The Tuscan wine country is the most popular driving holiday for visitors to Italy and the one that most resembles your trips to Andalucia and the Languedoc region of France.

There are two scenic areas in Tuscany that roadsters favor for their mild rolling hills are the val d'Orcia and the Chianti. Most people pick one spot in either area for a "base" and toodle around by car to castle hilltowns. Neither area is large in kms, but each is dense with antique towns containing Renaissance art, historic monuments, shops, etc. So touring is slow-going on the winding roads. But even unhurried travelers tend to find that one week in either area of Tuscany is plenty of time to do everything they want to do . For variety, some people combine one area of Tuscany with a stay somewhere on the Mediterranean coast, or the Italian Lakes, or increasingly, the food-heavens of Emilia-Romagna or Piemonte (although they are quite humid in summer).

Like Spain, Italy also has a long mid-afternoon pause when everything shuts down, although things open back up earlier. For that reason, some roadsters to Italy prefer not to "base" and do "day trips", but instead take road trips so they can enjoy the towns when the markets are open and the cafes are filled in the evenings. They move around a bit more to sample various landscapes and regions, and tend to get more off the beaten track than those who base in the Chianti or the val d'Orcia, or central Umbria.

If you are going in July, the much cooler Italian Alps can also make for a fantastic roadster vacation, espcially if you also enjoy hiking as well as mountain driving. The Dolomiti are uniquely spectacular in the world, and the valle d'Aosta combines marvelous historic sights dating back to the Romans with beautiful pastoral landscapes. But this northern tier of Italy is very different in feeling from the Renaissance wine country of central Italy, with its picturesque cypress trees and walled hilltowns.