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Traveling to Italy
What to visit

When planning and preparing a trip to Italy it is worth researching a bit more than the traditional travel highlights described in most travel guides.

If you plan to travel all over Italy, we recommend you alternate travel highlights such as the cities of Rome, Venice, Florence, Ravenna, Pisa, etc, with lesser known destinations in Italy. That is both more relaxing, as well as intellectually and culturally more gratifying than accomplishing a sightseeing-marathon through several sites, without even having the time to appreciate the local atmosphere, colors and tastes.

If you have just a couple of days to spend in Italy, the places that you should definitely not miss are the historical cities of Florence, Rome and Venice. Read more about our Top 5 favorite places in Italy.


Where to stay

Italy offers a very wide range of accommodation, from the luxury hotels, with fabulous spa and golf facilities to B&B and self-catering types of accommodation, to be combined or not with an activity holiday.
Italy Travel Highlights
When to go
What to Visit
Where to Stay
Italian Festivals
Italy's
Trends, Travel Tips and  Culinary Traditions
Region by Region
When to go

About every season has something to offer in Italy. A personal event, such as a Honeymoon may also be an excellent occasion to visit romantic Italian cities such as Venice and Florence.
Rome is particularly beautiful at Christmas time, the combination of colored lightning and secular buildings and ruins, has something magic. Some consider the best time to go between April and June as the flood of school holidays hasn't yet hit the roads, the countryside is at its fullest bloom and the weather isn't uncomfortably hot yet.
Others prefer the late season, especially if they are looking for a more relaxed beach vacation, which may be planned as late as October, for example in Sicily and Sardinia. You may also want to organize your stay in function of one of the many annual festivals, whether wine-tasting, gastronomic celebrations or musical events. (read more about festivals).
Christmas at Saint-Peter's
Photo by My Walkabout Photography
An alternative to the traditional hotels and hostels are the agriturismo (agritourism, comparable to the gîtes in France), a style of self-catering accommodation in which hospitality is offered on farms, wine producing properties and mountain chalets, but also in villas and ancient castles.
Read more about agritourism in Italy.

See also: Top luxury hotels in Italy: Six places that must be visited - if you can afford it. Old fashioned luxury in the style of yesteryear: exquisite places, uncompromising luxury. Italy is synonymous with style and any stay in Italy should be likewise. 
Agritourism in Umbria, Italy
Photo: Daniele Morra
Traveling to Italy
Italian wines
Italian art and culture
Italian Food
Italian courses in Italy
History of Italy
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Photos of the YourGuidetoItaly.com banner (from left to right): (on campus) Sean Locke, (red deckchair) Valentina Jori, (chianti botlle) Donald Gruener, (zucchine) Barbara Bar, (Fiat 500) Luca di Filippo, (coloseum) Alek von Felkerzam.
Traveling in Italy  |  Foods and Drinks  |  Languages of Italy  |  Culture and History  |  Italian Art
Rome
Top 5 favorite places worth a visit:
Rome, Florence, Capri, Venice, Amalfi coast. Read more >>

Other destinations:
- Calabria and its pearl Praja a Mare:one of Italy's best kept secret)
- Ischia:  together with Capri, a great site in the Bay of Naples


5 most exclusive destinations in Italy:
The most exclusive (and expensive) destinations in Italy: Venice, Portofino, Praiano, Costa Smeralda, Capri.
- Cinque Terre: five tiny, scenic, towns strung along the steep vineyard-laced coast of Liguria)
- Elba, the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia
- Vatican City (the independent city-state and seat of the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church)
- the Italian lakes, among which Lago di Garda and Lago di como, beautiful lakes in Northern Italy
- Italian Alps and The Dolomites - some of the most beautiful mountains

Superlative destinations:
The 5 most romantic destinations in Italy:
Venice, Rome, Capri, Verona, Positano
Travel Highlights
Positano
 
Italy: The Best Travel Writing from the New York Times
General Travel Info
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.
More information:
One Hundred and One Beautiful Small Towns of Italy
by Paolo Lazzarin
More information:
One hundred and one beautiful small towns of Italy
Frommer's Italy 2008 (Frommer's Complete)
by Darwin Porter (Author), Danforth Prince (Author)
More information:
Frommer's Italy 2008
Sightseeing & Going Out
Eating Out
Sleeping
Top luxury hotel in Italy
B&B in Italy
Agritourism in Italy
Travel Highlights
Famous Festivals in Italy
Casinos in Italy
Best gourmet restaurants of Italy
Recommended Reading
When to go to Italy
What to Visit in Italy
Where to Stay in Italy
Italy Travel Guide
Italy
(Eyewitness Travel Guides)
by DK Publishing
More information: