Milan's Quadrilatero della Moda is the concentrated version — Via Montenapoleone and its four neighbouring streets — with the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II next door. But the more Italian experience is the weekly mercato: Florence's San Lorenzo leather stalls, Bologna's Quadrilatero food streets, Palermo's Ballarò and Vucciria, Naples' Pignasecca, and Arezzo's monthly antiques fair, the biggest in the country.
© OpenFreeMap · OSM · terrain Mapterhorn · boundaries © EuroGeographics (Eurostat GISCO)
Start here
If you only do 5 things on this theme.
-
Quadrilatero della Moda Four streets around Via Montenapoleone that hold most of Italian fashion -
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II The world's oldest shopping arcade still in use, opened in 1877 -
San Lorenzo Market Leather stalls outside, and the Mercato Centrale food hall inside -
Ballarò Market Palermo's loudest street market, and the best place to eat standing up -
Arezzo Antiques Fair Italy's biggest antiques market, on the Piazza Grande every first weekend
Everywhere else on this theme
-
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 -
Catania Black lava baroque under Etna, and Sicily's best fish market -
Ponte Vecchio The only Florentine bridge the retreating Germans spared in 1944 -
Rialto Bridge & Market The Grand Canal's oldest crossing, with the city's fish market beside it -
Murano & Burano Glass furnaces on one lagoon island, painted fishermen's houses on the next
The regions that deliver on it
-
Piedmont Barolo, white truffles, royal Turin and the Alps at the foot of the plain -
Lombardy Milan, the great lakes and the Alps of Valtellina -
Veneto Venice, Verona, Palladio's villas and the Dolomites of Cortina -
Emilia-Romagna Parmigiano, prosciutto, Ferrari and Ravenna's mosaics -
Tuscany The Renaissance, the Chianti hills and the coast most visitors miss -
Sicily Greek temples, Arab-Norman Palermo, Etna and its own archipelagos
Other ways to travel Italy
-
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 -
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