TRAVEL TO ITALY

ITALY

Italy is a fascinating country that has it all: history, art, ruins, castles, mountainous landscapes, beautiful beaches, villages with a lot of charm and a varied and Mediterranean gastronomy to enjoy. We will do a tour from north to south for 10 of the best places to visit in Italy. Fasten the belts we started.

What cities to visit in Italy?

Venice
Verona
Church of San Juan - Dolomites
Cinque Terre
Florence
Rome
Pompeii
Positano
Syracuse
Costa Esmeralda in Sardinia
1. Venice, the most romantic of Italian cities

In the world there are many cities with channels that want to hold the title of "the Venice of the East", "of the North", etc. Everyone wants to compare with her, but Venice is unique in its class. The gondolas walking through the canals are the pictures that nobody wants to miss when they visit Italy, so the hundreds of thousands of tourists who are summoned each year go on the hunt for the best picture to take as a souvenir. Enjoy the beauty of the Rialto Bridge that crosses the Grand Canal and the Bridge of Sighs, which connects the Doge's Palace with the dungeons. It is obligatory to take a turn avoiding pigeons by the Plaza de San Marcos and enter its imposing basilica.

2. Verona, the chosen one of Shakespeare

Verona has in its possession the best known balcony in the world, where one of the most endearing love stories we have read was produced: that of Romeo and Juliet, which is born in the novel by Shakespeare. Verona is known as "little Rome" because of its historical importance. Visit the Roman bridge over the Po River and the third largest Roman amphitheater in the world that, with its capacity of 20,000 people, is still used as a concert hall.

3. Church of San Juan, a magical enclave in the Dolomites

Before heading south, we turn to the Dolomites, a chain of mountains in northern Italy with peaks over 3000 meters above sea level. The area is ideal for winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding, among others, but there are also plenty of hiking trails to explore the area. In addition to enjoying the resorts in the mountains of towns such as Canazei or Val Gardera, get close to one of the scenarios that will leave you breathless: the church of San Juan with the Dolomites in the background make it a show like no other.

The nearest international airports to reach the Dolomites are Verona or Bergamo. Once there, we recommend renting a car to move around the area without missing anything.

4. Cinque Terre, the queen of Liguria

As the name says, here we will not talk about just one place, but about 5 places to visit in Italy that are beautiful as a whole: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. Five towns with the smell of the sea, fishing boats, colorful houses on cliffs. The traditional "blue trail" or "path of love" is closed by landslides caused by the rains, but there are still some stretches that can be made walking between town and village and so rejoice with the wonderful landscapes of the Ligurian coast .

5. Florence, the heart of Tuscany

Florence is the city of arts par excellence, an open-air museum, the cradle of the Renaissance and the best place in Italy to visit Tuscany. With that said, it is not difficult for you to get hold of Stendhal Syndrome, also known as the Evil of Florence. And there is so much beauty within sight that it is normal to go crazy, starting from the naked and perfect body of David by the artist Miguel Ángel, until you reach the imposing Cathedral of Santa María del Fiore, better known as the Duomo, very humble inside but with exquisite details on the outside. And what about the Vecchio Bridge over the Arno River, ideal to stay and listen to some songs of the street musicians. A visit to Florence is not complete if you do not go up to the Michelangelo square on a hill to see the sunset, which you have to go with time because it is full of people.

But there are many more things to do in Tuscany: feel the protagonist of your own film touring the famous towns such as Lucca, San Gimigniano, Siena and the leaning tower of Pisa, among other medieval beauties. For this the best thing you can do is rent a car or, why not, a Vespa.

6. Rome, where all roads lead

The Italian capital is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. No longer, but millennia of history in just a few blocks around makes it one of the best places to visit in Italy. Walk slowly inside the Colosseum fantasizing about the great fights and fights of the gladiators, unleash the imagination in the Palatine and discover the vestiges of a great civilization. Watch life go by on the steps of the Plaza de España or admire the artists of Piazza Navona.

7. Pompeii, at the foot of Vesuvius

The volcano Vesuvius was the one that buried the city of Pompeii in the first century AD under a dense lava. Discovered 17 centuries later, Pompeii maintains the original layout of the streets and houses as they were 2000 years before, without urban changes or modernizations to which many of the current cities have been subjected. This is how you can discover the Roman forum, the palace of justice, the old market, the temple of Jupiter, the hot springs, the amphitheater and the houses of the wealthiest where frescoes and mosaics have been discovered in excellent condition. What will move you most will undoubtedly be the Huerto de los Fugitivos, where the molded plaster figures of people surprised by the eruption of the volcano are preserved.

8. Positano, the starting point for touring the Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is made up of small dream towns that descend on cliffs to be bathed by the Tyrrhenian Sea. This winding coast is one of the most coveted by those who visit Italy to make a trip by car, collective or in the traditional alíscafo, that boat that reaches a certain speed over the water. In addition to Ravello, Maiore, Minori, Salerno and Amalfi, one of the towns that you can not miss is Positano. Although it is very popular with tourists, its colorful houses that descend to the sea make it one of the most beautiful places to visit in Italy. Of course, you have to be prepared to walk between steep streets and narrow streets, although you will feel that the effort will be worth it.

9. Syracuse, witness of world history in Sicily

We continue south and arrive in Sicily, one of the best islands to visit in Italy, in fact, the largest in the whole Mediterranean. There you can find the vestiges of many civilizations: Greek temples, Byzantine mosaics, Norman castles and Arab and Baroque architecture. Among all the cultural and landscape heritage that this island has, we highlight Siracusa, which has a necropolis with more than 5,000 tombs that date from the 13th to the 7th century BC.

10. The desired Costa Esmeralda in Sardinia

If Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia is the second. Therefore, the obligatory question that many people ask is: Sardinia, north or south? We believe that one of the best things to see in Italy is in the north, on the Costa Smeralda. Is that in the end, who does not look for the most beautiful beaches where to rest a couple of days? The Emerald Coast covers 55 km long and is a luxurious tourist destination with white sand beaches, clean and fine and water of different shades of blue. To travel this area, it is best to fly to Alghero and make a base in the beautiful city of Olbia, but do not miss the most incredible coves and other coastal towns renting a car.