It's no surprise to read the latest figures showing that tourism in Italy is still booming – and it's only set to grow. But with the majority of visitors concentrated in just a few hotspots, can Italy cope with demand? More than 44 million overseas visitors and a record number of overnight stays last year were concentrated in Italy's “art cities”, such as Rome, Florence and Matera, according to the latest report by the Centro Studi Turistici di Firenze (Tourism Study Centre of Florence.)

Foreign visitors made up 60 percent of the total number of “presences” or leisure visits in Italy's towns and cities last year. Three quarters of these tourists head for the country's most popular destinations, which the report describes as “the top 10 art cities of Italy”: Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, Turin, Naples, Bologna, Verona, Genoa and Pisa.