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Travel Guides to Italy
Where to stay, what to see and do, itineraries, and travel tips for Italy, from Rome, Florence, and Venice to the hilltowns of Tuscany, villages of Sicily, sights of Apulia, and ancient ruins of Campania
Italy has been my second home since I was 11 years old and my parents moved the family to Rome for two years. I have spent 25 years returning to the land of pizza, pasta, and la dolce vita, and spent more than a decade writing guidebooks to its great cities of art, medieval hilltowns, and colorful fishing villages. Now I am slowly filling up this Web guide with travel intel, recommended hotels,
free sights, carefully thought-out itineraries, and other bits of advice to help make your own trip to Italy a fantastic one.
Top destinations
ROME
» Free Sights » Reid's List » Fave Hotels » Planning FAQ |
FLORENCE
» Top Sights » Free Sights » Reid's List » Fave Hotels » Planning FAQ |
VENICE
» Top Sights » Free Sights » Reid's List » Fave Hotels » Planning FAQ |
Featured Articles
Once Upon a Time in Italy - Apulia is the most wonderfully weird corner of Italy. Amid rolling, sun-soaked landscapes is a wild mix of architecture: cone-shaped roofs, entire towns carved into hillside caves, ancient villages all in white, and a city of baroque treasures adorned with dragons, Harpies, and other fantastical creatures. And although it may seem like the stuff of fairy tales, Apulia remains authentic and overlooked by the crowds. 
Secret Hotels of the Amalfi Coast & Capri - A few years ago for Budget Travel magazine, I scoured the fishing towns of the Amalfi Drive and the gorgeous nearby island of Capri to find and review a passle of hotels that charge two-star prices for million-dollar accommodations. I came up with nine outstanding hotels and B&Bs everywhere from the fabled coastal resorts of Amalfi and Positano to the vacation hotspots of Capri and Sorrento to smaller villages like Praiano and Anacapri.
The Top Hilltowns of Tuscany
- A collection of miniguides to the Tuscan towns besides Florence and Pisa: elegant, Romanesque Lucca where everyone gets about by bicycle; the Gothic brickwork and vibrant lifestyle of Siena; that medieval Manhattan San Gimignano, bristling with stone towers; and the Renaissance architecture and free sampels in the vineyard cellars of wine-soaked Montepulciano.
Blog entries - Reid's adventures in Italy
The Island of Capers and Calypso - The Sicilian island of Pantelleria is home to sweet Zebbibo wine, salty capers, Homeric myths, natural hot springs and saunas, and ancient Arab damusso houses for rent (Sicily)
Entirely the Wrong Witch
- American and Italian traditions duke it out for supremacy when it comes to holiday celebrations. (Venice & Rome)
The Sisters Picchi & the Nobel Prize
- A run-in with a Nobel laurate in an hidden trattoria in Parma. (Emilia-Romagna)
TIP
Don't miss the Last Supper
There are a half-dozen major sights in Italy—the Last Supper, Colosseum, Uffizi Galleries, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and others—that you really should book ahead of time, either to avoid three-hour lines or because the sight requires advance tickets.
Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let the... What the Hell Was That!
- Why it's tough to remain a confirmed one-star hotel man. (Emilia-Romagna)
Bologna the Fat
- A walk through the culinary side of Bologna. (Emilia-Romagna)
Up the Blue Grotto without a Paddle...or a Boat
- An ill-advised swim in Capri's famous Blue Grotto. (Campania)
Big Brother Berlusconi
- A new law allows Italy's right-wing dictator to keep track of absolutely everything you do on the Internet. (General)
The Saint & the Sea Monster
- Sorrento's home-grown saint battles a sea serpent. (Campania)
The Dangers of Dinner in Sorrento
- Dining in a tourist town. (Campania)
Sorrento: Equidistant from Everywhere You'd Rather Be
- This popular Italian resort offers a great location...and that's about it. (Campania)
The Road to Sorrento
- A train ride through the Campagna heartland. (Campania)
Enzo and His Hot Love Liqueur
- The tragedy of the best trattoria owner in the Sicilian resort town of Taormina (Sicily)
Jane Eyre, Forbidden Love, and the British Dukedom in Sicily
- What does 19th century British literature and a Sicilian town famous for almonds have in common? (Sicily)
All Wet
- In which I take my passport for a swim in Sicily's Alcàntara Gorge. (Sicily)
Breaking the Rules and Wasting a Morning in Taormina
- Silly me. (Sicily)
Three Kinds of Martyrdom
- The absence of Martin Luther, the slippering of St. Virgil, and the sacrifice of Cesare Battisti in the Italian city of Trent. (Trentino Alto-Adige)
The Melandris & The Mud Angels
- A dinner in a Florentine palazzo illumites the events surrounding the devasatting 1966 flood of Florence. (Tuscany)
The Madonna of Tears
- A cult in Siracusa worships a tiny plaster scuputre of the Virgin Mary. (Sicily)
Brindisi, Waiting Room of the Aegean
- Finding things to see and do while waiting that 10pm ferry to Greece. (Apulia)
Sweet, Sweet Heaven
- Dessert provided by: the cloistered nuns of Lecce. (Apulia)
Pronto Soccorso
- Health care, Palermo-style. (Sicily)
Babes in the Woods
- Camping in the Abbruzzi Mountains. (Abruzzo)
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Outside Resources |
This material was last updated April, 2006. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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