Three Best Kept Travel Secrets - Off Season delights

This Three Secrets game started by Katie at Tripbase is fun!  

Here are the Three Secrets I have to share with you. 

I have a friend here in Rome who says to me "you go to all the right places....at all the wrong times!"  and he is right.  Italy in the summer can be chaotic, sweltering, and crowded.  Not exactly what you are looking for on your hard earned time off.  So, if you are looking for no lines, no umbrella wielding tour guides...read on for my advice.

Go off-season. 

Go to Italian islands.

My three off season island picks are.

Mid winter - Sicily

I have written about the wonders of Sicily in midwinter here.  

The highlights include...

The Agrigento Valley of the Temples without the scorching sun...go when the almond blossoms are in bloom.

Spend the morning skiing on Mount Etna and have a sundowner cocktail overlooking the sea in Taormina. 

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate in Modica!

Who needs Paris? - Capri in April!

The season is just about to start. The sun is shining. The entire island is buzzing with construction workers and shop keepers energizedd and getting ready for the season to begin. Restaurants are relaxed and uncrowded.

Book the cheerfulHotel Tosca  and take every recommendation the owner, Ettore, gives you.  From restaurants to boat tours to the best way to get back to Rome, he will not steer you wrong.

Stock up on lemon shaped soaps and bring the scents of Capri home with tiny travel candles at Carthusia.

While working on the difficult decision of which pair of sandals to buy, snack on torte caprese.

Deserted Island

Go to Elba at the very end of April. Spend the last quiet weekend before the start of the season in the enchanting  Capo Sant'Andrea.

Drive the empty, windy, roads where you go from dense wild forest to mediterranean scrub to wide sandy beaches in an hour.

Stop for early evening glass of wine in the Piazza Matteotti in the town of  Capoliveri.

Have a hearty bowl of cacciucco (fish stew) on the harbor side of Porto Azzuro

I was tagged by Miss Expatria.  now it's my turn....who's it?!

romephotoblog - whose photographer's eye seeks out the unexpected in Rome

agliooliopeperoncino   - who serves up delicious thoughts on Italian food

elizabeth minichili - who writes about rustic comfort in Rome, Tuscany and Umbria