Southern Italyforum

Southern Italy is a land untouched by mass tourism, with many areas that are still undiscovered. It has been disregarded by the crowds because Italians in the second half of the 20th century, particularly from the 1960s on, developed a passion for seaside resorts and never thought to venture inland for their holidays. While mountain and thermal tourism has started to develop in recent years, rural tourism in Italy still has to be very much discovered and developed.

There are some areas, for example in Chianti in Tuscany and in parts of Umbria, where foreign ownership and patronage have made certain locations fashionable. Non-Italian buyers kick started the process by selecting prime real estate in towns and villages that today have become very sought-after locations. Unsatisfactory plane, train and road connections were another reason why rural tourism in the South escaped the mainstream holiday-maker for many years. This is no longer the case; investors and vacationers are starting to look at Southern Italy with different eyes as a result of a recent and noticeable improvements all three (particularly in low-cost airlines that have turned what were once remote areas into easily accessible ones)