Italy Pictures
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Explore! offers 16 active vacations, short breaks and family tours in Italy. e.g. Tuscan Family Adventure | Cycle Sardinia | Europe Tours | Best of Italy

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Leaving Rome's ancient Forum. Click on the image above to see Italian Pictures starting with unusual travel photos of Rome or click below to choose a different part of Italy.

Italy is one of Europe's most attractive and intricate countries, crammed with thousands of years of turbulent history encompassing among other evocative names: Hannibal, Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire, Nero, gladiators, Anthony and Cleopatra, Charlemagne, St Peter, the Vatican, Popes, the Borgias, the Medicis, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Garibaldi, Mussolini and the Mafia. No other country can get even close to that many historically important figures or big nouns.

The country embraces some of the world's most fascinating ancient cities, with Rome, Venice and Florence topping a global list of 'see before you die' candidates, as well as an unbeatable collection of art treasures led by Rome and Vatican museums.
Throw into the tourist pot cute hilltop villages, rolling golden vistas, good wine, opera, predictable sunshine, a serious attitude towards food with always edible, good value cuisine and you have one of the world's most attractive destinations.

Upsides:
- summer sunshine is pretty well guaranteed and the Mediterranean is warm and inviting.
- the food and wines are superb and good value compared to most of Europe.
- anybody with a camera cannot fail to go home with stunning pictures of Italy.
- the law is generally considered to be an ass in Italy and Italians frequently disregard it, so anti-establishmentarians [always wanted to use that word] will enjoy life here.
- train and bus services are frequent and cheap, though frequently late too.
- the sights, large and small are unbelievable.
- there's so little rain in summer that mosquitoes don't breed.
- roads have posted limits but no apparent police control on them.
- Italians seeing a powerful car in the rearview mirror will let it pass as soon as practical.
- town centres are very walkable even if you do have to lurch deliberately in front of moving vehicles in order to cross a road at a pedestrian crossing. They won't stop if you just stand there hoping.
- English has many similar roots to Italian via Latin so some bits of the language are kind of understandable.

Rome

Vatican

Genoa

Lucca

Venice

Italian Beaches Guide

Siena Guide

Bomarzo

Where to go:
The lakes and good value ski slopes of far north Italy, Liguria's 'Riviera' coast for summer beaches though they're mostly small and stony, visiting a couple of little hill towns but most tourists would want to spend at least a few days in the cities of Rome, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Pisa and perhaps Bologna before worrying about the smaller places like Verona and Lucca.
In the south of Italy - which starts below Rome - the coast of Amalfi is stunning, as are the two ancient sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. From there things get very unsophisticated and tourism drops off dramatically, but the scenery of the Gargano peninsula is lovely while distant Sicily offers a Afro-rustic version of traditional Italy along with a couple of excellent beaches and ancient Greek sites. And then there's Sardinia island, offering Italy's best beaches and a delightful capital, Cágliari.

Downsides:
- for Europeans, driving in Italy is in theory, a convenient way to get around. Actually it's extremely stressful though high speeds are possible if you have the right wheels. Read 'self-drive' below and take the train!
- Italian cuisine is excellent - pasta, pizza and risotto. Then more pasta, pizza and risotto, hmm. Then more of the same - if you are in a tourist area and on a budget or elsewhere and don't read Italian [No, knowledge of French or Spanish is surprisingly not going to help with menus]. Nor is international cuisine readily available. Chinese? Mama mia!
However, if you can unleash a fat wallet or have studied up on Italian food words then the cuisine can be superb.
- directional signs for pedestrians have the same lack of continuity [or just lack] that road signs have. GPS, map-reading skills, patience, imagination and/or a grasp of Italian language will be essential to successful navigation in Italy.
- roads between magnificent towns are often sadly drab, garbage-strewn and bordered with concrete excrescences.
- while some Italians are cheerful, welcoming and speak English not a lot of those types work in the service sector so don't expect to see a smile or hear 'Have a nice day' from your waiter or ticket collector. Never mind, you don't have to tip them!
- mainland Italian beaches are usually small, stony and packed in summertime.

Driving:
Signposting in most places, with the exception of on autostrada [motorways], is frequently irregular or non-existant. Rome is particularly bereft of intelligent or sequential directions, so the Bugadvice is get Italy GPS [SatNav] or let the train take the strain.
While rail and bus networks function well when they're not on strike, the autostrada are scary places unless you're under 25 or an F1 driver on a day off. Most autostrada are two narrow lanes with trucks and low-power vehicles occupying the right lane apart from sudden and rarely signaled excursions into the overtaking lane where the rest of the traffic is travelling bumper-to-bumper at 160kph+ [100mph+]. Frequent speed limit signs are ignored.
The Bugforce was once, for example, in a tight 140kph convoy that went past 60kph limit notices without noticeably slowing. Police speed control appears to be out to lunch, though some villages have green speed cameras that look like litter-bins that may work, though the chances are not high.
The upside is that Italian drivers have excellent reactions, are used to small spaces, high speeds and erratic last-minute actions. They drive according to road conditions, not according to the law.
Furthermore, if a visitor owned a powerful car in which the pedal had never touched the metal, Italy [along with Germany] is the place to give the motor a top-level thrashing; just make sure the insurance in up to date and fully comp [and bring the car papers too. If you don't have them the police can and will take the car off you until you produce them.]
Finally, parking is complex, with different coloured spaces meaning different things, but the worst thing is there are frequently no parking space at all, underground or overground. Julius Caesar? Pah! Short-ass Smart cars rule in Rome these days.

Best time to go to Italy:
The shoulder months April-June and Sept-Oct generally have the best weather and fewer tourists or cars on the road. The latter months are also good for swimming.
Winters will be decidedly chilly in north Italy but bearable in Florence, Rome and further south.
July and August are the worst months for tourism due to excessive heat, crowds and busy roads, though the sea will probably be delightfully refreshing.

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