Italy is where two of the world's great pilgrim routes end. The Via Francigena runs from Canterbury over the Great St Bernard Pass and down through Tuscany to Rome; the Cammino di San Francesco links Assisi to the capital through the Rieti valley. Add the Vatican, Padre Pio's San Giovanni Rotondo, Loreto's Holy House and Monte Sant'Angelo's cave sanctuary, and this is one of the most-walked spiritual landscapes anywhere.
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If you only do 5 things on this theme.
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St Peter's Basilica The largest church in the world, over the tomb of the apostle -
Basilica of St Francis, Assisi Two churches stacked over the saint's tomb, frescoed by Giotto and Cimabue -
Sacra di San Michele An abbey built onto a rock spike above the Val di Susa — Piedmont's symbol -
Monte Sant'Angelo A cave sanctuary to the Archangel Michael, on the pilgrim road since 490 -
Montecassino Abbey The mother house of Western monasticism, rebuilt after 1944
Everywhere else on this theme
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Rome Three thousand years of city, still lived in at full volume -
Padua Giotto's chapel, Europe's oldest botanical garden and a student city -
Bari Puglia's port capital and the gateway to the whole heel -
Assisi St Francis's town, and Giotto's frescoes above his tomb -
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Seven kilometres of galleries ending at Michelangelo's ceiling -
St Mark's Basilica Eight thousand square metres of gold mosaic, over a stolen apostle -
Certosa di Pavia A Carthusian monastery with the most ornate façade in Lombardy -
Certosa di Padula One of the largest monasteries in Europe, with a 350-column cloister -
Monreale Cathedral 6,500 m² of Byzantine gold mosaic in a Norman cathedral above Palermo -
Orvieto Cathedral The most extravagant striped façade in Italy, and Signorelli's Last Judgement -
Aquileia Basilica The largest early-Christian floor mosaic in the West, laid around 320 AD - Basilica of Addolorata, Castelpetroso A neo-Gothic pilgrimage basilica laid out as a seven-petalled flower under the Matese
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Basilica of the Holy House, Loreto One of the most visited Marian shrines in the world, inside a fortified basilica
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 -
Lombardy Milan, the great lakes and the Alps of Valtellina - Veneto Venice, Verona, Palladio's villas and the Dolomites of Cortina
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Friuli Venezia Giulia Habsburg Trieste, Roman Aquileia and Italy's finest white wines -
Umbria The green heart of Italy — Assisi, hill towns and no coastline -
Marche Renaissance Urbino, the Conero cliffs and the Sibillini mountains -
Lazio Rome and the Vatican — and Etruscan tombs, volcanic lakes and a 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 -
Sicily Greek temples, Arab-Norman Palermo, Etna and its own archipelagos
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 -
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 -
Luxury Italy Portofino, the Costa Smeralda, Capri and the great lake villas