you get into the countryside or into a town, you’ll easily be lost without it (even with it sometimes).

On our trips, we’ve rented a Teppy for portable WiFi which allowed us to use Google maps on our phone in the car without data charges. The Teppy was also perfect for any online work we were doing on the road. You can connect your phones, tablets, laptops and gaming consoles just like you connect to WiFi at home.

Teppy portable WiFi works around the world. Try it on your next trip.

For hotel accommodation, we like Booking.com. They really cover Italy well which makes trip planning easy. Photographs show off the properties, and real reviews help you choose the hotel that’s best for you. You’ll find a great selection, current prices and pages that make booking easy.

Remember, Italy is one of the world’s most popular destinations and can get very busy, so book early to get the best selection and price.

Click here, and you’ll get $25 off your next reservation on Booking.com.

We’ve rented Airbnb throughout Italy, Portugal and USA. We wrote an article about renting Airbnb, 12 Tips for a Great Renting Experience to help you make the right decision. If it’s your first time renting Airbnb, click here to get the equivalent of $50 CDN off your first booking.

Along with the websites and other travel planning tools, we still like to have a guide book handy. We’ve tried them all, and these days we prefer Lonely Planet books.

Use our link to get 10% off your total order when you enter EARTHTRIPPERS10 during checkout, where it asks for the Discount Code. Please note, this offer is valid only in USA and Canada.

These days there are many things that can happen when you travel, aside from getting bumped from a flight. That’s why we always get insurance for our trips. It covers damage, loss or theft of our belongings, health issues and if necessary, emergency evacuation. Better safe than sorry.

Whether you’ve just booked your trip or are already underway, you can get covered by World Nomads. It’s one of the most popular insurance companies designed specifically for travellers. See if it’s right for you.

Note: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click on them and buy something or book accommodation, we receive a small commission at absolutely no cost to you. This helps with the cost of operating this site.