Riserva Naturale dello Zingaro
Western Sicily
This coastal nature reserve is a hiker's paradise and a haven for wildlife, including the rare Bonelli’s eagle and 40 other bird species. Wild carob and…
Must-see attractions in Italy
Lipari
Lapped by clean waters and surrounded by sheer cliffs, this dark, pebbly beach on Lipari's southwestern shore is a dramatically beautiful swimming and…
La Costiera Triestina
Sitting on a rocky outcrop 7km from Trieste, Castello di Miramare is the city's elegiac bookend, the fanciful neo-Gothic home of the hapless Archduke…
Southern Rome
These are the largest and busiest of Rome’s catacombs. Founded at the end of the 2nd century and named after Pope Calixtus I, they became the official…
Milan
Conceived by designer Miuccia Prada and architect Rem Koolhaas, this museum is as innovative and creative as the minds that gave it shape. Seven renovated…
Capri
Villa Jovis was the largest and most sumptuous of 12 Roman villas commissioned by Roman Emperor Tiberius (AD14–37) on Capri, and his main island residence…
Verona
Bristling with fishtail battlements along the river Adige, Castelvecchio was built in the 1350s by Cangrande II. Severely damaged by Napoleon and WWII…
Stromboli
For nature lovers, climbing Stromboli is one of Sicily's not-to-be-missed experiences. Since 2005 access has been strictly regulated: you can walk freely…
Emilia-Romagna
Each year, hundreds of thousands of petrolheads make the pilgrimage to this museum in Maranello, Ferrari's home town. They come here to obsess over the…
Western Sardinia
The choppy blue waters of the Golfo di Oristano provide a magnificent backdrop to the ruins of ancient Tharros. Founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th…
Valle d'Aosta
A fort has existed here for millennia and the current 1830s Savoy edifice is an imposing one, set high up upon a rocky escarpment at the jaws of the Valle…
Le Marche
This majestic hilltop sanctuary is one of Italy's most celebrated pilgrimage sites. The basilica, built between 1469 and 1587, is a stunning hybrid of…
Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale
Visit the antique shops, commercial art galleries and artisanal boutiques of Via Margutta, one of Rome's prettiest pedestrian cobbled lanes.
Cagliari
Of the four museums at the Cittadella dei Musei, this is the undoubted star. Sardinia’s premier archaeological museum showcases artefacts spanning…
Mantua
Palazzo Te was where Frederico II Gonzaga escaped for love trysts with his mistress Isabella Boschetti, and it's decorated in playboy style with stunning…
Southwestern Sardinia
Rising above the rolling green landscape, La Giara di Gesturi is a high basalt plateau famous for its wild horses and uncontaminated natural beauty. The…
Southern Rome
Towering over green fields, this 2nd-century villa is one of Rome's unsung splendours. It was the luxurious abode of two consuls, the Quintili brothers,…
Molise
One of Molise’s hidden treasures, the Roman ruins of Saepinum are among the best preserved and least visited in the country. Unlike Pompeii and Ostia…
Southwestern Sardinia
A marvel of early-20th-century engineering, Porto Flavia is a port dug into cliffs 50m above the sea. Consisting of two 600m tunnels and an ingenious…
Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe
Ravenna
This signature early Christian basilica, lighter than Ravenna's other churches, is situated 5km southeast of town in the former Roman port of Classe. Its…
Milan
Designed by homegrown talent Piero Portaluppi, this exquisitely restored 1930s villa was commissioned by Pavian heiresses Nedda and Gigina Necchi (of the…
Bari
Bari's signature basilica was one of the first Norman churches to be built in southern Italy, and is a splendid (if square and solid) example of Pugliese…
Siena
Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, archbishop of Siena (later Pope Pius III), commissioned the building and decoration of this hall off the north…
Western Sardinia
Just off the SS131 north of Oristano, the sanctuary at Santa Cristina is an important nuraghic complex. The nuraghic village's extraordinary Bronze Age…
Northeastern Sardinia
Rising from the sapphire sea like some kind of giant sea creature, this rocky island is a sight to behold. The main draw is splashing about in the…
Umbria
Although the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo, perched high on Monte Ingino, is a perfectly lovely church, the real adventure is getting there on the funivia. The…
Pisa
Pisa's unusual round baptistry has one dome piled on top of another, each roofed half in lead, half in tiles, and topped by a gilt bronze John the Baptist…
Galleria d'Arte Moderna Achille Forti
Verona
In the shadow of the Torre dei Lamberti, the Romanesque Palazzo della Ragione is home to Verona's jewel-box Gallery of Modern Art. Reached via the Gothic…
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Udine
Udine’s modern and contemporary hub brings together a number of bequests, creating a substantial collection of 20th-century Italian artists, including De…
Piedmont
This Gothic-Romanesque abbey, brooding above the road 14km from Turin, has kept sentry atop Monte Pirchiriano (962m) since the 10th century. It housed a…
Parma
Overshadowing even the cathedral, the octagonal pink-marble baptistery on the south side of the piazza is one of the most important such structures in…
Centro Storico
A busy transport hub, Largo di Torre Argentina is set around the sunken Area Sacra, and the remains of four Republican-era temples, all built between the…
Trieste
This extraordinary house-museum was the home of wealthy Triestini merchant Pasquale Revoltella, who made his fortune in the timber industry and had a hand…
Ravenna
Sometimes, after weeks of strolling around dark Italian churches, you can lose your sense of wonder. Not here! The lucid mosaics that adorn the altar of…
San Gimignano
The 13th-century Palazzo Comunale has always been the centre of San Gimignano's local government; its magnificently frescoed Sala di Dante is where the…
Syracuse
Built on the skeleton of a 5th-century BC Greek temple to Athena (note the Doric columns still visible inside and out), Syracuse's 7th-century cathedral…
San Polo & Santa Croce
A soaring Gothic church, the Friary's assets include marquetry choir stalls, Canova's pyramid mausoleum, Bellini's achingly sweet Madonna with Child…
Siena
Siena's recently renovated art gallery, housed in 14th-century Palazzo Buonsignori since 1932, is home to an extraordinary collection of Gothic…
Agrigento
One of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples in existence, the Temple of Concordia has survived almost entirely intact since it was constructed in 430…
Chianti
At Castello di Ama, centuries-old winemaking traditions meet cutting-edge contemporary art in a 12th-century borgo (agricultural estate). As well as…
