I love the fact that you wing it--I hate making lists of places to see and checking things off! We've spent over two weeks in Rome (and were there recently) without ever going to the Sistine Chapel. But in Italy I tend to park myself and just mosey around, walking around and eating too much, looking at things and just saying "Huh! Look at that!" (And drinking all the wine and Negronis.) I feel like that's the spirit of Italy. One of our favorite approaches for a European trip is to find a central spot that's a little more local and then just drive or train off every day to another place. But hey, it's all good.

Take a really good look at Lago di Orta and at least stop for lunch one day as you're driving past. It looks maybe even more spectacular than all the rest...