Where to begin
Italy's cities are where most trips begin and end: the capitals of its twenty regions, from Rome and Milan to Palermo and Aosta, and the smaller towns that hold just as much, in the Tuscan hills, on the Amalfi Coast or along the northern lakes. Each guide covers what to see, when to go, where to stay and what to eat, and the festivals worth planning around. Start with a region, or browse every city below.
1,275 cities
Sant'Ambrogio di Torino
PiedmontA village at the mouth of the Susa valley, watched over by the Sacra di San Michele on Mount Pirchiriano above.
Altomonte
Calabria
Peschici
PugliaA white village perched on a cliff above the northern Gargano coast, its houses stacked over a turquoise sea.
Sabbioneta
LombardyA Renaissance ideal city built whole on the Po plain to one prince's design by Vespasiano Gonzaga.
Orgosolo
SardiniaA shepherd town high in the Barbagia, its houses covered with some two hundred murals.
Tramonti
Campania
Bormio
Lombardy
Garda
VenetoThe lakeside town that gives Lake Garda its name, set in a sheltered bay on the eastern shore.
Bolsena
LazioOn the shore of Italy's largest volcanic lake, Bolsena is a medieval town beneath a Monaldeschi castle.
Positano
Campania
Bellagio
LombardyThe Pearl of Lake Como, perched where the lake forks into its two southern branches.
Malcesine
VenetoA romantic town on Lake Garda's eastern shore beneath the slopes of Monte Baldo.
Pitigliano
TuscanyA town that rises seamlessly from a tufa cliff in southern Tuscany, its houses fused with the rock.
Villasimius
SardiniaA resort at the southeastern corner of Sardinia, fringed by some of the island's clearest water.
Bobbio
Emilia-Romagna
Favignana
SicilyThe largest of the Egadi Islands off Trapani, shaped like a butterfly with wings of pale limestone.
Portovenere
LiguriaA jewel at the southern tip of the Gulf of Poets, its row of tall striped houses facing the island of Palmaria.
Aquileia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Ponza
LazioThe largest of the Pontine Islands, Ponza is a crescent of pastel houses, sea caves, and improbably clear water.
Sperlonga
LazioA whitewashed village spilling down a headland between two bays, Sperlonga is one of Lazio's prettiest seaside towns.
