10 Most Famous Cities of Italy

Rome
Capital city of Italy and of the Lazio region (Latium), and Italy's largest and most populous city, with about 2.8 million inhabitants. Rome is also the historic capital of the Roman Empire. See our Rome city guide >>

Venice
City world-famous for its canals and for its palaces built on water. Venice is the Capital of the Veneto region, with a population of 271,251.

Florence
Capital city of the Tuscany region. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Today's Italian is based on the Tuscan language of Florence of the 14th century.

Milan
One of the world capitals of design and fashion and capital of the Lombardy region.

Turin
Important industrial city as well as a business and cultural centre in northern Italy and headquarter of the Fiat company. Capital of the Piedmont region, with a population of 908,000 inhabitants.

Naples
Capital of the Campania region and second most populated metropolitan area in Italy. Its name derives from the Greek Neapolis, the "new city".

Verona
Verona, a city of the Veneto region in Northern Italy, is mentioned by Dante in Canto 18 of Purgatory in the Divine Comedy and in the travel diaries of Goethe, Stendhal and Paul Valéry.It is also the setting of the story of Romeo and Juliet, made famous by William Shakespeare.

Bologna
Capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region and home of the oldest continually operating university of the Western world, founded in 1088. One of the top cities in Italy in terms of quality of life. The name of the city presumably comes from Bononia, name of the Roman colony founded in c.189 BC that was named after the Boii, a Gallic tribe.

Genoa
Capital of the Liguria region. Hometown of explorer Christopher Columbus, composer Niccolò Paganini, Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, actor Vittorio Gassman.

Palermo
Capital of Sicily and, just like Rome, a city with nearly three millenia of history.

Photos of the YourGuidetoItaly.com banner (from left to right): (on campus) Sean Locke, (red deckchair) Valentina Jori, (chianti botlle) Donald Gruener, (Vitruvian man) Jodie Coston, (coliseum), Roberto A Sanchez, (Fiat 500) Luca di Filippo. Rome, Florence and Verona Cityscapte photos by S. Greg Panosian. Balcony of Juliet photo by Danin Tulic

Living, Studying, and Working in Italy:
Everything You Need to Know to Live La Dolce Vita
by Monica Larner

More information:

Italy: The Best Travel Writing
from the New York Times
by Umberto Eco (Foreword), Olivier Bernier (Author), Frank Bruni (Author), Shirley Hazzard (Author), Alison Lurie (Author), etc.
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