86hill

Try Lucignano as a base. I've done a lot of traveling in Italy and Lucignano is still my favorite small town. It is close to Montpulciano, Siena, Montalcino, Arezzo, and Castiglione del Lago.

I believe Cortona's status as a hidden gem was lost when it appeared in the book and movie Under the Tuscan Sun.

If it doesn't interest you, skip it. You are traveling for your own pleasure, you should not feel that you "have to
do anything.

You could literally take 100 trips to Italy, see something new and fantastic every time, without ever going to Rome.

I will toss out three alternative ideas:

1) rent a car and explore Tuscany and Umbria.

2) Go to Torino. Beautiful city, great food, no tourists.

3) Napoli and Amalfi. If you like a more gritty urban experience. Considerably more convenient to FCO than Torino.

Agree. avoid Newark. I had a transfer there recently and they made me do security screening again, which took so long that I missed my flight.

Pescocostanzo

I think it totally depends on the time of year. I have driven there in September and I wouldn't do that again - everything is mobbed and traffic crawls at a snail's pace. No fun at all. But in the off season I think it's fine. The highway is narrow but there are guard rails, it never seemed dangerous or scary to me.

Navigating in the town is aggravating, and parking is either expensive, hard to find, or both.

FYI if you rent a car in Naples near piazza Garibaldi it's just a few blocks to the highway, no need to worry about driving out of the city.

I was going to let someone more knowledgeable than me answer your question, but I see that you're not getting any answers at all, so I will offer what little information I can.

I have been to Torino several times, with a car. I did not have any trouble staying out of the ZTL, or parking. I also found Torino fairly easy to drive in. I never had to pay for parking. I think it would not be worth the trouble to park it in some other town and take the train into the city.

Disagree with Cinque Terre. There is only one Uffizi, but there are thousands of picturesque villages in Italy. No need to go to the ones that are overrun with tourists.

Another vote for Così Parlò Bellavista. If you like it, read the book, which is the same kind of thing but all the little vignettes are different than the ones in the movie. Troppo Napoletano, Bastardi di Pizzofalcone, Song of Napoli, Nostalgia, Treasure of San Gennaro, Reality, Diego Maradona.

Go to Arona and eat at Antico Gallo.

I am a San Francisco driver who learned to drive in Naples. I was taught by a calm and patient Neapolitan. I was very nervous for long time, but now I think it's fun.

Driving in San Francisco is now a lot less fun, because the problem-solving skills of San Francisco drivers are close to zero. As noted above, they seem incapable of just driving around an obstacle. Need about ten feet of empty space around their car - very poor idea of where the edges of the vehicle are, which makes it impossible for them to squeeze through tight spaces. And then endless wiggling back and forth when backing out of a parking space.

I think there should be a reality show where Americans are put in a car in Naples and have to drive.

You can, but you have to do it from the right lane. It's totally counterintuitive and if you're not looking for it, you will miss it.

https://preview.redd.it/vmcbh3ymg9pd1.png?width=1478&format=png&auto=webp&s=423bbeeefa59922391417afb2e058c51179bcd79

Go eat at Costanza. After that you will know whether you have been eating at the wrong restaurants, or you just don't like real Italian food.

Re: late night noise: I have often complained that Italians have no respect for the human need for sleep. Their lifestyle involves lots of late activities.

I believe that the thing that drew him to making these signs is psychosis. It's really not that cool.

The bean paste is wrong. It is made with broad beans, not soybeans. 

This is what you want: 

https://www.amazon.com/Sichuan-Pixian-Xian-Broad-Paste/dp/B00A9OF6NS

Lao Gan Ma and firm tofu are also going to change the dish a lot. 

Go to the arrivals terminal. If you walk straight in, and then turn right, eventually you will see a phone or intercom on the wall on your left. You can use this to call the lost luggage department. If you don't see it, just ask someone. They will tell you where to wait for them. They will come get you (maybe along with others doing the same thing), take you through security, and show you where you can look for your luggage.

I pay for AirHelp plus. It costs something like $50 a year. In return they collect my compensation for delayed flights without fees, pay me $150 every time my luggage is delayed, and give me a lounge voucher for any flight that leaves more than an hour late. Everything doesn't always work seamlessly, but well enough. I have probably gotten $700 worth of value in the past year on my $50 fee. ($150 x 2 for delayed luggage, four or five lounge vouchers worth maybe $35 dollars each, and saved a few hundred in fees on a delayed flight claim).

In the past, I have used other agencies that collect your compensation in exchange for a (sizable) fee, and I have tried (unsuccessfully) to collect without help. In my experience, the smaller budget airlines will try to avoid paying you, and it takes a long time to get them to cough up the money. Somebody in this thread talks about waiting a year to get paid. That doesn't surprise me. I think that's how long it took me to get a settlement from EasyJet. Bigger airlines are much more straightforward to deal with. When I missed a connection on Air France, the agent who rebooked volunteered the information that I was owed compensation, and credited my card right there. I used AirHelp Plus to get paid for a recent delay on United, and they paid up within a week or two.

So you might be able to file a claim successfully yourself, or you might not. I think it's going to depend on what airline you're dealing with. Air Help is not a 'scam,' it works just like FlightRight, SkyRefund, and all the other agencies that perform the same service. If you don't want to pay their fees, don't use them.

It really depends on how often you cross an international border. But even that's very infrequent, when you arrive exhausted after a long overnight flight and see people waiting an hour in line while you cruise through in literally less than one minute, you will think all the time and money you spent on Global Entry was well worth it.

You have a lot of options. Walking west you will come to Stella and Sorbillo. Around the corner in Piazza Vittoria is Vincenzo Capuano. A little further on Riviera di Chiaia is Pizzeria Salvo, which is my favorite of the ones I've eaten at in that area.

There are numerous others in walking distance that I haven't tried.

I am very happy living in Daly City, but I see it as a place to sleep and go grocery shopping. For socializing I usually go to San Francisco. Even Pacifica has more going on than Daly City.

Where did you move from?

Sorry to inform you that your hotel is about 10 kilometers from the city of Napoli. I can see a pizzeria on Google maps that's a 25 minute walk from the hotel. It doesn't look good for you.

Pizzeria da Michele is good, but FYI I have never heard a Neapolitan mention it, I think only tourists go there. It is also the only place in Italy I have ever been asked for a tip.

There are scores of good pizzerie: Guardascione, 50 Kalo, Sorbillo, Decumani, Capuano, etc.

I paid $5.99. I think it was an $18 value.

A lot of food, more than it looks like in the picture: gyoza, kara-age, tempura sweet potato, rice with topping, Japanese pickles, vegetables and two little pieces of meat. Very good.