There is no Italian cuisine, only regional ones, and the boundaries are fierce: ragù and tortellini in Bologna, pesto in Genoa, cacio e pepe in Rome, pizza in Naples, cannoli in Palermo. The same holds for wine — Barolo in Piedmont, Amarone in the Veneto, Brunello and Chianti in Tuscany, Etna reds in Sicily. Pick the region first; the food follows.
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Start here
If you only do 5 things on this theme.
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Langhe, Barolo & Barbaresco UNESCO vineyard hills, the white truffle capital, and Italy's greatest reds - Parmigiano Reggiano & Prosciutto Trail Dairies at dawn and hill-town curing rooms, between Parma and Langhirano
- Chianti Wine Road The SR222 between Florence and Siena, through the Chianti Classico estates
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Prosecco Hills of Conegliano & Valdobbiadene Vertiginous vine terraces, a UNESCO landscape since 2019 -
Naples Loud, layered and the birthplace of pizza
Everywhere else on this theme
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Rome Three thousand years of city, still lived in at full volume -
Florence The Renaissance in one walkable square mile -
Milan Design, finance, the Duomo and the Last Supper -
Turin Baroque arcades, royal palaces and the first capital of Italy -
Bologna 40 km of porticoes, the oldest university in Europe, and the best eating in Italy -
Palermo Arab-Norman palaces, street food and Sicily's rowdy capital -
Verona A Roman arena that still stages opera every summer -
Genoa A maritime republic's palaces above Europe's densest old town -
Siena A Gothic city built around the shell-shaped Campo -
Lucca Renaissance walls wide enough to cycle round the whole town -
Trieste Habsburg grandeur on the Adriatic, and Italy's coffee capital -
Ferrara A moated castle, Renaissance town planning and bicycles everywhere -
Parma Prosciutto, Parmigiano, Correggio's frescoes and Verdi's country -
Modena Balsamic vinegar, a Romanesque cathedral and Ferrari next door -
Bari Puglia's port capital and the gateway to the whole heel -
Lecce Baroque carved in soft golden stone — the Florence of the south -
Catania Black lava baroque under Etna, and Sicily's best fish market -
Ragusa Two towns on two hills — Ibla is the beautiful one -
Cagliari Sardinia's capital — a walled hill town with a city beach - Alghero A Catalan-speaking walled port on Sardinia's north-west coast
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Perugia Etruscan walls, a hilltop corso and Umbria Jazz every July -
Orvieto A tufa plateau, a striped cathedral and a city underneath it -
Ascoli Piceno A travertine city around one of Italy's handsomest piazzas -
Bolzano German-speaking, vineyard-ringed, and home to Ötzi the Iceman -
Trento A frescoed Renaissance city at the foot of the Dolomites -
Bergamo A Venetian-walled upper town above the Lombard plain -
Brescia A Roman forum, a Lombard monastery and Franciacorta on the doorstep -
Mantua A Gonzaga capital on three lakes, with Mantegna in the palace -
Sorrento The classic base for Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast -
Alberobello Fifteen hundred conical trulli, and a UNESCO site since 1996 -
Ostuni The white town on a hill above the olive groves -
Merano A Habsburg spa town with subtropical gardens under alpine peaks -
San Gimignano Fourteen surviving medieval tower-houses on a Tuscan ridge - Pienza The first planned Renaissance town, in the middle of the Val d'Orcia
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Sulmona Ovid's birthplace, sugared almonds, and the gateway to the Majella - Pescara Abruzzo's beach city and its airport — 16 km of Adriatic sand
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Termoli A walled old town on a promontory, and the ferry port for the Tremiti -
Udine Venetian squares, Tiepolo frescoes and the Friulian wine hills -
Alba The Langhe's capital — white truffles, Barolo and a hundred towers once -
Pantelleria A black volcanic island closer to Africa than to Sicily, with no beaches and famous wine -
Isola di San Pietro A Ligurian-speaking island off south-west Sardinia, founded by Genoese coral fishers -
San Lorenzo Market Leather stalls outside, and the Mercato Centrale food hall inside -
Val d'Orcia The cypress-lined hills that are the Tuscany of every photograph -
Montepulciano A ridge-top town of Renaissance palaces and Vino Nobile cellars -
Montalcino A fortress town above the Brunello vineyards -
Rialto Bridge & Market The Grand Canal's oldest crossing, with the city's fish market beside it -
Alta Badia Ladin valleys, the Sellaronda ski circuit and Michelin stars at altitude -
Franciacorta Italy's answer to Champagne, made by the same method south of Lake Iseo -
Ballarò Market Palermo's loudest street market, and the best place to eat standing up -
Brisighella Three chalk pinnacles, a raised covered street and very good olive oil -
Comacchio & the Po Delta Canals, eel fisheries and Italy's biggest wetland bird reserve -
Costa dei Trabocchi Spidery wooden fishing platforms on stilts — several now serve dinner - Collio Wine Road Border-straddling hills that make Italy's most admired white wines
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Camogli Tall painted fishermen’s houses on a pebble bay, and the boat to San Fruttuoso -
Melfi Castle Frederick II’s Norman-Swabian castle under the extinct Vulture volcano
The regions that deliver on it
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Piedmont Barolo, white truffles, royal Turin and the Alps at the foot of the plain - Liguria The Italian Riviera — Cinque Terre, Portofino and pesto's home port
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Lombardy Milan, the great lakes and the Alps of Valtellina -
South Tyrol German-speaking Italy under the Dolomites -
Trentino Dolomite valleys, Lake Garda's northern tip and Italy's alpine lakes -
Veneto Venice, Verona, Palladio's villas and the Dolomites of Cortina - Friuli Venezia Giulia Habsburg Trieste, Roman Aquileia and Italy's finest white wines
- Emilia-Romagna Parmigiano, prosciutto, Ferrari and Ravenna's mosaics
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Tuscany The Renaissance, the Chianti hills and the coast most visitors miss - Umbria The green heart of Italy — Assisi, hill towns and no coastline
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Marche Renaissance Urbino, the Conero cliffs and the Sibillini mountains -
Lazio Rome and the Vatican — and Etruscan tombs, volcanic lakes and a coast -
Abruzzo The wildest Apennines — bears, national parks and a trabocchi coast -
Molise The region Italians joke doesn't exist — mountains, tratturi and Samnite ruins -
Campania Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and the islands of the bay -
Puglia Trulli, baroque Lecce, whitewashed towns and two seas -
Basilicata Matera's cave city, the Lucanian Dolomites and a sliver of Tyrrhenian coast -
Sicily Greek temples, Arab-Norman Palermo, Etna and its own archipelagos -
Sardinia Caribbean-clear water, 7,000 nuraghi and a mountain interior
Other ways to travel Italy
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Art & culture More UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth -
Coast & islands 7,900 km of coastline and around eighty inhabited islands -
Italian lakes Como, Garda, Maggiore — the Grand Tour's original destination -
Mountains & the Dolomites The Dolomites, the western Alps and the wild Apennines -
UNESCO Italy Sixty World Heritage sites — the largest tally of any country -
Borghi & villages The hill towns that carry I Borghi più belli d'Italia and the Orange Flag -
Nature & national parks 25 national parks, from alpine glaciers to volcanic islands -
Spirituality & pilgrimage Rome, Assisi, and the pilgrim roads that connect them -
Thermal baths & wellness Volcanic Italy's other output — hot water, since the Romans - Sport & the outdoors Dolomiti Superski, the Giro's climbs and Garda's windsurfing
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Shopping & markets Milan's Quadrilatero, Florence's leather and the weekly market habit -
Events & festivals The Palio, Carnevale, the Biennale and an opera season in a Roman arena -
Luxury Italy Portofino, the Costa Smeralda, Capri and the great lake villas