Two days. Not more. Leave on Friday evening, return on Sunday evening. No intercontinental trips, no stress from international airport. Fast trains, machine, at most a short ferry. The weather is little, but if you use it well enough. The goal is simple: detaching your head, breathing, eating something that is not the usual lunch in front of the computer.
We put together 7 places that do not ask you more than two hours to get there from one of the three big cities: Milan, Rome, Naples.
Lake Martignano (40 min from Rome)
Small volcanic lake near Bracciano. You arrive by bike, on foot or with the shuttle from a small paid parking before the park. There are not the many people as on Lake Garda, nor the worldliness of Bracciano. Here you will find silence, stop water, a couple of kiosks, some pedal boats. You can throw yourself into the water, then spread it on a lawn, read, sleep. In the evening he returned to Rome without stress, or stays to sleep in the farmhouse nearby. The regeneration here is in slowness: no mopeds, no machines, only the noise of the cicadas.
Lake Como – Varenna and Bellagio (1h30 from Milan) 
Train from Milan Centrale, in an hour and a half six in Varenna. Walk on the lakefront, ice cream in hand, ferry to Bellagio. The water shines, the villas seem to come out of an old movie. You don’t need to do a thousand things: walk, you sit at a bar, look at the ferries to pass. Lake view dinner, night in a B&B. The next day maybe you can rent a small boat, you move some bay, and you enjoy the placidity that only the lake can give.
Villetta Barrea – Abruzzo National Park (1h50 from Naples)
Small mountain town, inside the Abruzzo park. Sangro river that flows slowly, and the deer that turn close to the houses. Fresh air even in summer. Turn on foot, follow the paths to Lake Barrea. You can do canoeing or just sit on the shore and listen to the wind among the trees. The evening polenta and red wine.
Castelli Romani – Frascati and Nemi (40 min from Rome)
If you want good air without making too much road Frascati and Castelli Romani are the solution to your hunger for freedom. You can go up to Nemi, the village on Lago Piccolo with red strawberries and sweets that use them everywhere. It is all close, but it seems very far from the confusion of Rome. You can sleep in an inn and in the morning wake up with the scent of fresh bread.
Lake Maggiore – Stresa and Borromee Islands (1h30 from Milan)
Train or car. Stresa is elegant, historic hotels, tidy lakefront. But the real blow is to take the boat for the Borromee Islands: Bella Isola with the gardens, the island of fishermen with the trattorias that serve perch. Here the rhythm is lowered: between one island and the other the boat slips slowly, and you seem to have more time than usual.
Caserta and La Reggia (30 min from Naples)
In half an hour by train from Naples you are in front of one of the largest residences in Europe. It is not only the palace, but the park: very long avenues, fountains, stairways that seem not to end. Walk, you lose yourself between trees and statues. Then maybe you turn in the center of Caserta Vecchia, a medieval village that is higher, with sight and narrow alleys.
Terminillo (1h50 from Rome)
Real mountain, almost 2,000 meters, less than two hours from Rome. In winter to ski, in summer to walk and breathe cold air even in August. You can make light trekking or hardest climbing, but what matters is that after 20 minutes of walking he no longer feels the city on his head.
How to organize 48 hours without losing pieces
With little time, you have to be ruthless. Here’s how to make the most of a weekend in one of these places:
Because two hours are the right limit
Over two hours of travel, the weekend becomes a stressful mini-vacation. You get up early, run, get tired, time flies. With two hours of move Massimo from Milan, Rome or Naples, arrivals, put the bag and immediately start living the place. You remain space to do nothing, which is the most regenerating part.
Two days are not enough to change life, but they are enough to remember that there is more than the usual house-work journey. And often that “other” is much closer than you think.
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