Italy
Our guides in Italy.
Italy · road trip
Amalfi Coast
Split your stay between Positano or Praiano for the classic cliffside view and Amalfi town or Ravello for easier logistics, use Travelmar ferries between towns whenever the sea allows, and give a full day each to Capri and Pompeii.
Italy · city
Rome
Stay in or near the Centro Storico or Monti for walkability, book the Colosseum and Vatican Museums well ahead of time, eat in Trastevere and Testaccio rather than right off the big piazzas, and give one day to Tivoli or Ostia Antica.
Italy · island
Sardinia
The north-east (Costa Smeralda, La Maddalena, Gallura) for the famous granite coves and the glamour; the north-west (Alghero, Stintino, Capo Caccia) for a walkable Catalan-flavoured town and La Pelosa; the east (Gulf of Orosei, Baunei) for cliff-backed beaches reached by boat or on foot; the south (Cagliari, Chia, Villasimius) for the capital, dunes and the mildest autumn. The Barbagia interior around Nuoro and Oliena is the counterweight to all of it.
Italy · island
Sicily
Split the island into a loop: Palermo for Arab-Norman culture and street food, Taormina and Etna for the coast and the volcano, Syracuse and Ortigia for Greek history, and the Baroque towns of the Val di Noto (Noto, Modica, Ragusa) for architecture and food. Add the Aeolian Islands by ferry from Milazzo if time allows.
Italy · region
Tuscany
Start in Florence for the Uffizi, the Duomo and the Accademia, add a night or two in the Chianti countryside for wine and slower afternoons, then move south to Siena, San Gimignano and the Val d’Orcia for hill towns, cypress roads and Pienza’s pecorino.
Italy · city
Venice
Stay in Dorsoduro, Cannaregio or Castello rather than on Piazza San Marco. Book St Mark Basilica and the Doge Palace online in advance, eat standing at bacari for lunch and sit down away from the main corridor at night, and give a full day to Torcello and Burano rather than a rushed three-island tour.