Historic sites
Colosseum, Rome
Rome
The great amphitheatre of ancient Rome, opened in 80 AD, where up to 50,000 spectators watched gladiator fights and animal hunts.
Historic sites in Italy
Historic sites
Doge's Palace, Venice
Venice
The Gothic palace of the Doges, the rulers of the Venetian Republic for nearly a thousand years, beside St Mark's Basilica.
Historic sites
Greek Theatre of Taormina
Taormina, Messina
An ancient theatre built by the Greeks in the 3rd century BC and rebuilt by the Romans, set high on a cliff above the sea, with Mount Etna as its bac…
Historic sites
Manarola, Cinque Terre
Riomaggiore, La Spezia
A tiny village of pastel houses tumbling down a rocky spur into the sea, and the most photographed view in the Cinque Terre, especially at sunset fro…
Historic sites
Pantheon, Rome
Rome
The best-preserved building of ancient Rome, a temple completed around 125 AD and a church since the 7th century.
Historic sites
Piazza del Campo, Siena
Siena
One of Europe's most beautiful squares, a sloping shell-shaped piazza of red brick in the heart of medieval Siena, surrounded by palaces and overlook…
Historic sites
Pompeii
Pompei, Naples
The Roman city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and rediscovered in the 18th century, preserved in astonishing detail: streets with …
Historic sites
Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
Rome
The Roman Forum was the centre of public life in ancient Rome: temples, basilicas, triumphal arches and the Senate House, now a field of evocative ru…
Historic sites
Sassi di Matera
Matera
Matera's Sassi are ancient districts of cave houses carved into the side of a ravine, inhabited for perhaps 9,000 years.
Historic sites
Sirmione and the Grottoes of Catullus
Sirmione, Brescia
Sirmione sits on a narrow peninsula jutting into the south of Lake Garda.
Historic sites
Torre Grossa and Piazza della Cisterna, San Gimignano
San Gimignano, Siena
San Gimignano is a small medieval hill town in Tuscany, famous for its skyline of stone towers, built by rival families as status symbols; 14 of the …
Historic sites
Trulli of Alberobello
Alberobello, Bari
A town in Puglia filled with trulli, little whitewashed stone houses with conical grey roofs built without mortar, many painted with mysterious symbo…
Historic sites
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento
Agrigento
The remains of the ancient Greek city of Akragas, with some of the best-preserved Greek temples outside Greece, standing along a ridge above the sea …
Historic sites
Vernazza, Cinque Terre
Vernazza, La Spezia
Often called the most beautiful of the five Cinque Terre villages: colourful houses piled around a tiny harbour, with a little beach, the church of S…
Historic sites
Arena di Verona
Verona
A Roman amphitheatre from the 1st century AD, in remarkably good condition, in Verona's Piazza Bra.
Historic sites
Bardolino, Lake Garda
Bardolino, Verona
A charming lakeside town on the eastern shore of Lake Garda, known for its light red wine of the same name.
Historic sites
Burano
Burano, Venice
A fishing island in the Venetian lagoon, famous for its brightly painted houses, in every colour, lining the canals, and for lace-making.
Historic sites
Castello Dal Verme, Zavattarello
Zavattarello, Pavia
A powerful medieval castle on a hilltop above the village of Zavattarello, one of the 'most beautiful villages in Italy', in the hills of the Oltrepò…
Historic sites
Ponte Vecchio, Florence
Florence
Florence's oldest bridge, a medieval stone bridge over the Arno lined with jewellers' and goldsmiths' shops built out over the water.
Historic sites
Volterra
Volterra, Pisa
A walled hilltop town in Tuscany, less crowded than nearby San Gimignano, with Etruscan, Roman and medieval layers of history.
Historic sites
Varzi
Varzi, Pavia
A medieval village in the upper Staffora valley of the Oltrepò Pavese, with arcaded streets, old towers and the remains of the Malaspina castle.