Eat pesto alla genovese

A salty maritime republic of grand palaces and Europe’s biggest medieval old town — and the home of pesto

Eat dimpled, olive-oil-soaked focaccia warm from the oven — a Genoese breakfast dipped in cappuccino

Liguria’s pastel coast of fishing villages, pesto and cliff paths — including the five lands of Cinque Terre

Walk the cliff path linking five pastel fishing villages above the Ligurian Sea

Three thousand years of art, twenty regions of cooking, and a coastline that never quits — Italy is Europe's greatest hits

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

Eat properly handmade pasta — egg-rich tagliatelle in the north, bronze-cut durum in the south