Lecce
Piazza del Duomo is a baroque feast, the city's focal point and a sudden open space amid the surrounding enclosed lanes. During times of invasion the…
Must-see attractions in Southern Italy
Naples
William Kentridge’s monumental equestrian statue trumpets entry to this award-winning, jaw-dropping Metro Art Station, then his dazzling mosaic of shadowy…
Naples
This evocative guided tour leads you 40m below street level to explore Naples' ancient labyrinth of aqueducts, passages and cisterns.
Bari
Roger the Norman originally built this castle in the 12th century over the ruins of a Byzantine structure. Later, Frederick II of Swabia built over the…
Naples
The extraordinary Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo is an architectural Kinder Surprise. Its shell is the 15th-century, Giuseppe Valeriani–designed facade of Palazzo…
Pompeii
Covering an entire insula (city block) and claiming two atria at its front end (humbler homes had one), Pompeii's largest private house is named after the…
Naples
One of the best spots to chill with a spritz is this free-spirited, bar-lined square. Featuring excavated ruins from the city's 4th-century Greek city…
Cilento Coast
Although it doesn’t have the hype of its Capri counterpart, Palinuro’s Grotta Azzurra is similarly spectacular, with a brilliant play of light and hue.
Bay of Naples
South of Oplontis, Stabiae stood on the slopes of the Varano hill overlooking what was then the sea and is now modern Castellammare di Stabia. Here at…
Chiesa di Madonna delle VirtĂą & Chiesa di San Nicola del Greci
Matera
This monastic complex, one of the most important monuments in Matera, comprises dozens of chambers carved into the tufa limestone over two floors. Chiesa…
Bay of Naples
Some 2km up Via Rosini, which becomes Via Solfatara (about 900m north of the metro), the surreal Solfatara crater was known to the Romans as the Forum…
Palermo
Housed in the lower floors and basements of 14th-century Palazzo Chiaromonte Steri, this fascinating museum explores the legacy of the Inquisition in…
Catania
Taking centre stage on Catania's showpiece Piazze del Duomo is the city's most memorable monument, the smiling Fontana dell'Elefante (Fountain of the…
Pompeii
The oldest and most important of Pompeii's religious buildings, the Tempio di Apollo largely dates from the 2nd century BC, including the striking…
Bay of Naples
Dating back to the 8th century BC, Cuma was the first Greek settlement on the Italian mainland. Its ruins are shrouded in ancient mythology: in Virgil's…
Sorrento
Just behind Piazza Tasso, a vertiginous natural phenomenon is on view from Via Fuorimura. Il Vallone dei Mulino is a deep mountain cleft that dates from a…
Casa e Chiesa di Santa Maria Francesca delle Cinque Piaghe
Naples
The very essence of Naples' cultish brand of Catholicism, this holy sanctuary was once the stamping ground of stigmatic and mystic Santa Maria Francesca…
Positano
Spiaggia Grande probably isn't anyone's idea of a dream beach, with greyish sand covered by legions of bright umbrellas lined up like parked cars – and…
Naples
This kooky museum serves up an eclectic collection of treasures, from historic Asian and European armour and weaponry to sumptuous paintings spanning the…
Pompeii
At this typical 2nd-century-BC bathing complex, bathers would enter from the vestibule, stop off in the vaulted apodyterium (changing room), and then pass…
Sorrento
Incongruously wedged between racks of lemon-themed souvenir merchandise, this 15th-century domed palazzo (mansion) has exquisite, albeit faded, original…
Palermo
Laid out by Léon Dufourny and Venanzio Marvuglia, this raffish, subtropical paradise shelters massive fig trees, tall palms and dazzling hibiscus bushes,…
Chiesa di Santa Maria del Carmine
Naples
Its 17th-century campanile (bell tower) is Naples' tallest, and this iconic church is home to a famously nimble crucifix. Now hanging in a tabernacle…
![[UNVERIFIED CONTENT] If you go to Sicily you can't miss the capuchin catacombs of Palermo, something that confirms the ghoulish side of this city. A cemetery that contains 8000 mummies, lined upon walls, lying or standing, skeletons, and perfectly preserved bodies. It was active until 1920, when the last body was interred.](https://lp-cms-production.imgix.net/2019-06/GettyImages-159818983_master.jpg?fit=crop&ar=1%3A1&w=1200&auto=format&q=75)
Palermo
These catacombs house the mummified bodies and skeletons of some 8000 Palermitans who died between the 17th and 19th centuries. Earthly power, gender,…
Capri
These three limestone pinnacles rise vertically out of the sea just south of the Belvedere di Tragara, from where you can admire them. Measuring 109m, 81m…
Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore
Naples
Completed in 1324 on the orders of Charles I of Anjou, this was the royal church of the Angevins. Pietro Cavallini's frescoes in the Cappella Brancaccio…
Casa della Venere in Conchiglia
Pompeii
Casa della Venere in Conchiglia harbours a lovely peristyle looking onto a small, manicured garden. It's here in the garden that you'll find the large,…
Pompeii
The 1st-century AD Casa del Poeta Tragico features the world's first-known 'beware of the dog' – cave canem – warnings. Visible through a protective glass…
Naples
Just up from Cavour metro station, a clamorous alley juts off Via Foria through the grey ashlar keyhole of Naples’ oldest gate. Ethereal images by Mattia…
Taormina
Created by Englishwoman Florence Trevelyan in the late 19th century, these stunningly sited public gardens offer breathtaking views of the coast and Mt…
Museo Archeologico Provinciale Ribezzo
Brindisi
This superb museum covers several floors with well-documented exhibits (in English), including some 3000 bronze sculptures and fragments in Hellenistic…
Basilica Santuario di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro
Syracuse
This 17th-century basilica occupies the site where Syracuse's patron saint, Lucia, an aristocratic girl who devoted herself to saintliness after being…
Naples
The late Annibale Oste was one of Naples' most celebrated sculptors and designers; his workshop is now a small gallery-archive showcasing some of his…
Bari
This beautiful piazza is fronted by the Sedile, the headquarters of Bari's Council of Nobles. In the square's northeast corner is the Colonna della…
Modica
The high point of a trip to Modica – quite literally as it's up in Modica Alta – is the Duomo di San Giorgio, one of Sicily's most extraordinary baroque…
Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi
Marsala
Marsala's finest treasure is the partially reconstructed remains of a Carthaginian liburna (warship) sunk off the Egadi Islands during the First Punic War…
Trapani
Tucked away in the atmospheric cloister of a 14th-century Carmelite monastery, this wonderful decorative-arts museum dating from 1906–08 houses the…
Bay of Naples
In Virgil's Aeneid, it is from Lago d'Averno that Aeneas descends into the underworld. It's hard to imagine hell in such a bucolic setting, where old…
Naples
On hot summer evenings, Piazza Dante turns into a communal living room, packed with entire families who stroll, eat, smoke, play cards, chase balloons and…
Complesso Monumentale dei Girolamini
Naples
The Chiesa dei Girolamini features two facades, the more imposing of which is the 18th-century one facing Piazza dei Girolamini on Via dei Tribunali. The…
