Italy
Top Tips
Art and architecture
Venice is chock-a-block with art collections, palaces and churches,
including the Basilica of St. Mark. Florence boasts the unrivalled
Uffizi and Bargello galleries, Lucca the best-preserved city walls,
Pisa the world-famous leaning tower, Siena the most delightful
piazza, Arezzo the Piero della Francesca frescoes. Rome has more
artistic and religious treasures than you can shake a stick at,
including the Basilica of St. Peter (the seat of Catholicism and
still the world's largest Christian church), the Galleria Borghese,
the hole-in-the-roof Pantheon and innumerable other churches.
Naples - another Unesco Heritage site - has a Gothic Duomo,
Baroque churches, catacombs and the grandiose Piazza Garibaldi.
Southerly Lecce is a treasure trove of Baroque buildings, Sicilian
Palermo a fascinating hotch-potch of Norman, Arab and Gothic styles
- in fact, in almost any Italian town, you'll find a duomo,
palazzo or piazza to marvel at.
Wine-tasting
In Tuscany you can taste and buy the world-class reds of Chianti,
Montalcino, Montepulciano and Ornellaia, as well as sweet vin
santo; discover Barolo and Barbaresco DOCGs in Piedmont,
prosecco in Veneto, Sagrantino in Umbria... the list goes on
Shopping
In Tuscany there are factory outlets for Prada, Armani, Gucci etc.,
in Rome and Florence you'll find some of Europe's most stylish
fashion boutiques, and anywhere in Italy you can browse weekly
markets for cheese, cured meats, chocolates, wines and pasta to
take home.
Hiking and cycling
The Italian Alps and Lakes are criss-crossed with red-and-white
waymarked trails (use cable-cars to help with the ascents!) and
stunning vistas of 3000m+ peaks; the undulating landscapes of
Tuscany and Piedmont are laced with strade bianche (farm
tracks) perfect for gentler rambles and off-road cycling; in Umbria
there are endless wooded hills, in Sicily the gorgeous Madonie
Mountains plus snow- and lava-capped Etna; on the Aeolian isles you
can climb live and extinct volcanoes, by day or night; in Liguria
and Amalfi there are jaw-dropping coastal paths offering plunging
sea views; in Venice you can cycle genteelly along the Lido. Many
of our featured hotels can provide mountain bikes and suggested
walks.
Cooking
There’s nothing more therapeutic than kneading gnocchi or
rolling out ravioli - and then tucking into a 3-course feast made
by your own fair hands! Lots of our hotels offer cookery courses
lasting from 1 to 6 days, as well as one-off lessons.
Ancient history
Pompeii and Paestum (both near Naples) are two of the most
perfectly preserved ancient cities, Roman and Greek respectively;
you can climb Mt. Vesuvius to see what did for the former. On
Sicily the temples of Agrigento and Selinunte outdo almost any in
Greece, while in Tuscany there are Etruscan walls, tombs and
ceramics.
Thermal spas
Take the waters at Bagno Vignoni, Chianciano, Saturnia - 3 of our
favourite natural hot springs, all in Tuscany.
Beaches
From the cheek-by-jowl strands of northern Tuscany to the golden
sands and azure waters of Puglia, and the dark volcanic coves of
tiny Salina in the Aeolian archipelago, there's somewhere for every
type of traveller to lay their beach towel.
Watersports
Go wind- or kite-surfing in Puglia; hire a yacht from Palermo
(Sicily) or Portofino (Liguria); take a boat cruise on Lake Garda,
Lake Trasimeno (Umbria) or up the Brenta Riviera to Padova in
Veneto.