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Visiting in 1953, John Steinbeck enthused: 'Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.' Today, it is no less enchanting. Lying an hour and a quarter south of Naples, the drive to Positano takes you past Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, past Sorrento and then along t...

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Without Turin, Italy would be a totally different country. It was pivotal to the unification in 1861 and served as the first capital, until 1865. Its royal palaces were home to the ruling House of Savoy until the second world war and then its factories – and the influx of migrant workers they attracted – were integral to the economic miracle that r...

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Italians eat with the seasons, meaning most restaurants will change their menus depending on which vegetables are freshest and tastiest that week. If you find yourself in Italy over the summer, these are the seasonal dishes to look out for. Melon and ham These brightly coloured ham-wrapped melon slices taste just as good as they look. The kind of m...

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In the 20th century, trailblazing cultural icons such as Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and Andy Warhol were seduced by Naples. Today, trendsetting young artists and writers are drawn here too, some enticed by the vital and uncompromising portrayals of the city in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend and Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah. What makes Naples’ nigh...

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Bologna has traditionally been the region in which many tourists, visitors and even locals venture through en route to Florence, Milan, Venice or Rome. Bologna is one of the great cities that is said to have not been affected, at least in the same way of course, by mass-tourism and mass-industrialization like the other counterpart cities mentioned....

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Matera rises up on both sides of a deep ravine, its houses carved out of pale limestone, one piled on top of the other, forming a dazzling beehive of humanity. Known as the ‘City of Stones’, Matera was one of Italy’s first settlements, said to be the third-oldest continually inhabited city in the world, and its layers reveal Palaeolithic, Gothic, B...

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Since my return home to the emerald mountains of Somerset County, I have spent much time reflecting on the many opportunities I was fortunate to have in Southern Italy. Each valuable memory is undeniably centered around the generous people I met along the way who welcomed our group into their homes with kind smiles and steamy plates of homemade Ita...

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‘I first visited Capri in 2002, on my honeymoon. My husband and I went late in the summer and we loved everything about it. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Quisisana, and I think we must have booked the tiniest room in the hotel because we could barely fit the luggage in, but we had such a good time. Evening drinks at the hotel were a highlight before...

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Italy’s Amalfi Coast is already famed for its magnificent natural attractions, including a gorgeous rugged coastline and crystal-clear beaches. If you’re in search of such a beach where you’ll find incredible scenery, head to the town of Furore, located in the Campania region of Italy, where a gigantic fjord opens up to create its very own hidden b...

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Perched on a cliff on the Gargano promontory of Puglia, Vieste is a great summer destination. The town has been awarded the Blue Flag by the Foundation for Environmental Education several times thanks to the quality of its waters, part of the Gargano National Park. Vieste's most known site is Pizzomunno, a vertical rocky monolith standing at 25 m (...

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