The Best Places to Visit in Italy: a Regional Guide
1. Veneto
Veneto is large northern region of Italy that stretches from Austria to the Adriatic Coast. For most international visitors, Veneto is best known for its capital, Venice. This floating city is one of the most-visited places in Italy, with tourist numbers climbing every year. As a vast area with millennia of human history, Veneto has something to offer for almost any Italian holiday itinerary. The Dolomite Mountain range runs through northern Veneto and is beloved by hikers, cyclists and skiers. At the southern edge, the Adriatic Coastline provides some of the most scenic drives in Europe and Italy’s most secluded beaches. For history lovers, the walled city of Verona is comprised of a mixture of Roman, medieval and Italian Renaissance buildings, and is especially popular for romantic getaways due to its association with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Padua is another medieval Veneto city, and a more laid-back alternative to the throngs of Venice.
Visiting Venice: Veneto’s capital and largest city, Venice was once one of the most influential trading cities in the world. Today, the floating city is world-renowned as a must-visit Italian tourist destination. As the heart of the Republic of Venice trade empire, the city grew to one of the wealthiest in Europe, attracting countless notable merchants, architects and artists
This period of extreme wealth led to the building of the many ornate Palazzos and churches that line the canals.
Venice is still a bucket-list destination for most travellers to Europe. Even after centuries of tourism, the city remains a breathtaking sight. As a visitor to such a heavily-touristed city, it’s important to be respectful of the residents: keep noise to a minimum, spend time in local businesses, and try to book accommodation outside of the city centre.
What to eat in Veneto: Veneto is the birthplace of one of the great Italian food and drink traditions, Il Aperitivo. This is an event, rather than a specific dish, in which participants pay a flat fare in a bar or restaurant and graze on a rotating selection of antipasti and drinks over the course of several hours.
2. Lombardy (Lombardia)
Just east of Veneto, Lombardy is by far the most populous of Italy’s twenty regions. Together with the neighboring region of Piedmont, Lombardy is home to the bulk of Italy’s manufacturing and financial industries, as well as the fashion capital of the world in Milan. Many international visitors will immediately head to Milan, though the region also contains some of Italy’s most-visited natural wonders, including Lake Como, Lake Maggiore and the Valcamonica mountains. As one of Italy’s northernmost regions, Lombardy is home to some of Italy’s finest ski resorts, making it an ideal destination for winter holidays in Italy. This geographic and cultural richness ensures Lombardy remains a popular travel destination year-round.
Visiting Milan: Italy’s financial capital, Milan also has an illustrious history as a world leader in arts and design. This legacy can be experienced in everything from the city’s medieval frescoes, including da Vinci’s Last Supper, to the cutting-edge fashion houses of today. In contrast to the bustle of Modern Milan, Mantua is a quiet Lombardian medieval city, with fewer crowds than Milan or Verona.
What to eat in Lombardy: A fertile farming region, Lombardy is most prized for
individual ingredients, as opposed to complete recipes. Wine, truffles and Grana Padano cheese are the regional specialties.
3. Tuscany (Toscana)
Tuscany is the most visited of Italy’s twenty regions and has the highest concentration of major tourist attractions in Italy outside Rome. The medieval centre of Florence, the leaning tower of Pisa and historic Siena Palio horse race can all be found in Tuscany. The spires of the Tuscan hilltop town San Gimignano are a must-visit for travellers to Tuscany, and a popular alternative to the crowds of central Florence.
Visiting Florence: The core of Renaissance Italy, Florence is renowned as the best place in the world to experience classical Italian art and architecture. Botticelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo all made their homes in this city, and their works now hang in the Uffizi Gallery and churches throughout the old city centre. When visiting Florence, plan your trip carefully and book well in advance - at the height of summer, tourists outnumber locals by a ratio of 14:1.
What to eat in Tuscany: Due to its northerly location, Tuscany can experience cold winters. As a result, Tuscan cuisine is heavier than a lot of typical Italian food – with a focus on dark meats, stews, beans and warming pasta dishes. The local specialty, bistecca alla fiorentina, epitomises the appeal of Italian cooking: excellent ingredients, simply prepared, and best shared. Chianti wine is the famous local drink, served in traditional bulbous straw bottles.
4. Liguria
Due to its sweeping Mediterranean coastline, Liguria is a popular summer holiday destination for Italians and foreign visitors alike. The steep cliffs and sandy beaches of the ‘Italian Riviera’ draw over 5 million visitors a year. The most famous feature of the Ligurian coast is undoubtedly Cinque Terre, a string of 5 absurdly picturesque fishing villages that cling to the cliffs above the Mediterranean. In recent years, tourism to the Cinque Terre has exploded – expect crowds if visiting in summer. Apart from the beaches, Liguria has some of Italy’s finest Middle-ages architecture in the village of Airole and the dizzyingly steep streets of Apricale.
Visiting Genoa: Italy’s biggest port, Genoa combines the pace of life of an active port city with a medieval street plan and hillside villas. While much of the appeal of visiting Genoa is soaking up the city atmosphere and enjoying the views from its many hills, the city is also home to significant historical attractions, including the San Lorenzo Cathedral and the Piazza de Ferrari.
What to eat in Liguria: Genoa is the birthplace of Pesto, the beloved Italian sauce. Try it with one of Genoa’s traditional flatbreads: focaccia and farinata.
4. Lazio and Rome
Italy’s capital territory, Lazio encompasses Rome, the Vatican and the surrounding areas. As the home of the Pope and the heart of the Catholic Church, Lazio is one of the most visited regions in Europe.
Visiting Rome: The eternal city, built across seven hills, is one of the most significant settlements in human history. Capital of the largest empire the world has ever seen, Rome has been continuously populated for over 14,000 years. Today, the city's ancient history and thriving modern culture overlap at every street corner. Despite its iconic status, Rome maintains a charmingly lived-in atmosphere. Even the most central and heavily-touristed areas have a residential population, providing a neighborhood character and air of authenticity not often found in major world cities.
What to eat in Rome: Lazio, and Rome in particular, is famous for four pasta dishes, which rely on affordable, fresh ingredients: Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe, Amatriciana and Alla Gricia. The four horsemen of the pastapocalypse, or the ‘four compass points’ of Roman cooking, have become staples in many regions of Italy due to their simplicity and sophistication.
6. Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna is a central region of Italy, noted for the quality of its soil and resulting excellent local food and wine. Emilia Romagna is notable as one of Europe’s major destinations for wine-tasting holidays. The region's typical rolling hills are covered in vines, and nearly every village or town will have a vineyard nearby. Wine tours are a great way to explore the region and discover smaller towns that may otherwise have escaped notice from the tourist trade.
Visiting Bologna: The amber buildings of Bologna's old town centre house the oldest still-in-use academic institution in the world: the University of Bologna. Despite its ancient origins and wealth of medieval buildings, Bologna has long held the status as one of Italy's most progressive and forward-thinking cities. The large student population and reputation for left-leaning politics give the city a youthful, exciting character.
What to eat in Emilia-Romagna: Bolognian food is best summed up in the city’s nickname El Grasso, or ‘the fat one’. Local cuisine veers heavy and cream-based - this is a town for comfort food. The local specialty, of course, is Bolognese. However, authentic ragù alla bolognese bears little resemblance to the international interpretation – it’s usually served with tagliatelle, not spaghetti, and slowly cooked over several hours. If you're on the go, a sandwich stuffed with bolognese mortadella is a heavenly lunch option.
7. Calabria
At Itay’s southern tip, forming the toe of the peninsula, Calabria features some of Italy’s most scenic and untouched stretches of coast. Despite this, it remains a relatively underrated tourist destination. Those who do travel discover some of the best seafood in Italy, a wealth of world-class medieval sites. The most famous are Calabria's Byzantine monasteries, built during the end of the Roman Empire and early Middle Ages.
Calabria’s history of conquest by multiple empires, including the Greeks, Byzantines and Normans, has left it with a unique historical and linguistic legacy. This can be explored in the preserved Byzantine monasteries of Stilo and the diverse range of dialects spoken in Calabria, including Italo-Albanian Arbëreshë and Calabrian Greek.
Visiting Catanzaro: Catanzaro, ‘the city of seas’ was for centuries a major world producer of silks and velvets. The wealth this brought to the city can be seen in the grand renaissance architecture of Catanzaro’s Centro Storico, or historic centre. Catanzaro is also ideally located as a base from which to explore the smaller fishing villages and resort towns of Calabria’s Ionian coast.
What to eat in Calabria: Fishing is the major industry in Calabria, and it’s here you’ll find some of Italy’s finest seafood. The region is also widely known as a first-class producer of salami - popular Calabrian variants include nduja, a decadent, spreadable sausage, and soppressata, a spiced salami.
8. Sicily
As a self-sufficient island state for most of its history, Italy's southernmost region, Sicily, maintains a unique character, language and independent spirit.
Like Calabria, Sicily experienced millennia of conquest and trade from multiple empires, leaving a legacy of architectural and historic treasures from several historical epochs, including Roman, Greek, Arabic and Byzantine influences. Highlights include the 12th-century Arabic palaces of Zisa and Cuba and the Ancient Greek temples of Nike and Segesta. The island enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate, and tourist numbers remain high even in winter.
Visit Palermo: Sicily's tumultuous history can be explored firsthand in the historic city centre of Palermo. Here, classical Italian Baroque cathedrals share streets with Byzantine, Greek and Arabic monuments, resulting in a fascinating architectural effect.
Palermo is also growing in reputation as one of the best cities for fine dining in the country.
What to eat in Sicily: There’s a popular principle in Southern Italy that the further south you travel, the better the food gets. While this is hotly disputed by their northern neighbours , it’s a fact that Sicily, at Italy’s southernmost tip, is widely recognized as one of the best places to eat in the country. Sicily's independence is reflected in its cuisine: here’s it customary to garnish pasta dishes with grated bread, rather than cheese, and fortified marsala wine is commonly used instead of mainland Italian red. Standout Sicilian pasta dishes include busiate alla trapanese and pasta con le sarde.
Travel tips for Italy
Getting Around
Italy is one of the cheapest countries in Europe to rent a car. This can be an ideal option if you’re planning a longer trip, or plan on exploring smaller villages and remote towns.
The national rail service and independent coach providers like Flixbus also run regular routes between most cities and major towns. Taking a ferry can be an exciting way to explore the country’s islands.
For visiting cities, a navigation app like Google Maps can be indispensable. Download maps of certain cities ahead of time if you don’t have an internet connection, or use a local Italy eSIM to stay connected with low-cost mobile internet.
Using a local Italian eSIM
An Italy eSIM is the easiest way to use mobile data in Italy without paying roaming charges. A BetterRoaming Italy eSIM allows you to get connected to our high-speed international network at a cheap local rate, the minute you arrive.
No more queuing up for a local SIM – just one simple mobile plan that can be downloaded in minutes, and ready to get online across Spain whenever you are.
Italy eSIM data plans
Europe eSIM data plans
Looking to continue your travels beyond Italy? Whatever your journey, it’s easy to stay connected to low-cost mobile internet in Europe with a BetterRoaming eSIM. View all country plans here, including prepaid eSIM Italy packages – you can even download multiple plans before you travel and switch between them instantly.
If you’re planning on visiting more than one European country, a Europe eSIM is often the simplest and most cost-effective way to access the internet while travelling. Valid in 47 European countries, a BetterRoaming Europe+ eSIM allows for smooth travel across the continent on a single prepaid eSIM data plan, with no need to switch SIM cards or providers every time you cross a border.
An eSIM is a SIM profile you download to your phone. It allows you to use mobile data in other countries without paying international roaming charges
Our prepaid Italy travel eSIM is easier to use than a local Italy SIM card - with no need to swap out prepaid SIM cards, or lose access to your messages or contacts
Choose between prepaid Italian eSIM plans and Europe-wide eSIM plans
A BetterRoaming Italy eSIM is free to install. Just download your free eSIM anytime, then choose and purchase a mobile data plan for Italy or Europe when you're ready to travel- the plan will activate automatically as soon as you arrive
