Preliminary Itinerary

As my previous travel experience has taught me, I highly doubt this will wind up being the actual itinerary I accomplish after the first week, but this is my goal for now:
Sept. 12 - Travel day. Nashville to New York JFK to Pisa. Arrive the morning of September 13.
Sept. 13-18 - Toscana Saporita Cooking School - Massarosa Italy (40 min north of Pisa)
Sept. 19-20 - Pick up rental car and head to Carrara, northern Tuscan mountain region and Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast
Sept. 21-22 - Bologna and the Emiglia-Romagna region including Parma and Modena
Sept. 23-24 - The independent Republic of San Marino and the coast of Emiglia-Romagna and northern Marches including Fano, Pesaro, Ravenna, and Rimini
Sept. 25-26 - The coast of the Abruzzo region (central, eastern coast) ionlcuding the cities of Pineto, Pescara, and Jesi
Sept. 27-29 - The Gargano Peninsula of Puglia (heel of the "boot") where I will visit Vieste, Foggia, and Lucera (the town of my Italian great-grandfather)
Spet. 30-Oct. 1 - Alberobello and Bari in the southern region of Puglia (the bottom of the heel of the "boot")
Oct 2 -3 - After my longest drive of the trip from Alberobello to the north of the central Italian region of Italy, Umbria, where I will visit Lake Tresimino, Orvieto, Perugia, Assisi and more
Oct. 4 - 6 - The eastern side of Tuscany including Florence, Arezzo, Poppi, Scarperia, Poppi, and more
Oct. 7-9 - The more western and southern side of Tuscany including San Gimignano, Siena, Montepulciano, Certaldo, and Volterra
October 10 - back to a campsite right oustide the city center of Pisa
October 11 - plane ride back to the states and the beginning of my next adventure in becoming a Texan and bringing what I learned in Italy to the people of Austin

You may notice that I've neglected many main tourist areas such as Rome, Venice, Milan and the Amalfi coast, as well as the northern top of Italy. This is for many reasons including TIME, but also, I've been blessed and fortunate to see Rome, and Venice already, and I'm scared to death of driving ANYWHERE NEAR Naples and the Amalfi region. Also, I've chosen areas I'm hoping will help me learn more about the different Italian provincial cuisines I'm most interested in and will be most applicable to my restaurant and, hopefully, career (hence, why I wont be going to the northern regions of Veneto, Piedmont and Lombardy). As far as the Naples region and Calabria, I'm extremely fortunate to be partnered with and to learn from my business partner and friend Mike Valentino who owns a trattoria and pizzeria in Sarasota and has some of the best Neapolitan-American (southern Italian) cuisine and pizza Ive ever had, including during my time in the Naples region as well as my time in the New York/New Jersey area. Also, I have my friend Nicole and her family from Calabria who have taught me a lot about southern Italian cuisine already, and I hope to learn much more from them in the years to come.