Italy

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About Italy

Italy, a European country with a long Mediterranean coastline, has left a powerful mark on Western culture and cuisine. Its capital, Rome, is home to the Vatican as well as landmark art and ancient ruins. Other major cities include Florence, with Renaissance masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s "David" and Brunelleschi's Duomo; Venice, the city of canals; and Milan, Italy’s fashion capital. Highlights of northern Italy include exploring the lakeside towns of Lombardy, hiking the hillside-hugging villages of Cinque Terre, and downhill skiing in the Italian Alps. Central Italy is known for the rolling vineyards of Tuscany and Umbria, as well as Pisa’s iconic leaning tower. Travel farther south to find Naples, known for its pizza the rugged Amalfi Coast, where picturesque towns hang precariously over cliffs; and Pompeii's 2,000-year-old remains. Off the southern tip of the peninsula, Sicily offers ancient ruins, beaches, and an active volcano.

TOP SIGHTS

Colosseum

Colosseum, is an oval amphitheater in the centre of the city of Rome just east of the Roman Forum and is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world today and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Colosseum is built of travertine limestone, tuff, and brick-faced concrete. The Colosseum could hold an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators at various points of its history over the centuries. It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Roman mythology.

Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is a 50-kilometer stretch of coastline along the southern edge of Italy’s Sorrentine Peninsula, in the Campania region. It is a popular holiday destination, with sheer cliffs and a rugged shoreline dotted with small beaches and pastel-colored fishing villages. The coastal road between the port city of Salerno and clifftop Sorrento winds past grand villas, terraced vineyards, and cliffside lemon groves.

Roman Forum

The Roman Forum also known as Forum Romanum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum. Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum.

Florence Cathedral

Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the cathedral of Florence. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris. The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a major tourist attraction of Tuscany.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the tower comprises eight stories, including the chamber for the bells.

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice where it is generally known just as la Piazza. It contains the most famous buildings such as St Mark’s Basilica and the Doge's Palace. The Piazza San Marco is one of the most beautiful in the world and Napoleon called it “the world’s most beautiful drawing room”.

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi district in Rome designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. According to legend, coins are purportedly meant to be thrown using the right hand over the left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain. Tossing one coin into the Trevi Fountain means you will return to The Eternal City of Rome, tossing two coins means you will return and fall in love, and tossing three coins means you will return, find love, and marry. The fountain has appeared in several notable films such as Roman Holiday, the eponymous Three Coins in the Fountain, Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany. It is one of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

Pantheon

Pantheon is a former Roman temple, now a Catholic church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. The building is cylindrical with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening to the sky. The Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.

Saint Mark Basilica

The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as St Mark's Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best-known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best-known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture.

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Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is a 50-kilometer stretch of coastline along the southern edge of Italy’s Sorrentine Peninsula, in the Campania region. It is a UNESCO-listed landscape lined with small towns precariously perched between mountains and the sea. It is a popular holiday destination, with sheer cliffs and a rugged shoreline dotted with small beaches and pastel-colored fishing villages. The coastal road between the port city of Salerno and clifftop Sorrento winds past grand villas, terraced vineyards, and cliffside lemon groves.

Rome

Rome, Italy’s capital, is a sprawling, cosmopolitan city with nearly 3,000 years of globally influential art, architecture, and culture on display. Ancient ruins such as the Forum and the Colosseum evoke the power of the former Roman Empire. Vatican City, headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, has St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, which house masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Venice

Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.

Florence

Florence, the capital of Italy’s Tuscany region, is home to many masterpieces of Renaissance art and architecture. One of its most iconic sights is the Duomo, a cathedral with a terracotta-tiled dome engineered by Brunelleschi and a bell tower by Giotto. The Galleria dell'Accademia displays Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture. The Uffizi Gallery exhibits Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” and da Vinci’s “Annunciation.”

Milan

Milan, a metropolis in Italy's northern Lombardy region, is a global capital of fashion and design. Home to the national stock exchange, it’s a financial hub also known for its high-end restaurants and shops. The Gothic Duomo di Milano cathedral and the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent, housing Leonardo da Vinci’s mural “The Last Supper,” testify to centuries of art and culture.

Naples

Naples, a city in southern Italy, sits on the Bay of Naples. Nearby is Mount Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that destroyed nearby Roman town Pompeii. Dating to the 2nd millennium B.C., Naples has centuries of important art and architecture. The city's cathedral, the Duomo di San Gennaro, is filled with frescoes. Other major landmarks include the lavish Royal Palace and Castel Nuovo, a 13th-century castle.

Capri

Capri is famed for its rugged landscape, upscale hotels, and shopping, from designer fashions to limoncello and handmade leather sandals. One of its best-known natural sites is the Blue Grotto, a dark cavern where the sea glows electric blue, the result of sunlight passing through an underwater cave. In summer, Capri's dramatic, cove-studded coastline draws many yachts.