There is far, far more to Italy than Rome, Florence and Venice.  And yes, there are places the big tourist crowds have not found, and where you can do an inexpensive Italian tour.   Here are two places The Professor will be adding to his small group tours to Italy in the future:

Treviso:  Only about 20 minutes from Venice, but a world away, is Treviso.   It has the flavor of Venice but without the crowds and expense.  We found strolling along the canals, visiting the fish market, and the authentic restaurants made this truly a relaxing vacation for us.  Although I am not a shopper, the stores were varied and hardly did we see the trinket stands that plague Venice, Florence, and Italy.   We stayed at the super-elegant Domus Dotti IV (I will give a more extensive review on a later blog post) at about a third of the price of a comparable hotel in Venice.  Lunches were never over 20 euro for two and dinners were always under 50 euro for both of us, including wine.

Bassano del Grappa:  Sitting at the foothills of the dramatic Dolomites is the small, quaint village of Bassano del Grappa, picture to the left.  Where else in Italy can you go where they still close the shops for lunch, you can chat up the friendly locals, hardly find a tourist, and do it all for less than $60 for a day trip for two?  Bassano del Grappa is famous for grappa of course, but there are other things to do.  My favorite was to easily sit in a cafe, right on the Brenta River, looking towards the mountains for a million dollar view.  We had a cocktail and a coke for a total of 6 euros.  Try sitting at a cafe on the Grand Canal in Venice for that price.  It's only an hour train ride from Venice at about 5 euros each way.  There are other attractions there also as the village is full of history from WW I and WW II as well as fine Roman ruins and strollable piazzas.   The Ponte Vecchio (designed by the famous architect Palladio) is much better than the Ponte Vecchio in Venice.  Again, we will add Bassano del Grappa on our next tour to Italy.