Visit Assisi

Umbria's hill-top capital — Etruscan gates, a grand medieval square, and a famous chocolate festival

Bite a sandwich of herb-roasted whole suckling pig, crackling and all, from a market van

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