Europe
Get a Personal Pick →Italy
99 destinations
City Agnone
"A town casting church bells for a thousand years, the ancient foundry still ringing."
City Agrigento
"Greek temples lit gold at night along a ridge, almond blossoms carpeting the valley below."
City Alberobello
"A district of conical stone huts built without mortar, a village from a folk tale."
Water Alghero
"Catalan spoken in Sardinian streets, coral divers returning to Gothic-arched harbour walls at dusk."
Mountain Alpe di Siusi
"Europe's largest high-altitude meadow, wildflowers to the horizon beneath Dolomite spires."
Mountain Altopiano del Renon
"Boulder-capped clay towers spike out of the pines, the tallest earth pyramids in Europe."
Water Amalfi Coast
"Hairpin roads carved into sea cliffs where lemon groves tumble toward turquoise water."
City Aquileia
"A village atop a buried Roman city, the basilica floor a vast fourth-century mosaic."
City Assisi
"Pink stone streets climbing toward Giotto's frescoes, the Umbrian plain spreading gold and green below."
City Bergamo Alta
"A walled medieval hilltop city reached by funicular, floating above the Lombardy plain."
Water Burano
"Every house a different colour on a lagoon island where lacemakers still work by windows."
Water Cala Goloritzé
"A limestone needle rising from emerald water, the cove reachable only by a cliff-edge trail."
Wilderness Calanchi di Aliano
"Grey clay badlands stretching to the horizon, the exile landscape of Christ Stopped at Eboli."
City Campi Flegrei
"A supervolcano breathes under a port city: the ground swells, columns record drowned centuries."
Wilderness Campo Imperatore
"A vast high plateau called Italy's Little Tibet, barren, wind-scoured, impossibly empty."
Water Capri
"Azure grottoes lit from below, limestone stacks rising from impossible blue, lemon-scented air."
Water Cascate delle Marmore
"Romans sent a river over a cliff in 271 BC; the thunder still obeys a timetable."
Wilderness Castellana Grotte
"Underground caverns where a single shaft of daylight illuminates a cathedral-sized void beneath Puglia."
Wilderness Castelluccio di Norcia
"A lone village on a high plateau that erupts into millions of wildflowers every June."
Water Cinque Terre
"Five villages clamped to sea cliffs, connected by footpaths through terraced vineyards above surf."
City Civita di Bagnoregio
"A dying city on an eroding mesa, reached only by a footbridge over the ravine."
Water Comacchio
"Canals thread a brick lagoon town whose fortunes have always swum in on the eels."
City Craco
"A ghost town on a crumbling cliff, evacuated after a landslide, now silent and sinking."
Water Elba
"Napoleon's island of exile hides iron-red beaches beneath a granite mountain you ride up standing."
Mountain Etna
"Europe's tallest active volcano, lava fields, sulphur vents, and vineyards growing in volcanic ash."
Water Favignana
"A butterfly-shaped island of abandoned tuna traps and coves carved from pale stone quarries."
City Florence
"Terracotta rooftops from Brunelleschi's dome, the Arno gold at sunset, gelato in every piazza."
Wilderness Frasassi Caves
"An underground void so vast Milan's Duomo would fit inside, stalactites still growing in darkness."
Water Furore
"Houses cling to a fjord so narrow the sea vanishes below this centreless village."
City Gravina in Puglia
"A canyon bridge spans a gorge lined with cave churches still daubed in Byzantine frescoes."
City Herculaneum
"Better preserved than Pompeii, two-storey houses with wooden beams intact, sealed by volcanic mud."
Water Ischia
"Volcanic hot springs bubbling from the seabed, thermal gardens on cliffs, fumaroles in back gardens."
Mountain Isole Eolie — Vulcano
"Sulphur vents hiss beside black beaches on the island where Vulcan kept his forge."
Water La Maddalena Archipelago
"Pink granite islands in water so transparent boats appear to hover above the sandy seabed."
Water Lago di Braies
"Emerald water so still the Dolomite cliffs reflect in double, wooden boats drifting like toys."
Water Lago di Tovel
"An alpine lake that turned blood-red every summer until 1964, and never has again."
Water Lake Como
"Cypress-lined shores where the water mirrors snow peaks and cardinals built their pleasure palaces."
Water Lampedusa
"Closer to Africa than Sicily, a wind-scoured island hiding a Caribbean-white beach."
City Lecce
"Baroque carved from soft limestone so intricate the facades look like they were piped from icing."
City Lucca
"Renaissance walls wide enough to cycle on, wrapped round the city where Puccini was born."
Water Marettimo
"No cars, almost no hotels, just fishermen's paths above the sea at the farthest Egadi island."
City Matera
"Cave dwellings stacked like a vertical labyrinth inside a ravine, inhabited for nine thousand years."
City Modica
"A Baroque city split across two gorges where they still make chocolate with an Aztec recipe."
City Naples
"Chaos and devotion in equal measure, pizza folded at street corners, shrines in every alley."
City Narni
"A hill town hiding an underground church discovered in 1979, frescoed walls sealed for centuries."
City Noto
"Rebuilt in honey-coloured stone after an earthquake, every facade a Baroque theatrical set."
City Orgosolo
"A shepherds' village where the walls argue politics in hundreds of painted murals."
Mountain Orrido di Bellano
"Catwalks bolted to the rock carry you through a slot gorge with water roaring beneath."
Water Orta San Giulio
"A village on a lake you've never heard of, facing an island with one silent monastery."
City Ortigia
"A Greek island heart inside a Sicilian city, Archimedes' birthplace where temples became cathedrals."
City Orvieto
"A city balanced on volcanic tufa, its underground carved into Etruscan tombs and medieval wells."
City Paestum
"Three Greek temples older than the Parthenon, still standing in an open Cilento field."
City Palermo
"Arab-Norman domes rise above street markets where stigghiola smoke drifts through medieval alleyways."
Water Pantelleria
"A volcanic island between Sicily and Tunisia where dammuso houses are built to survive constant wind."
City Piazza Armerina
"Roman floor mosaics of bikini-clad athletes, buried under mud, revealed after sixteen centuries."
City Pienza
"A pope rebuilt his birthplace as an ideal Renaissance city, five streets and one flawless piazza."
City Pitigliano
"A town growing from a tufa cliff as if the rock itself decided to become architecture."
Water Polignano a Mare
"Houses perched on a cliff edge above a cove where divers leap from old-town rocks."
City Pompeii
"Frozen mid-stride in 79 AD, bread still in the ovens, graffiti still on walls."
Water Ponza
"A volcanic island off the Lazio coast where Romans cut eel pools into the sea cliffs."
Water Procida
"Pastel houses stacked above a fishing harbour that no car can reach."
City Ravenna
"Byzantine mosaics so luminous the gold tiles still burn after fifteen centuries."
Water Riviera dei Cedri
"Calabrian cliffs grow citrons so prized that rabbis fly in each year to hand-select them."
Mountain Rocca Calascio
"Among the highest fortresses in the Apennines, alone on a ridge with only wind for company."
City Rome
"Twenty-seven centuries layered underfoot, every wrong turn revealing another empire's ruins."
City Sabbioneta
"A Renaissance ideal city built from scratch on a plain, one duke's geometric utopia."
Mountain Sacra di San Michele
"A thousand-year-old abbey growing from a mountaintop, its staircase carved through living rock."
City San Gimignano
"Fourteen medieval towers still standing like a Tuscan Manhattan, casting shadows across the piazza."
Mountain San Leo
"The occultist Cagliostro died a prisoner in this fortress, in a cell entered through its ceiling."
Mountain Santo Stefano di Sessanio
"A Medici-era stone village silent beneath a mountaintop, reborn as a scattered hotel in abandoned houses."
Water Scala dei Turchi
"White marl cliffs sculpted into natural staircase steps, glowing orange at sunset above the Mediterranean."
Mountain Scanno
"A mountain village above a heart-shaped lake, where women still wear traditional dress on feast days."
Water Scilla
"Homer's sea monster laired here, now swordfish boats patrol the Strait of Messina at dawn."
City Sepino
"Roman forum, baths, and theatre lying open among farm fields where sheep graze between columns."
City Siena
"A shell-shaped piazza where twice a year the city erupts into bareback horse chaos."
City Sorano
"Etruscan tombs honeycomb the tufa cliffs beneath a town carved from living rock."
City Spoleto
"A medieval aqueduct leaps across a forested gorge, connecting a hilltop city to its mountain."
Mountain Stelvio Pass
"Forty-eight hairpin bends climbing to 2,757 metres, the highest paved pass in the Eastern Alps."
Mountain Stromboli
"A volcano erupting every twenty minutes, you climb with a guide at dusk and watch."
City Su Nuraxi di Barumini
"A Bronze Age stone fortress predating Rome by seven centuries, buried until the 1950s."
City Taormina
"A Greek theatre where Etna smoulders behind the stage, the sea glittering far below."
Water Terme di Saturnia
"Hot sulphur springs cascading over travertine terraces into pools the water itself carved."
City Tivoli
"Two millennia of water engineering, from Hadrian's pools to Renaissance fountains powered by gravity."
Mountain Tre Cime di Lavaredo
"Three vertical rock towers punching through alpine cloud, their shadows sweeping across scree fields."
Mountain Triora
"A witch-trial village high in the Ligurian Alps, its 1588 terror still marked in stone."
Water Tropea
"Red onions growing on white cliffs above turquoise water, a church balanced on a sea stack."
Wilderness Val d'Orcia
"Cypress-lined roads through golden fields, the landscape Renaissance painters used as their backdrop."
Mountain Val di Funes
"Green valley floor rising to jagged Odle peaks, the view that defines the Dolomites."
Wilderness Val Grande National Park
"Italy's largest wilderness: forest swallowed the last villages in the 1940s and never gave them back."
Water Venice
"Dawn light on a silent canal where only your footsteps echo on wet stone."
City Verona
"A Roman arena still hosting opera under summer stars, the balcony just the excuse to come."
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Legendary Destinations
Little-known places, unlike anywhere else, that leave you awestruck and full of stories.
8 destinations
Legendary Destination
An abbey lost its roof. Nearby, a sword remains in stone.
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Legendary Destination
The prisoners are gone. White donkeys wander their old island.
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Legendary Destination
Every road points inward. From above, the town becomes a star.
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Legendary Destination
Thousands of doors in the cliff. None were made for the living.
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A village rests beneath a hand with five fingers of stone.
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A duke filled his garden with monsters that cannot move.
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Legendary Destination
The figures wear real clothes, but have stood still for centuries.
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Legendary Destination
The mountain collapsed. Inside its hollow, a village hid.
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