There’s a reason Rome and Venice are on just about every traveler to Italy’s bucket list. These cities are special and we love both of them for different reasons. If you’ve never been to Italy before, one or both should definitely have a place on your itinerary.

But if you’ve been there and done that, Italy has a lot more to offer than La Città Eterna and La Serenissima (Rome and Venice’s Italian nicknames). We lived in Italy for seven years and when friends ask us where they should go and what they should do, these are the ones we tell them are the best places in Italy to visit.