Italy invented several of the categories: the Riviera hotel, the lake villa, the island cliff terrace. Portofino and the Costa Smeralda are the yacht end; Capri, Positano and Ravello the cliff-and-terrace end; Lake Como's Villa d'Este and the Grand Hotel Tremezzo the lake end; and Tuscany's converted borghi and Alto Adige's design spa hotels are where the money has moved most recently.
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Start here
If you only do 5 things on this theme.
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Portofino A fishing harbour that became the Riviera's most photographed address -
Costa Smeralda Fifty kilometres of granite and turquoise, developed from nothing in 1962 -
Capri Limestone cliffs, the Blue Grotto and the most famous piazzetta in Italy -
Ravello Two garden terraces 350 m above the Amalfi Coast, and a summer festival -
Lake Como An inverted-Y lake of villa gardens under 2,000-metre mountains
Everywhere else on this theme
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Milan Design, finance, the Duomo and the Last Supper -
Taormina A cliff-top Greek theatre looking straight at Etna -
Cortina d'Ampezzo The Queen of the Dolomites — and a 2026 Olympic host -
Courmayeur Mont Blanc's Italian side, and the Skyway to 3,466 m -
Como Silk, a lakefront cathedral and the ferry pier for the whole lake -
Sorrento The classic base for Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast -
Positano Pastel houses stacked down a cliff to a grey-sand beach -
Sanremo The Riviera dei Fiori's belle-époque resort and Italy's song festival -
Madonna di Campiglio Trentino's smartest ski town, under the Brenta Dolomites -
Maratea Basilicata's 30 km of Tyrrhenian coast, under a 21-metre marble Christ -
Stresa Belle-époque hotels on Lake Maggiore, facing the Borromean Islands -
Olbia Sardinia's north-east gateway — the airport for the Costa Smeralda -
La Maddalena Archipelago A national park of granite islets off Sardinia's north-east corner -
Borromean Islands A baroque palace garden, a botanical island and a fishing village, all on Lake Maggiore -
Versilia & Forte dei Marmi Tuscany's grand beach-club coast under the Apuan Alps -
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II The world's oldest shopping arcade still in use, opened in 1877 -
Quadrilatero della Moda Four streets around Via Montenapoleone that hold most of Italian fashion -
Amalfi Coast Fifty kilometres of terraced cliff, lemon groves and hairpin corniche -
Lake Maggiore & Stresa Belle-époque hotels facing the Borromean Islands -
Santo Stefano di Sessanio A Medici-era stone village restored as a scattered hotel
The regions that deliver on it
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Aosta Valley Italy's smallest region, under the four highest mountains in the Alps - Piedmont Barolo, white truffles, royal Turin and the Alps at the foot of the plain
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Liguria The Italian Riviera — Cinque Terre, Portofino and pesto's home port -
Lombardy Milan, the great lakes and the Alps of Valtellina -
Trentino Dolomite valleys, Lake Garda's northern tip and Italy's alpine lakes -
Veneto Venice, Verona, Palladio's villas and the Dolomites of Cortina -
Tuscany The Renaissance, the Chianti hills and the coast most visitors miss -
Abruzzo The wildest Apennines — bears, national parks and a trabocchi coast -
Campania Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and the islands of the bay -
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 -
Food & wine Regional to the point of parochial — and all the better for it -
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 -
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