Vacanza Bella Sightseeing Favorites

Maybe you’ll think that as you read the following, we make it a practice to recommend only the most obscure places possible. In fact, we do have a tendency to like places without crowds. And we have a strong prejudice in terms of sightseeing in favor of Romanesque churches rather than the local shopping mall. What can we say? And besides, do you really need us to tell you to go to the Uffizi and to the Vatican and to San Marco?

Also, there are in fact many extremely popular sights that we can’t help but love, too. The Roman Forum is only one among many.

So here, from south to north, are our favorite places in various regions and cities in Italy:

Sicily Favorites

  • Motya/Mozia - fascinating lagoon island off Marsala
  • Erice - one of the most beautiful towns in Italy
  • Siracusa - the attached island of Ortigia; the Museo del Palazzo Bellomo, delightful
  • The visit to Mount Etna
  • Noto - gorgeous Baroque town
  • Selinunte - our favorite of all the Sicilian temples, but we also love Agrigento and Segesta
  • Palermo - the Cappella Palatina
  • Monreale - the Basilica and especially its cloister, one of the most beautiful things we’ve seen
  • Bagheria - the Villa Palagonia

Naples Favorites

  • The walk from Castel Nuovo to Mergellina
  • Spaccanapoli - the guidebooks will tell you not to go there, but go
  • The church and cloister of Santa Chiara
  • The statue of Christo Velato, the Veiled Christ, in the Cappella Sansevero, kitsch and moving at the same time
  • The Capodimonte Museum

Other Southern Italy Favorites

  • Capri, all of it, but above all the walks to anyplace
  • Ravello
  • Paestum
  • The historic center of Martina Franca
  • Lucera, especially the afternoon passeggiata
  • The Cathedral of Trani, the most beautiful and the most beautifully positioned church in Italy (and that’s saying something)
  • The Sassi at Matera, plus the spectacular evening passeggiata
  • The historic center of Bari
  • The Cathedral at Bitonto and the entire historic center
  • Caserta - the Reggia
  • The Cathedral at Cosenza

Rome Favorites

Well, we love nearly everything about Rome, really – except the museums. OK, go see the Caravaggios and the Berninis and (perhaps most of all) Sodoma’s Pieta, at the Galleria Borghese, but as far as we’re concerned, nearly all other museums in Rome (exceptions listed below) can be skipped in their entirety, including the Vatican Museum

There are areas of Rome that we love, especially those in the true historic center. These areas, as far as we are concerned, should now be avoided except before 10 or 11am when they can still be delightful. (This is precisely how we feel, for example, about Greenwich Village.) After those hours, especially from Easter to late October, they are crowded and can actually be unpleasant. We mean Piazza Navona and its surroundings; the Pantheon and its surroundings; Campo dei Fiori (dominated in the late evening by Italian teens revving motorscooters and by young drunken Americans); Piazza di Spagna and its surroundings. Again, the delights of these areas, in particular the Campo dei Fiori market, are best appreciated out of season (November to 10 days before Easter) or indeed any day of the year before 1030am.

As far as we are concerned, St. Peter’s and the Vatican Museums should be avoided at all times; if you must go, our advice is to go (to the museum) about 90 minutes before closing and see it in pieces.

  • The Protestant Cemetery, the most beautiful in the world, where you’ll find the graves of Keats, Shelley, Gramsci, Gadda, Richard Henry Dana, and Gregory Corso. You’ll also find the grave of the love of my life, Thomas Lalor, gone from me forever without warning after dinner on the evening of October 28, 2001.

  • The food market at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, where real Romans go, together with tons of African, Asian, and South American immigrants, making for Rome’s most intense multiethnic experience

  • Any big political demonstration of the left.

  • The Museo Barracco, whenever it decides to reopen

  • The Museo Mario Praz, an unexpected jewel; a rare-for-Italy house-museum once inhabited by an art historian-connoisseur who collected everything he could get his hands on from the late 18th and early 19th century, especially some neat wax portraits, an art form about which, before visiting this place, we were entirely ignorant. The whole place is interesting, from ceilings to furnishings to all of the decorative arts. Tours in Italian on the hour. Free.

  • The Schwarz collection at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Arte Moderna - a delightful and totally unlikely grouplet of surrealist objects which the museum insists on keeping hidden away in the remotest corner of this huge building despite the fact that they’re by far the best things in the entire place: photos by Man Ray; classic objects by Duchamp; a pair of Cornell boxes; a Calder mobile, sculptures by Arp, Ernst, and Giacometti; paintings by Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Kandinsky, Miro, Dora Maar, and others including Italians working at the same time. Often closed altogether; most likely visible on weekends. Also, the outdoor café in the gallery is a perfectly delightful place to have lunch in fine weather.

  • The Aventine Hill, for the churches of Santa Sabina (neat cloister) and San Saba, for the rose garden, for the Parco degli Aranci, for the views, and for the peace and quiet

  • The walk from Santa Maria in Domnica (“La Navicella”) through Villa Celimontana past Santi Giovanni e Paolo and San Gregorio Magno to the Circus Maximus and the Palatine

  • The walk from the Colosseum to San Clemente and Santi Quattro Coronati and finally to San Giovanni in Laterano for the incredibly theatrical facade and lovely cloister

  • The walk from the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine through the Forum all the way to the Campidoglio – yes it’s not empty, but it’s truly spectacular

  • The artisan quarter around Santa Cecilia in Trastevere and Piazza dei Mercanti (by day)

  • The Orto Botanico (botanical garden) and the nearby Farnesina

  • The Villa Torlonia and the Casina delle Civette, unexpected Art Nouveau in Rome

  • Via Giulia just before sunset

  • We aren’t fans of the Baroque, but we are always blown away by the interior of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Bernini’s Ecstasy of Santa Teresa and the theater-balcony-like effect of the sculptures on either side

  • San Giorgio in Velabro, the Arch of Janus, and Santa Maria in Cosmedin

  • San Giovanni a Porta Latina, an absolutely charming church

  • Santa Prassede for the mosaics but, even more, for the newly opened old arched entranceway leading from Via San Martino ai Monti

  • Santa Maria in Trastevere and its environs

  • Rome’s new Auditorium, designed by Renzo Piano, home of the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia and many visiting groups, and not just for classical music

Favorites in the Environs of Rome:

  • Tuscania, our absolute favorite small hilltown in all Italy, with two beautiful Romanesque churches which might have been the model for any of Corot’s early studies in the Roman Campagna, plus a wonderful hotel-restaurant called Al Gallo

  • Viterbo - the medieval section is magical, plus excellent food at I Tre Re

  • Sutri - delightful untouristy hilltown

  • Civita di Bagnoregio - become a little too cute since Rick Steves’ visit, but still worth it

  • Tarquinia - famous for Etruscan remains plus a great museum, but a delightful old town as well

  • Nemi and its lake

  • Four great gardens: Ninfa (open only the first full weekend of each month); the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola; Villa Lante at Bagnaia (another nice little hilltown); and crazy Bomarzo

  • The town of Bolsena, and the restaurant at Marta called Da Gino

  • Anagni - the town and the cathedral

  • Alatri - the town

  • Three delightful abbeys: Valvisciolo, Casamari, and Fossanova

  • Ceri, Calcata, and Sant’Oreste - three minuscule medieval hilltop towns just north of Rome

  • Tivoli - it’s just been redone, and the gardens and fountains are really beautiful once again

Umbria Favorites:

  • Spello
  • Spoleto
  • Montecchio
  • Trevi
  • Montefalco
  • Bevagna
  • Norcia
  • Lugnano in Teverina
  • Amelia
  • The main piazza of Todi and lunch at the Ristorante Umbria on the terrace – so, it’s full of Americans and the food is erratic, but that view is magical, unforgettable
  • The backstreets of Assisi
  • The sausages

Tuscany Favorites:

  • The Piazza del Duomo in Pistoia and indeed much of that charming, unvisited city
  • The church of Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo and, again, much of that unvisited city
  • Walking the streets of Lucca
  • The cathedral square of Massa Marittima, unexpectedly beautiful
  • The church of Gropina, one of the marvels of Tuscan proto-Romanesque, almost pagan
  • Highway 2 south of Siena all the way to Viterbo, overall the most beautiful road in Italy
  • The abbey of Sant’Antimo, magical in itself but overwhelmingly for its setting
  • The abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore
  • The ruined church of San Galgano
  • The cathedral square of Pisa – yes, it is that worth it
  • The spectacular approach to Pitigliano
  • The Giardino dei Tarocchi at Capalbio

Florence Favorites:

  • The Bargello Museum
  • San Miniato al Monte and the view from Piazzale Michelangelo
  • Pontormo’s Deposition in the church of Santa Felicita’
  • The Museo Horne
  • The Museo Stibbert

Northern Italy Favorites

  • Bergamo. Needs at least a full day's and evening's visit to appreciate it to the full. Unforgettable atmosphere in the Upper Town: the Colleoni Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, the squares, the funicular ride up to San Vigilio, the marvels contained in Italy's most delightful small museum, the Galleria Carrara. Bergamo is one of the great attractions of Italy.

  • Verona - all of it, but especially the old town, the river Adige, and the churches of San Zeno and San Lorenzo

  • Valeggio sul Mincio - a delightful medieval ensemble of castle and old bridge and watermill right on the Mincio. Best visited weekdays: it's a mecca for locals on weekends, but wonderfully atmospheric nonetheless.

  • Ravenna - the mosaics and the delightful campanili

  • Vicenza - all of the Palladian stuff

  • Milan - the Museo Poldi-Pezzoli and the church of Sant’Ambrogio

  • Parma - the Piazza del Duomo

  • Mantova - the Mantegnas in the Palazzo Ducale and the wonderfully charming Teatro Scientifico, plus a boat ride on the Mincio

  • Charming small cities: Este, Montagnana, Sabbioneta, Castelfranco Veneto, Asolo, Bassano, Castell'Arquato

  • The abbey at Pomposa

  • The Certosa di Pavia

  • The coastal town of Cervo