Italy -Guidebook

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Despite incessant praise, Italy continues to surprise and delight. If you get it right, travelling in the bel paese (beautiful country) is one of those rare experiences in life that cannot be overrated.

In few places do art and life intermingle so effortlessly. This may be the land of Dante, Michelangelo, da Vinci and Botticelli but its also the home of Salvatore Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani and Gualtiero Marchesi. Food, fashion, art and architecture youll quickly learn that the root of Italian pathology is an unswerving dedication to living life well. A surprising number of Italians care deeply about the floral aftertastes of sheep cheese, the correct way to cut marble and the nuances of a Vivaldi concerto. Lurking behind the disinvoltura the appearance of effortlessness is a passionate attention to lifes fine print. So slow down, start taking note of lifes details and enjoy your own bella vita .

Then theres the food. Italy is quite literally a feast of endless courses, but no matter how much you gorge yourself, youll always feel as though you havent made it past the antipasti. Even the simplest snack can turn into a revelation, whether youre downing a slice of Slow Food pizza, a paper cone of fritto misto (fried seafood) or pistachio- flavoured gelato. The secret is an intense, even savage, attention to top-notch ingredients and fresh, seasonal produce. Although the origins of Italian food are earthy and rustic, and the Slow Food Movement aims to protect those artisanal roots, the modern Italian kitchen is also endlessly inventive. Get creative in Eatalys Slow Food supermarket, sample top-class wines at Romes International Wine Academy and tour vineyards and olive groves to learn the latest production techniques that go into making that award-winning wine and olive oil sitting on your dining table.

As if in homage to its peoples love of fashion, Italys outline a boot makes it one of the most recognisable countries in the world. It is long and elegant ce bella and is flanked on three sides by four Mediterranean seas (the Adriatic, Ionian, Ligurian and Tyrrhenian). The northern wall of the Alps and the Dolomites frostily encircle the north, fringed by sparkling glacial lakes, while fiery volcanoes Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli simmer in the south. Beyond the stereotypical image of art cities and museums, Italy is a place for doing as well as seeing. What can top descending the vertical chasm of the Gola Su Gorropu gorge or riding cowboy-style across the marshes of the Maremma and diving sun-split waters full of coral and barracuda? So, just when you think every nook and cranny of this amazing country has been explored, experienced and exhausted, flick through a few pages of this book and discover that some of Italys best-kept secrets lie right beneath your nose.

View of Malcesine across Lago di Garda ()
DAVID TOMLINSON / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Once caput mundi (capital of the world), Rome was legendarily spawned by a wolf-suckled wild boy, grew to be Western Europes first superpower, became the spiritual centrepiece of the Christian world and is the repository of over two and a half thousand years of European art and architecture. From the Pantheon ( ) and promise to come again.

St Peters Basilica
WIBOWO RUSLI / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Virtuoso Venice

Stepping through the portals of Basilica di San Marco ( ), try to imagine what it might have been like for an illiterate, burlap-clad, medieval peasant glimpsing those shimmering gold mosaic domes for the first time. Its not such a stretch once you see those millions of tiny gilt tesserae (hand-cut glazed tiles) cohere into a singular heavenly vision, every leap of the human imagination since the 12th century seems comparatively minor.

BRENT WINEBRENNER / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Renaissance Florence

From Brunelleschis red-tiled dazzler, the Duomo ( ), Florence, according to Unesco, contains the greatest concentration of universally renowned works of art in the world. Whereas Rome and Milan have torn themselves down and been rebuilt many times, central Florence looks much as it did in 1550, with stone towers and cypress-lined gardens. The effect is rather like a Renaissance painting, which makes perfect sense when you think about it.

THE ART ARCHIVE / ALAMY

Ruins of Pompeii

Nothing piques human curiosity quite like a mass catastrophe and few can beat the ruins of Pompeii ( ), a once thriving Roman town frozen 2000 years ago in its death throes. Wander the Roman streets, exploring the column-lined forum, the city brothel, the 5000-seat theatre and the frescoed Villa dei Misteri, and ponder Pliny the Youngers terrifying account of the tragedy: Darkness came on again, again ashes, thick and heavy. We got up repeatedly to shake these off; otherwise we would have been buried and crushed by the weight.

WITOLD SKRYPCZAK / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Amalfi Coast

With its scented lemon groves, flower-strewn cliffsides, bobbing fishing boats and tumbling, sherbet-hued towns, the Amalfi Coast still claims the crown as the prettiest coast on the peninsula. Others may argue that the title belongs to Ligurias Cinque Terre or Calabrias Costa Viola, but the Hollywood divas and starry-eyed day trippers agree. The stretch from Sorrento ( ) is the least developed and most beautiful.

Positano
RICHARD I'ANSON / LONELY PLANET IMAGES

Museum Madness

A browse through your art history textbook will no doubt highlight seminal movements such as classical, Renaissance, mannerist, baroque, futurist and metaphysical all of which were forged in Italy by artists including Giotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Bernini, Caravaggio, Carracci, Boccioni, Balla and de Chirico. Find the best of them in Romes Museo e Galleria Borghese ( ).