Affordable Italy beyond the crowds

LOW-COST flights are no longer the sole preserve of budget airlines - you can now fly to Italy with British Airways and Alitalia at rates that often compare favourably with those of no-frills carriers such as Ryanair (when you take into account free inflight meals and drinks). The airports may sound like seconddivision destinations (Ancona, Genoa), but they are gateways to space, solitude and some very good food. You simply need to know where to go.

Fly to: Pisa; Airline: Alitalia (via Milan); Head to: The Maremma.

This land was once reigned over by the butteri, Tuscan cowboys, who herded semi-wild horses and oxen.

The heart of the Maremma is the Parco dell'Uccellina nature reserve.

A short, coastal ridge of densely wooded hills rising from the plain, it is home to wild boar and abandoned Medieval monasteries. It has the best beach in Tuscany, a long stretch of white sand backed by umbrella pines. Back towards Alberese's sleepy railway station, La Dispensa (via Aurelia Antica 16, 0564 407 321, closed Tuesday) serves Maremmano cooking: wild boar crostini or pappardelle in hare sauce for around E25 a head.

Further south, Orbetello is spectacularly situated on a narrow isthmus between two halves of a lagoon, protected on the seaward side by the huge bulk of Monte Argentario. A walled town with an Andalusian feel (the legacy of centuries of Spanish occupation), Orbetello has a low-key charm: stop for an ice cream or a plate of smoked eel from the lake. Monte Argentario alternates a craggy interior with the good life in two fashionable yachting ports either side of the promontory - Porto Santo Stefano to the north, and exclusive Porto Ercole to the south. Kips around here are overpriced; head back to the mainland, where the 12-room Locanda di Ansedonia (via Aurelia km140.5, 0039 0564 881 317, doubles from E100) is a conversion of an old farmhouse, surrounded by pines.

Flight price check Alitalia (0870 544 8259) from Heathrow, returns from pounds 127. Website weekend return found at www.opodo.co.uk last Friday: pounds 126.40, out Friday 4 April, returning Sunday.

Fly to: Milan-Bergamo (Orio al Serio airport); Airline: Ryanair; Head to: Lago d'Iseo.

Iseo is one of those atmospheric minor lakes, like Orta further west, that big tour operators tend to skip, to the advantage of the independent traveller. As beautiful, in parts, as anything Como or Garda have to offer, this lake comes without the snap-happy coach parties.

The obvious launching pad is Iseo town, an urbane little place with a medieval centre and the lake's best restaurant, Il Volto (via Mirolte 33, 030 981 462, closed Wednesday and Thursday lunch, E35 without wine).

An updated Italian family trattoria, it does creative versions of local classics like tagliolini with lake fish, or oven-baked pigeon in mustard sauce. Help them down with red or white Franciacorta.

The real treat is Monte Isola, the sleepy, olive-strewn island in the centre of the lake. You can be in London in the morning and on the island in time for a late lunch (ferries leave from Sulzano on the eastern shore).

Apart from buses, the only internal combustion engine you'll hear is the odd Vespa driven by a housewife, shopping bags draped from the handlebars. Hire a bicycle and work up an appetite for lunch in a simple lakeside restaurant like Trattoria del Sole (030 988 6101, closed Wednesday, average E30 per person) in Sensole - lake fish is the star turn.

Flight price check Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com) from Stansted, returns from pounds 8.98.

Website weekend return found last Friday: pounds 44.98, out Friday 4 April, back Sunday.

Fly to: Ancona (Falconara airport); Airline: Ryanair; Head to: Monte Conero.

Only a half-hour's drive from Falconara airport, Monte Conero is a great place for those who like simple pleasures: good food, wine and walks. The best base is Hotel Monte Conero (via Monte Conero 26, 0039 071 933 0592, doubles from E95), a restored Camaldolite monastery on the wooded peak of the mountain - spectacular cloisters and giddy views make up for rather plain rooms and a standard hotel restaurant. A good walk leads from here to Santa Maria di Portonovo, an austerely pretty Romanesque church between the sea and the green mantle of Conero's northern slopes.

The landward side of Monte Conero is a rolling patchwork of vines, olives, sunflowers and wheat fields - Tuscany without the tourists. The grapes go into Rosso Conero, one of Italy's perfect regional wines. Sample them in Aion (via di Montacuto 121; 071 898 232, open Wednesday-Saturday), an upmarket trattoria in the village of Montacuto run by celebrated Rosso Conero producer Alessandro Moroder. Cuisine is land-based: irresistible gnocchi alla papera (in duck sauce), and vegetable antipasti.

Expect to pay around E30 a head, without wine.

Flight price check: Ryanair (as before) from Stansted, returns from pounds 8.98.

Website weekend return found last Friday: pounds 79.98, out Friday 4 April, back Sunday.

Fly to: Genoa; Airline: British Airways; Head to: Portofino promontory.

For really dramatic scenery - like Cornwall airlifted to the Mediterranean - head east to the Portofino promontory. This wilderness of myrtle and broom and spurge, criss-crossed by footpaths, untouched by roads, has been a protected area since 1935. Far more than the overrun Cinque Terre, this is the Ligurian walker's paradise.

A good base is Camogli, a port town and low-key resort at the western edge of the promontory; well stocked with hotels, from luxury Cenobio dei Dogi (via Cuneo 34, 0039 0185 7241, doubles from E140), built in the 16th century as the summer residence of the dukes of Genoa, to budget affairs like friendly La Camigliolese (via Garibaldi 55, 0185 771 402, doubles from E60).

From Camogli, buses run to San Rocco, a hamlet of pastelpainted houses. No hotels but one unmissable trattoria, La Cucina di Nonna Nina (via Molfino 126, 0185 773 835, closed Wednesday).

The menu is written in Ligurian dialect, but it hardly matters what you order: this is Genoese country cooking at its best. Antipasto di mare (mixed seafood starters) followed by primi like trofiette (short pasta) al pesto.

Allow E40 a head without wine.

The best walk for Portofino newcomers is the three-hour trek from San Rocco to the cove of San Fruttuoso - Italy's most photogenic beach, dominated by a 13th century abbey, its arches buried in the pebbles, fronted by a flotilla of little boats.

A good bar/restaurant just above the beach, Da Giovanni (0039 0185 770 047) even has a few unadorned rooms (doubles from E55).

Flight price check: British Airways (0870 7733377, www.ba.com) from Heathrow, returns from pounds 79.10.

Website weekend return found last Friday: pounds 98, out Friday 4 April, back Sunday.

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