Italy charms visitors with irresistible food, awesome architecture, diverse scenery and unparalleled art. In fact, it's so packed with possibilities it can almost overwhelm.
Planning your first trip to Italy
If you’ve not visited before you could well wonder what to see? Where to go? How to travel? Here’s everything you need to know to get the most out of your first trip to Italy.
Planning your first trip to Italy
Italy’s greatest hits
Planning your first trip to Italy
Short on time? Start with the big three: Rome, Florence and Venice. A week is (just) enough to enjoy the country’s headline acts.
Planning your first trip to Italy
The glories of Rome
Planning your first trip to Italy
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you certainly can’t see it in one. Instead allow at least two, preferably three.
Planning your first trip to Italy
That’s time to take in the Colosseum, the 2000-year-old Pantheon, sacred St Peter's and the Vatican Museums. Trot up the Spanish Steps, see the Trevi Fountain, and indulge in prime people watching.
Planning your first trip to Italy
Florence and Tuscany: art and wine
Planning your first trip to Italy
Two days in Florence sees you cherry-picking the incomparable art in the Uffizi gallery, delighting in the frescoes in the Duomo and pondering the anatomy of Michelangelo's David.
Planning your first trip to Italy
Check into one of the idyllic rural farmhouses in Chianti and spend time exploring a land where vine trellises snake along rolling hills. Wineries lie everywhere.
Planning your first trip to Italy
Bewitching Venice
Planning your first trip to Italy
To enjoy utterly exquisite Venice, allow a few days. Glide down the Grand Canal by gondola or vaporetto (water bus), tour the grand Palazzo Ducale, and see the treasure-filled Basilica di San Marco.
Planning your first trip to Italy
There'll also be time to join the locals shopping at Rialto Market, tuck into cicheti (Venetian tapas) and get a little lost amid the 400 bridges and 150 canals.
Planning your first trip to Italy
Best of
the rest
Planning your first trip to Italy
Got time to prolong your Italian love affair? With a couple of weeks at your disposal you can add on a few of these other dolce vita delights.
