How many days do you need in Italy?

Eight to twelve days for a first trip: three or four in Rome, then two cities reached by high-speed train. Two weeks lets you add the south or Sicily without spending the trip in transit.

When is the best time to visit Italy?

April, May, September and October. Warm days, long light, open kitchens and far fewer people than July and August, when the heat sits heavy and the coast fills up.

Is Italy expensive to visit?

Less than its reputation, outside the famous three. Budget around $100 to $180 per person per day mid-range, and noticeably less in Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia than in Venice or Florence.

Do you need to speak Italian?

No. English is common in cities and tourist areas. A few words still change the temperature of an exchange, and outside the big cities they do real work.

Should you start with Rome, Florence and Venice?

For a first trip, yes, and they earn their days. On a second, trade one of them for Naples, Bologna or Palermo: same depth, better eating, a fraction of the queue.

Top 10 Things To Do in Italy (City Guides) Wimup

Quick answer · where to go in Italy

First-timers should pair Rome and Florence with two nights in Venice; repeat visitors trade up for Naples, Bologna and the hill towns of Tuscany. The best windows are April–May and September–October, warm, lighter crowds, and easier to book than the August peak.

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14 Italian city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Lazio

★ 4.9

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Italy has only been one country since 1861, and it still governs like twenty. Five of its 20 regions, Sicily and Sardinia among them, hold special autonomy under the 1948 constitution, with powers over language, schools and tax. Cross a regional line and the food, dialect and pace change.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"Italians eat pasta at every meal"

The realityPasta is usually the first course, not the whole plate. A full meal moves from antipasto to primo to secondo, and most people eat one course at lunch and go light at dinner.

"There is one Italian cuisine"

The realityThere are twenty, and they do not blend. Butter and rice in the north, oil and tomato in the south, and a sauce named after a town is usually made only near it.

"Ordering a cappuccino after lunch is banned"

The realityNobody will stop you. Milk after a meal is simply not the habit here, so if you want to order the way the room does, ask for an espresso or a macchiato.

"Nothing runs on time"

The realityThe high-speed trains are punctual and frequent, and they are the spine of any Italian trip. Museums and offices keep their own hours, which is a different problem: book ahead and check the closing day.

"The south is best skipped"

The realityNaples, Palermo, Bari and Lecce are where a lot of the best eating and the least queueing is. Watch your bag in crowds, as in any big city, and go.

Talking with both handsNonna's kitchenA Vespa in a narrow laneEspresso drunk standing at the barThe Ferragosto shutdownFootball on every screenDinner that runs to midnight

Cultural notes that actually help

Say buongiorno on the way into a shop or bar, and arrivederci on the way out.
Coffee is a standing drink. Order at the bar, drink it there, and expect table service to be billed differently.
The coperto on your bill is a per-person cover charge, not a tip and not a scam.
Lunch runs roughly 1 to 3 and dinner rarely starts before 8. Kitchens close in between.
Cover shoulders and knees for churches. The big basilicas turn people away at the door.
Ferragosto, 15 August, empties the cities. Family-run places close for the week around it.

Famous Italian faces

The names behind Italy's politics, sport, art, cinema, music, science and food. Pick a field.

Sophia Loren

First actor to win an Oscar for a role in a foreign language

Enzo Ferrari

Racing driver who founded the Scuderia and the marque

Maria Montessori

Physician whose classroom method spread worldwide

Alcide De Gasperi

Prime minister who rebuilt the republic after 1945

Valentino Rossi

Nine-time motorcycle world champion

Gino Bartali

Tour de France winner who carried false papers for the resistance

Roberto Baggio

Ballon d'Or winner in 1993, and the number 10 Italy still argues about

Federica Pellegrini

Olympic champion and long-reigning 200m freestyle world record holder

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Sculptor and architect who gave Rome its baroque face

Sandro Botticelli

Painted the Birth of Venus and the Primavera

Federico Fellini

Director of La Dolce Vita and 8½

Sergio Leone

Invented the spaghetti western, and its silences

Luciano Pavarotti

Tenor who took opera out of the opera house

Ennio Morricone

Film composer whose westerns defined how a genre sounds

Enrico Fermi

Nobel physicist who built the first nuclear reactor

Rita Levi-Montalcini

Nobel laureate who discovered nerve growth factor

Massimo Bottura

Chef of Osteria Francescana in Modena

Carlo Petrini

Founded Slow Food in Bra, Piedmont, in 1986

Leonardo da Vinci

Painter, engineer and anatomist of the Renaissance

Dante Alighieri

Poet of the Divine Comedy, and of the Italian language itself

Michelangelo

Sculpted the David, painted the Sistine ceiling

Galileo Galilei

Astronomer who argued that the Earth moves

Giuseppe Verdi

Composer of Rigoletto, La traviata and Aida

Giuseppe Garibaldi

General whose campaigns unified the peninsula

Camillo Benso di Cavour

Statesman behind unification and the kingdom's first prime minister

Sergio Mattarella

President of the Republic, re-elected in 2022

Caravaggio

Baroque painter who made light do the drama

Anna Magnani

Face of neorealism in Rome, Open City, and an Oscar winner

Antonio Vivaldi

Venetian priest who wrote The Four Seasons

Guglielmo Marconi

Nobel laureate behind the first transatlantic radio signal

Pellegrino Artusi

His 1891 cookbook taught a new country to cook in one language

Must-try Italian food

The classics, then the dishes and wines each region is known for. Pick a category.

Pasta al pomodoro

Tomato, basil and good oil. The baseline everything else is judged against.

Bruschetta

Grilled bread, raw garlic, oil, and whatever is ripe.

Tiramisù

Coffee, mascarpone and cocoa. Veneto's gift to every dessert menu.

Cacio e pepe

Pecorino and black pepper emulsified with pasta water. Three ingredients, no hiding.

Carbonara

Guanciale, egg and pecorino. No cream, ever.

Carciofi alla giudia

Artichokes pressed flat and fried crisp, from the Roman Ghetto.

Supplì

Fried rice croquette with a molten mozzarella centre.

Pizza napoletana

Wet in the middle, blistered at the rim, about 90 seconds in the oven.

Mozzarella di bufala

Buffalo milk mozzarella from the Campanian plain, eaten the day it is made.

Sfogliatella

Shell-shaped pastry in a hundred leaves, filled with sweet ricotta.

Bistecca alla fiorentina

Thick T-bone, rare, salt and oil and nothing else.

Ribollita

Bread and bean soup, reboiled the next day and better for it.

Pappa al pomodoro

Tomato and stale bread cooked to a purée. Peasant food, still on every menu.

Panzanella

Summer bread salad with tomato, onion and basil.

Parmigiano Reggiano

Aged cow's milk cheese, made only around Parma, Reggio and Modena.

Piadina

Romagna's flatbread, folded hot around squacquerone and rocket.

Risotto alla milanese

Saffron rice finished with butter and marrow.

Vitello tonnato

Cold sliced veal under a tuna and caper sauce. Piedmont's summer starter.

Pesto alla genovese

Basil, pine nuts, garlic and cheese pounded raw. Liguria's whole argument.

Polenta

Cornmeal, soft or grilled, the staple of the Alps and the Veneto.

Arancini

Fried rice balls, ragù in the east of Sicily and butter in the west.

Pasta alla Norma

Aubergine, tomato and salted ricotta, from Catania.

Cannoli

Shells fried in advance, filled with sheep's ricotta to order.

Caponata

Sweet and sour aubergine, served at room temperature.

Pane carasau

Sardinia's paper-thin flatbread, baked to keep for months.

Culurgiones

Sardinian parcels of potato, pecorino and mint, pleated by hand.

Espresso

Ordered at the bar, drunk standing, done in under a minute.

Aperol Spritz

Prosecco, bitter aperitivo and soda. Invented in the Veneto, drunk everywhere.

Negroni

Gin, vermouth and Campari in equal parts, first mixed in Florence.

Chianti Classico

Sangiovese grown between Florence and Siena, marked with a black rooster.

Barolo

Nebbiolo from the Langhe hills of Piedmont. Patient wine.

Limoncello

Amalfi lemon liqueur, served cold at the end of dinner.

Prosciutto crudo

Air-cured ham, sliced to order, from Parma or San Daniele.

Gelato

Denser and served warmer than ice cream, so the flavour hits harder.

Amatriciana

Guanciale, tomato and pecorino, named for the town of Amatrice.

Ragù napoletano

Meat and tomato cooked down for most of a Sunday.

Babà

Rum-soaked sponge, a Neapolitan institution.

Orecchiette con cime di rapa

Puglia's ear-shaped pasta with turnip tops, chilli and anchovy.

Tagliatelle al ragù

Bologna's slow meat sauce, on ribbons of egg pasta and never on spaghetti.

Tortellini in brodo

Filled pasta in clear capon broth. The Sunday version, not the cream one.

Aceto balsamico tradizionale

Modena vinegar aged through a series of casks for years.

Cotoletta alla milanese

Bone-in veal, breaded and fried in butter.

Focaccia genovese

Dimpled, salty and oily, best warm from the bakery.

Top 10s across Italy

When to visit Italy