Visit Matera

A city built on water with no cars — gondolas, Byzantine mosaics, and getting happily lost in the back canals

The 50,000-seat amphitheatre where Rome staged its bloodiest spectacles for 2,000 years

Climb 251 spiralling steps up the world's most famous architectural mistake — tilting since 1173

Pale limestone towers that turn rose-pink at sunset — Italy’s most spectacular mountains

The Renaissance in one walkable city: Michelangelo's David, Brunelleschi's dome, and the Uffizi

A vertiginous corniche of lemon groves and pastel towns — Positano, Amalfi, Ravello above a cobalt sea

Walk the streets of a Roman city frozen mid-life by Vesuvius in 79 AD — ruts, frescoes, bakeries and all

A walled medieval upper town above modern Bergamo — Venetian ramparts, funiculars and Lombard charm