Best areas of Italy to visit in 2026: a grand, slow, sunlit odyssey

With Haute Retreats, explore the best areas of italy to visit for 2026, including the Dolomites, Sicily, slow travel, classic cuisine, and opulent villas. Copper light cymbals the Alps as the train slips out of Milan at dawn. Naples can be reached in a little more than four hours, and Florence can be reached in less than three. The boot feels blissfully small thanks to the nation’s high-speed rails, but Italy is most giving when you stay, enjoy another espresso at a tabacchi, and allow a village to explain its customs to you. It also leads the world in UNESCO-listed treasures, which is a great reason to take your time and enjoy each one.

The Olympic-bright north: Dolomites, Lombardy & Veneto

The Dolomites will be in the spotlight worldwide in 2026 when Milano-Cortina hosts the Winter Games, an alpine stage where ridgelines feel like a violin maker’s hand and the mountains turn pink at sunset. Catch alpenglow in the evenings, linger over rifugio polenta and speck in the afternoons, and clip along ferrata routes in the mornings. These peaks are a timeless solution for anyone looking for the best places to visit in Italy, even without the spotlight.

Lakes that hold the sky: Como & Garda

With its steep green walls, centuries-old villas, and silk-braided ferry wakes, Lake Como is a magnificent theater. Arrive in Varenna to the sound of bells, take a boat to Bellagio, and hide in workshops where skilled artisans restore gilt mirrors and Riva runabouts. Wider and breezier, Garda has a subtle lemon scent; Malcesine, Sirmione, and the eastern shore’s promenades bring Roman echoes with your gelato and sailing afternoons that are wind-clean. Como will spoil you if grandeur is your top priority, and Garda will satisfy if versatility is your goal. Both are conveniently located near the rails that connect the best places to visit in Italy.

Vineyard tapestries: Prosecco Hills & Piedmont’s Langhe

The Prosecco Hills ripple like a pleated skirt between the Alps and Venice. Terraces ride “hogback” ridges, and the bubbles themselves speak a dialect of the area: Cartizze for a taste of sunlight, Extra Dry for the aperitivo hour, and Brut for a self-assured lunch.

If you ride an e-bike from Conegliano to Valdobbiadene, you’ll see why UNESCO inscribed this cultural landscape, which is characterized by vines and stone tracks. In Piedmont to the west, the Langhe trades in glitter for Nebbiolo’s scent of roses and tar, as well as truffle markets that transform autumn into a theatrical performance. These are two of the best places to travel in Italy. Both are among the Best areas of italy to visit.

Where Renaissance lines meet living fields: Tuscany & Val d’Orcia

Hills stitched with cypress. squares where the light makes the marble appear sugared. roads with a single, graceful curve that lasts for miles. Make Florence a weekly ritual rather than a to-do list: a morning with Botticelli, a day exploring the market in Santo Spirito, and an evening negroni in the Oltrarno as bookbinders and luthiers continue their trade.

After that, head south to the Val d’Orcia, a Renaissance fantasy composed of light, lunch, and expansive vistas—Bagno Vignoni for sunset in a sweltering piazza; Pienza for pecorino and ideal-city geometry. It’s one of the best places to travel in Italy and the Tuscany you’ve been longing for. It’s the Tuscany you crave—and one of the Best areas of italy to visit.

The green heart at human speed: Umbria

Umbria, Tuscany’s neighbor and eternal counter-melody, prefers softer tones: Assisi’s Franciscan frescoes and Giotto’s legacy, truffle markets filling the narrow medieval streets, and the thunder of Marmore Falls waking the greenery. Spello’s alleyways spill geraniums like confetti; Montefalco pours Sagrantino with a monk’s calm; and strangozzi tangled with black truffle is both ritual and poetic in Norcia. Come experience the quiet and the season, meet artists who put their hearts and hands to work, and discover yet another of Italy’s top tourist destinations.

Adriatic light and limestone coves: The Marche’s Conero Riviera

Monte Conero, a chalky headland with beaches of white pebbles and aquamarine water, rises where the Apennines exhaust themselves and plunge into the ocean. Sirolo and Numana blink down at coves that can be reached by boat or foot; they eat paper cones of fried anchovies for lunch in between swims. Urbino continues to think in Renaissance geometries inland.

The Marche makes a strong case for including these places on your map—and on your own list of the top places to visit in Italy—for tourists who enjoy exploration. For travelers who love discovery, the Marche writes a persuasive case to add them to your map—and to your personal list of the Best areas of italy to visit.

Liguria beyond the usual: Portovenere, Camogli & the Cinque Terre (wisely)

Yes, the Cinque Terre still traces five small villages along paths that hug the cliffs, but make the most of your trip by hiking early, taking the small local trains, and choosing shoulder-season light. Contrast those icons with Camogli’s everyday harbor, where focaccia tastes like it was baked yesterday, and Portovenere’s Gothic church, which is positioned like a ship’s prow. This vibrant coastline is deserving of your leisure time and a spot among Italy’s top tourist destinations. This color-saturated coast deserves your slowness—and a place among the Best areas of italy to visit.

The capital with a village soul: Rome & Lazio

You come for Bernini’s colonnades and the Colosseum, but you stay for the epiphanies: a newly opened room flashing back into daylight; a carbonara that demonstrates that simplicity is its own theology; a Caravaggio hiding in plain sight in a side chapel. Schedule time for the water-soaked villas of Tivoli, the wine taverns of Castelli Romani, and a Janiculum sunset that turns the entire city into a gold mine. Amid its grandeur, Rome remains a federation of neighborhoods—laundry lines, markets, and long dinners—hence, inevitably, one of the Best areas of italy to visit.

The south—appetite and light: Naples, Amalfi, Capri & Ischia

Naples is a jolt—Espresso cups rattling, pizza dough in the air, and Vesuvius on the horizon. Take a ferry to Capri, where cliff paths terminate in cobalt caves, after spending a day at Pompeii to witness antiquity in motion (recent excavations have revealed frescoes that are breathtaking enough to stop time).

Or head for Ischia’s thermal gardens, where you can float in the warm volcanic air beneath a castle on a hill. Drive (or, better yet, sail) the Amalfi Coast to see towns that cascade toward the tide: Ravello, with its umbrella pines and music; Positano, with its theater; and Minori, with its sfogliatella, which is only a short distance from the sea—one of the best areas of italy to visit.

Sun-bleached stone and Baroque swagger: Puglia

Light strikes differently down in the heel of Italy. Olive trees stand like ancient philosophers, and towns are crisp and whitewashed. Lecce’s façades flutter with exuberant baroque; Salento’s shores swing between Adriatic glass and Ionian silk; and the trulli of the Valle d’Itria rise like stone beehives. Sleep in masseries with lime-washed courtyards, order orecchiette with cime di rapa, and follow dirt roads that lead to small coves the color of good gin. One of the best areas of Italy to visit is Puglia.

Cave-cut cities and Tyrrhenian terraces: Basilicata

Matera, a history lesson carved in tufa, consists of frescoed rock churches that cool the hottest afternoons and cave dwellings that step down a ravine. Combine it with Basilicata’s seaside retreat, Maratea, where a coast of wild fennel is watched over by the statue of Cristo Redentore and black-sand coves nestled beneath bluffs. Few itineraries cover both, which is exactly why they are among the best areas of Italy to visit: they reward curiosity with depth and quiet.

Islands of myth and modern ease: Sicily

Sicily is more of an anthology than an island. One Greek page depicts the Agrigento colonnades against a perpetual sky. The first is volcanic; Etna’s ash-rich vineyards, which are still warm to the touch, grow carricante and nerello mascalese on black earth. Another is Baroque—Noto and Ragusa are limestone ruffles created after a previous earthquake taught stone-lacing techniques to masons. The Aeolian Islands provide punctuation offshore, such as Salina’s caper fields, Lipari’s pumice coves, and Stromboli’s nightly fireworks. Between are some of the best areas of Italy to visit, with a street-food culture that includes everything from panelle to arancini to granita.

Sardinia, sculpted by wind

Inland, Bronze-Age Nuraghi rise like puzzles from the maquis; Costa Smeralda’s inlets where granite turns honey at dusk; and La Maddalena’s protected archipelago, where the sea is so clear that the gulls’ shadows resemble calligraphy. Combine gozzo days with honey-drizzled seadas in the evenings. Unquestionably one of the best places to visit in Italy, this area is a miniature version of the continent.

How to thread it all together in 2026

• Whenever possible, take the train. Milan to Naples in just over four hours means pizza is actually within reach, and Milan to Florence in less than three hours makes dual-city weekends sane. The most elegant way to explore the best places to visit in Italy is to arrive directly in the historic centers, which are meant to be explored on foot rather than by circling.
• Visit during shoulder seasons. Locals have time to chat, tables are open, and the sun is steady from April to June and September to early November. Dolomite pistes, the smart way to make the best places to visit in Italy feel more private, are available from January to March for snow lovers.
• Assign hush-toned neighbors to icons. There is a Fiesole for every Florence, a Praiano for every Positano, and a peaceful loop above Camogli for every bustling Cinque Terre path. This combination allows delicate sites to breathe and enhances your experience of the best places to visit in Italy.
• Pay attention to local actions. Venice is still experimenting with day-trip regulations to reduce overtourism; the 2025 trial period concluded on July 28. Future changes will be posted on the official website; always check before you go and prioritize overnight stays. It keeps the lagoon habitable and your trip peaceful, making it one of the best places to visit in Italy.

Where to stay when you want a home with a soul

Some vacations are best spent in hotels, while others are better spent at home, with long tables, pool water churning at midnight, and kitchens smelling of slow-cooking tomatoes. When a villa makes sense, check out Haute Retreats: the modern eyrie of Villa Lenisia or the grand palazzo drama of Villa Balbiano on Lake Como; the frescoed opulence of Palazzo Santa Croce or the quiet beachfront seclusion near Maiori at Marelda on the Amalfi Coast; and carefully chosen residences with private pools, chefs, and concierge teams to set up boats and drivers throughout Tuscany’s wine valleys (and Puglia’s masseria-dotted countryside). For a week, you can make the best areas of Italy to visit feel like your own.

Three elegant 2026 itineraries

1) Aperitivo in the Alps (10–12 days). Enjoy gallery afternoons in Milan, Dolomite drama in Cortina, and two nights on the windswept terraces of Lake Garda at the end. A triangulation of the best places to visit in Italy, you will experience winter sports, alpine cuisine, and lakeside languor.

2) 8–10 days from Renaissance to Riviera. Sail east to the Conero for white-pebble beaches and seafood dinners after drifting from Florence to Siena and the Val d’Orcia. Add urbane days in Bologna beneath its endless porticoes. This is a sybarite’s guide to the best areas of Italy to visit and represents Italy’s soft power at its best.

3) South star (12–14 days). End in Matera, whose night skies will change your perception of darkness; Capri or Ischia for salt-washed glamour; Naples and Pompeii for voltage; and Puglia for architecture and beaches. With the South ingrained in your senses and a personalized list of the best areas of Italy to visit, you’ll depart.

Pocket notes: where to aim your compass next

• With consideration, Venice & the Veneto. When you explore Dorsoduro at dawn, one of the best areas of Italy to visit, the city remains vibrant despite changing day-tripper regulations.
• One of the most beautiful places in Italy to visit is the eastern shore of Verona and Lake Garda, with its Roman arena nights, Valpolicella sips, and windy promenades.
• Val di Fassa and Alta Badia are among the best areas of Italy to visit for summer strolls and winter skiing.
• A picnic on Monte Isola, classic-method bubblies in villa gardens, and Franciacorta and Lake Iseo are all shining examples of the best places to visit in Italy.
• The best areas of Italy to visit are Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato—Barolo cellars, hazelnut cakes, and misty hill towns—all of which have culinary poetry.
• The neighboring Cinque Terre—the pastel harbor of Camogli and the stone church of Portovenere—are uncrowded and rank among the best places to visit in Italy.
• The Prosecco Hills—Cartizze ridgelines, osterie without pretense—are lively nooks of Italy’s top tourist destinations.
• The best areas of Italy to visit are Bologna and the Porticoes, which have miles of arcades and a paper-thin mortadella.
• The best places to visit in Italy are Val d’Orcia, Pienza at blue hour, and the sultry piazza in Bagno Vignoni.
• One of the best places to visit in Italy is Umbria’s hill towns, which include Bevagna’s piazzas and Spelloto’s flowers.
• The Conero Riviera is one of the best places to visit in Italy because of Sorelle’s white arc and seafood “all’adoro.”
• The best places to visit in Italy are Ischia, with its thermal gardens and vineyard hikes to Sant’Angelo.
• The best places to visit in Italy are Puglia’s Salento, Gallipoli sunsets, and Otranto dawns.
• Trulli lanes and olive seas surround Alberobello and the Valle d’Itria, one of Italy’s most picturesque destinations.
• The interior of Matera and Basilicata—rock-cut sanctuaries and leisurely evenings—transports visitors back in time to one of Italy’s most popular destinations.
• The best areas of Italy to visit are the southeast of Sicily, which includes Modica chocolate, Noto sunsets, and baroque theater.
• The best areas of Italy to visit are the Aeolian Islands, with their black sand beaches and moonlit anchorages.
• One of the best areas of Italy to visit is the northern part of Sardinia, which includes wind-polished gems like the Caprera pines and the La Maddalena anchorages.

In the end, the Best areas of italy to visit are the ones that teach you to travel slowly.

The lingering image

Maybe it’s a 7 a.m. espresso in Trastevere; maybe it’s the evening on a terrace above Ortigia; maybe it’s the scent of hot stone and laurel in the air on a road south of Ostuni. You enter with a list and depart with a life, complete with friendships, rituals, recipes, and a few train tickets hidden inside a book. The best places to visit in Italy aren’t just locations; they’re a way of life: light on your feet, inquisitive at the table, and always willing to stay for another cup of coffee-

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