5 Alternative Ways To Experience Italy In 2024

27.02.2024 - 15:59 / forbes.com / Ernest Hemingway / Audrey Hepburn / Lake Como / Lake Maggiore

You don’t need to head to obscure, hard-to-reach parts of Italy to heed some of today’s most popular travel mantras, like “escape the crowds!”and “beat the heat!” Here are five gorgeous destinations close to (and even in) the country’s most sought-after spots that can help you do a bit of both. All are right on the water—almost a requirement for summer vacations now, when warm-weather months bring new, record-setting hot spells throughout Europe.

While it’s almost impossible to escape the throngs during peak season in Venice proper, you can avoid a lot of the hubbub and deal blissfully with scorchers if you stay on the Lido di Venezia, a slender barrier island facing the Adriatic Sea. A short (15-to-25) minute ferry ride to Piazza San Marco, the Lido is a lovely haven with a choice of private and public beaches, making it easy to cool down after hours of touring.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Lido became a jet-set oasis, especially during the month of August, where it wasn’t unusual to see the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Aristotle Onassis and the city’s most prominent noble families mixing and mingling at the island’s glamorous beach clubs. (To get a flavor of those long-gone palmy days, read Gill Johnson’s marvelous new memoir, Love from Venice: A Golden Summer on the Grand Canal). Big names continue to come here, most noticeably during the Film Festival in late August-early September when there’s plenty of action at the Palazzo Cinema and the luxe Excelsior Hotel. but other parts of the the 11-kilometer island remain tranquil. In addition to the historic Excelsior, the Lido is home to the five-star Ausonia and Hungaria, plus a selection of four- and three-star properties.

Lake Como may steal the headlines with news of celebrity visits and sky-high villa prices, but its neighbor Lake Maggiore, a stellar, lower-key destination, provides much of what Como has to offer—an ethereal mix of Alpine and tropical scenery, splendid villas and gardens, and lake-focused sports— without a lot of the crowds and, often, at lower costs. Maggiore, lying in both Lombardy and Piedmont, with the northernmost section easing into Switzerland, is only about an hour’s drive from Milan’s Malpensa airport, if you head to Stresa, one of the lake’s best-known towns. In Stresa you’ll find the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées, a favorite of European elites for decades, and where Ernest Hemingway once stayed, drawing on the setting in A Farewell to Arms. The other-worldly Borromean Islands, a short ferry ride from Stresa, most of them still owned by the aristocratic family of the same name, are must-sees, particularly Isola Bella with its palazzo and lavish gardens. In Verbania, about a 20-minute drive from Stresa, the Villa Taranto