Visit Taormina

The old town inside an extinct volcano’s crater, with the Cisterns of Tawila and Ottoman-era streets.

The "museum without walls": grassy royal burial mounds, the Cheomseongdae observatory and Silla-dynasty treasures across the town.

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

Loud, ancient and alive — the birthplace of pizza, gateway to Pompeii, Vesuvius and the Amalfi Coast

Fashion, finance and Leonardo's Last Supper — plus the most extravagant Gothic cathedral in Italy

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

Red-brick arcades, the oldest university in the world, and the richest table in Italy — la grassa, "the fat one"

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