Italy is becoming my second home and I’m so pleased to be able to share my experience of La Dolce Vita with you so that you can experience Italy to the fullest.
It can be a little intimidating to plan a trip to Italy that doesn’t break the bank or have you shuttling from city to city trying to see everything on a short trip. And there really is a lot to see.
So where to start? How about with the basics of why and when to go?
Top 5 Reasons to Visit Italy
“I find other countries have this or this, but Italy is the only one that has it all for me. The culture, the cuisine, the people, the landscape, the history. Just everything to me comes together there.”
Frances Mayer
Here are the top 5 reasons why I think you should plan a trip to Italy.
1. History and Archaeology
Etruscans, Romans, and many other civilizations have left the remains of their art and architecture sometimes seemingly piled on top of one another in this lovely country which has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country.
to Italy are Pompeii, Herculaneum, The Colosseum, The Roman Forum, and the Vatican. Here are guides to these sites:
- Vatican Museum Opening Hours + tickets [2024]
- Colosseum at Night: pros & cons of best 3 tours with an unbeatable atmosphere
- Visiting Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius: tickets, travel tips, tours, highlights [2024]
- Herculaneum Ruins: How and Why to Visit in 2024
- Conquer Rome in a day – Guide to 24 incredible hours in Rome
2. Art and Architecture
The Renaissance began in Italy and spread outwards. It was a period where art, literature, maths, and science flourished in Italy and mightily influenced Western civilization.
Classical Roman architecture still exists alongside the later wave of Renaissance architecture, but soo do later Baroque and Neoclassical architectural forms, many of which continue to influence design even today.
Just like with the most important UNESCO sites in Italy, some of the most famous pieces of art in the world are here.
The Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria Dell’ Accademia in Florence hold many of these pieces and in fact, Florence is one the best places in the world for art.
Perhaps my favorite of all is Michelangelo’s sculpture of David at Galleria Dell’ Accademia, but a close second is Botticelli’s, The Birth of Venus.
There are simply too many other favorites to list, but seeing a few new pieces each time I’m in Italy is something I always look forward to doing.
3. Stunning Landscapes
The Creator made Italy by designs from Michelangelo.
Mark Twain
Even without any buildings at all, Italy would be a spectacular landscape to visit.
The northern lakes, dazzling coastline, and beaches, rolling countryside, jagged mountains, and islands provide spectacular and diverse vistas that the Italians have somehow made even more beautiful.
The lines of cypress pines marching over Tuscan hills and the colorful houses clinging to the coastline of the Cinque Terre are just two examples of the way that Italians seemed to have gone out of their way to make sure visitors fall in love with their country.
4. Italian Food and Wine
The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.
George Miller
If I could only eat one cuisine for the rest of my life, I would choose Italian food in a heartbeat.
All cultures have a main carbohydrate (starch) and in Italy it is wheat that is made into bread, pizza dough and pasta.
This provides the distinctive Italian form of the Mediterranean diet where fresh seafood, vegetables, nuts (pistachios and pine nuts are my favorites), cheeses, and small amounts of meat are combined into something nearing perfection.
Italy is a long and narrow country where potatoes, rice, fish, sausages, and eggplant all change the seasonal diet of Italians depending upon which region they live in.
Regional cuisines and cultures, in part due to its city-state heritage, mean that Italian culture varies between regions which makes discovering its wines, local delicacies, and way of life a true delight!
I don’t know where gelato fits into the Mediterranean diet, but I’ve noticed that travelers slow down after lunch and begin wandering around streets slowly, consumed with savoring gelato in cups and cones.
And surely Italy is the perfect international destination for kids? Pizza, pasta, gelato – feeding fussy children in Italy is a cinch.
And wine – well, what is there to say? it’s different all over Italy and it’s good all over Italy. Drink local wines and you’ll be delighted with the quality and diversity. D.O.C.G. wines are inexpensive here and add to the pleasure of an Italian vacation!
5. Italian Culture
Venetian masks, gondolas, and Carnival, Verdi’s Aida” and “La Traviata” operas, Gucci and Prada, pizza and aperitiva hour, football, and Ferraris – there is no end to the diversity and richness of Italian culture.
Underpinning it all is a sense of kinship – of family, and of the bonds of family being strengthened and maintained by food, from its production and cooking to its sharing and place in Italy’s religious and national celebrations.
Meeting and sharing a meal with Italians is the best way to understand the Italian way of life. And if I had to choose only one place to do this, it would be Bologna!
When Is The Best Time to Visit Italy?
Summer: June, July, August
The peak tourist season in Italy is during the summer months of July and August when the weather is hot and dry and when much of Italy is also on holiday.
This is also the busiest and most expensive time to visit, with Venice overrun with day trippers and tour groups, the beaches are crowded, accommodations are at their most expensive, and queueing in the heat to see attractions like the Colosseum and Pompeii is no fun at all.
Rome, Florence, and Bologna are three of the most visited cities in Italy, and in summer they can see temperatures over 40 C (104 F).
Shoulder Seasons: April-June, September-October
If you prefer to avoid the crowds and save some money, plan your trip to Italy for the shoulder season from late April, May, and the first few days of June. Or from mid-September through October which is my favorite time of all.
During this time, the weather is warm and pleasant, but there are fewer tourists and prices are more reasonable.
Each time I plan my own trip outside of the summer months, I start in the south in the Spring shoulder season and from the north in the Fall (Autumn) season.
Winter – December, January February
The north of the country is not as pleasant during winter with the possibility of the Acqua Alta, or high tides flooding central Venice. It’s also probable you’ll be surrounded by fog in Milan at this time.
In winter there is snow in the mountains and a lot of rain. This is the time of the year when there are the biggest differences in temperature in Italy.
I love this little line in the otherwise dry Wikipedia description of winter in Italy:
[O]n some winter days it can be−2 °C (28 °F) and snowing in Milan, while it is 8 °C (46.4 °F) in Rome and 20 °C (68 °F) in Palermo.
Wikipedia
I think this is a great example of how the temperatures in Italy are very different in winter, whereas the whole country can be baking hot in summer!
In summary, the cooler weather is better for visiting Italian cities and the south of the country, and the beaches and the northern regions are the perfect places to be on sweltering August days when your gelato melts almost as soon as you’ve bought it!
How to Plan Your Italy Itinerary
Step 1: Plan Your Bases
This is sometimes a little daunting, but it’s where the fun begins, let’s just step through it.
Traveling from place to place in Italy is easy with flights, trains, and buses in abundance, and ferries, taxis, and private transfers but each time to travel to new lodgings, you lose some of your day to traveling, checking in, and so on.
This means that 3 nights is the minimum stay in one place that I recommend. So if you have 10 days, then three destinations are all I would be trying to cover.
I prefer to stay put and would rather take a few day trips than be always packing and unpacking my bag. So if I had 10 days, I would probably choose two destinations and take two or three day trips in that time.
The most popular cities to visit are usually good bases for a week or more unless they are small villages.
Florence and Siena make good bases, for example, but San Gimignano and Pienza are not good bases unless you plan to drive around the countryside rather than visit cities.
Some of the most popular bases for a trip to Italy include:
- Rome
- Florence
- Siena
- Venice or Verona
- Bologna
- Sorrento
- Palermo and Taormina
Step 2: Plan any day trips you’d like to take
Some of the most popular day trips include:
- From Florence: Siena, Sam Gimignano, Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre
- From Siena: San Gimignano, Florence, Montepulciano, Pienza
- From Verona: Venice, Lake Garda, Lake Como, Milan, Bologna
- From Bologna: Ravenna, Parma, Modena,
- From Sorrento: Naples, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- From Palermo: Cefalù, Agrigento/Valley of the Temples, Segesta, Erice
Step 3: Plan your tours and experiences
Tours and Experiences are like mini-day trips that make sure you can see the most important sights, visit the places you’ve most wanted to see, and experience aspects of local culture that are sometimes the most memorable part of a trip to Italy.
It’s at this part of the planning for your Italy trip that you run into hurdles – the cooking class you want only has availabilities on Wednesday, or the Vatican Museums are closed on the public holiday Monday, or it’s Milan Fashion Week and most accommodation is already booked.
This is when you rejig your itinerary to do the cities or the activities in a different order. It’s also why you don’t make bookings until you’re sure you’ve got everything in the right order.
General Tips for Planning Where to Stay in Italy
Once you know where you’re going and what you’d like to be doing there, it’s time to consider where to stay. Hotels, B&Bs, Airbnb, apartments or aparthotels, and agriturismo options abound but you need to book early if you’re planning a trip to Italy in summer.
The main tourist attractions will usually be in the city center and/or by the waterfront, so it makes sense to stay close by or to be on a public transport route.
If I’m planning on taking lots of day trips by train, I often stay near the train station. If it’s Venice, you might want to be out of the center, but close to a water taxi stop.
And if you’re staying on the northern lakes or the Amalfi Coast, you may like to stay near the ferry dock.
If you’re planning on taking your private car or renting a car, you can stay out of town a little, for example, in a farmhouse outside Florence, or an agriturismo on the outskirts of town.
If you’d like to cook some of your own meals, self-catered accommodation is ideal, especially if it’s close to a grocery store.
Your accommodation budget has a lot to do with the area you stay in. We often choose a studio apartment with a balcony or terrace. We save money by not having a separate bedroom.
Passport and Visa Requirements for Italy
Italy is part of the Schengen Zone. This means that non-EU citizens can enter Italy without a visa for up to 90 days within any 180-day period for tourism or business purposes.
Checking your passport is an important first step in planning a trip abroad. Your passport must be valid for 6 months on the day you enter Italy and must have 3 months of validity from the date you plan to leave the Schengen area.
Finally, on the day you enter Italy, you must have two blank pages in your passport. If you have less than that, you need a new passport before you travel.
Voltage and Electrical Plugs
In Italy, the standard voltage is 230 V and the frequency is 50 Hz.
The country uses mostly Type L and Type F electrical plugs, so if you’re coming from a country that uses a different type of plug, you’ll need to bring an adapter.
Money and ATMs
Italy uses the Euro (EUR) as its official currency.
Credit cards are widely accepted, but it’s always a good idea to have some cash on hand just in case. Taxis are a case in point, especially outside the major cities. It’s also useful to have some Euros on hand to spend on tips and when you need to pay to use a toilet.
ATMs are widely available and most/many accept international cards.
It’s a good idea to check with your bank before you leave to make sure your card will work in Italy. I have to tell my bank where I’m going and the dates I’ll be away or else it blocks and sometimes cancels my card!
