Places to see in Italy

The protected marine area at the tip of the peninsula, where the bay of Naples meets the bay of Salerno with Capri directly opposite. Walked to on old mule tracks through olive terraces, and swum from if you can get down to the water. A half-day walk and much emptier than anywhere on the coast road.

The oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre, at the far end of the Pompeii site from the main entrance — which is why most visitors turn back before reaching it and why it is often nearly empty. Pompeii itself needs three hours minimum, good shoes and water; the site is large, hard and unshaded.

The oldest Egyptian museum in the world and second only to Cairo for what it holds — an entire rock-cut tomb, the Drovetti collection, room after room of it. The single best reason to come to Turin and easily half a day. Consistently the thing visitors expect least and remember most.

The Renaissance collection everything else is measured against — Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian, Caravaggio. Big enough to exhaust anyone, so pick a few rooms rather than walking all of it. Book a timed entry; the walk-up queue routinely runs over an hour and the corridor windows over the Arno are worth arriving fresh for.

A small wooded islet joined to the shore by a shingle spit that appears and disappears with the sea, in a bay below the town. Reached by cable car and a walk down. Pebbles rather than sand, and clear water — bring something for your feet.

A hilltop sanctuary reached by the longest covered walkway in the world — nearly four kilometres of portico and six hundred arches, climbing steadily out of the city. The walk is the attraction and takes about an hour up. Views over the Apennines at the top. Buses exist for the way down.

The cave districts cut into the ravine, lived in continuously for millennia, cleared by the state in the 1950s as a national disgrace and now a world heritage site full of hotels. Walking them is the visit — steep, stepped, and best done twice, once by day and once after dark when the whole bowl is lit.

A terraced villa on a wooded promontory, reachable by boat or a woodland walk, with loggias framing the lake in three directions. The most photographed garden on Como and deservedly so. Numbers are managed and the garden and house are ticketed separately. Half a day with the crossing.

The largest aquarium in Italy, on the restored old harbour, and the one thing in Genoa that everyone with children ends up doing. Two to three hours and busy at weekends. The harbour around it — Renzo Piano's rebuild of the waterfront — is worth the walk on its own.

A small pebble beach on the north shore with the remains of an imperial villa behind it, reached by a path down from Anacapri or a short boat from the Marina Grande. Swimming among Roman brickwork, and quieter than anything on the Marina Piccola side.

The ruined castle above the village of Castelmola, higher again than Taormina, with a view down over the theatre, the coast and Etna in one turn. A steep walk up from town or a short bus. The village itself is tiny and worth the almond wine.

A Bourbon palace on a hill above the city holding one of Italy's best painting collections — Caravaggio's Flagellation, Titian, Masaccio, Bruegel — in rooms that are frequently almost empty. The park around it is free and full of Neapolitan families at the weekend. Half a day including the climb up.

The Medici's later palace across the river, holding several museums at once — the Palatine Gallery's Raphaels are the reason to come — with the Boboli Gardens climbing the hill behind. Easily a half day if you do both, and much quieter than the Uffizi. The Oltrarno around it is the least touristed part of central Florence.

The wooded hill east of the river, with the basilica on top and the whole Alpine arc behind the city on a clear day. A rack tramway climbs it. Best in winter and early spring, when the mountains are white and the haze that hides them in summer has gone.

A lakeside house at Tremezzo with a botanical garden climbing the slope behind it — azaleas and rhododendrons in spring are the reason to time a visit for April or May. Canova sculpture indoors. Directly across the water from Bellagio and easy to combine by ferry.

Five centuries of Venetian painting — Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese — in the city that produced them, which is a different experience from meeting them scattered through other countries' museums. Big but not overwhelming, and never as crowded as it deserves. Two hours.

The oldest public museum collection in the world, on Michelangelo's square above the Forum — the she-wolf, the bronze Marcus Aurelius, and a gallery window with one of the best Forum views in the city. Less crowded than the Vatican and easier to do in one visit. Good rainy-afternoon option.

The Ricasoli castle, where the recipe that became Chianti Classico was written down in the nineteenth century, and still a working estate. Gardens, a chapel, a long view over the vineyards, and tastings on site. The most substantial single stop in Chianti and the one to build a driving day around.

The Flavian amphitheatre, and the single sight most people picture when they picture Rome. Half a day with the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill next door, which share a ticket and sit across one road. Enormous, exposed and busy — worth an early slot in summer, and worth the extra ticket for the arena floor if you want the view the gladiators had.

The seat of the Venetian republic for a thousand years — state rooms, the largest oil painting in the world, and the route across the Bridge of Sighs into the old prisons. More rewarding than the basilica for anyone who wants to understand how Venice actually worked. Two hours, and the Secret Itineraries tour is worth booking if you want the small rooms.

A small, perfect collection in a garden villa — Bernini's sculpture at its best, several Caravaggios, and none of the exhaustion of a large museum. Entry is by timed slot and capped, so it must be booked ahead; that cap is also why it stays calm inside. Two hours, then the Borghese gardens around it.

A pebble cove below the cliffs between Corniglia and Vernazza, reached on foot and never crowded because getting there is work. Access has changed repeatedly as paths and the old rail tunnel open and close, so check locally before setting out for it.

The lake's only island, small, wooded and scattered with the ruins of a town destroyed in the twelfth century and never rebuilt. A short boat hop, an hour to walk, and a very different register from the villa circuit. Boats are seasonal.

The spire on every Turin postcard, built as a synagogue, finished as nothing in particular, and now holding the national cinema museum. A glass lift runs up the middle of the hall to a viewing deck with the Alps across the rooftops. The museum spirals around and below it and is far better than a building-with-a-lift deserves.

A fourteenth-century castle on the river, remodelled by Carlo Scarpa in the 1960s into what architects still travel to see — the building and the intervention are the exhibit as much as the paintings. The fortified bridge beside it is free to walk across. Two hours for anyone who cares about buildings.

The Norman kings' palace, and inside it the Cappella Palatina — a chapel where Byzantine mosaic, Arab woodwork and Norman building meet in one room, which is the whole argument for Sicily in a single space. Still the seat of the regional assembly, so parts close without notice. Book ahead.

The Savoy royal palace at the head of the old centre, opening into a complex that also takes in the armoury and the gallery. Grand state rooms and a garden, rarely crowded. Two hours, and it sits three minutes from the Egyptian Museum, which makes a natural morning of the two.

Milan's major painting collection — Mantegna's foreshortened Dead Christ, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Caravaggio — in an academy building in the most attractive quarter of the city. Consistently uncrowded for what it holds. Two hours, then the Brera streets around it.

Fourteen baroque chapels climbing a hillside path through olive terraces to a sanctuary, with the lake below the whole way. A world heritage site, free, and almost never busy. About an hour up at a walking pace, and the view back down is the reward.

A brick fortress at the top of the old centre holding several museums at once, among them Michelangelo's last and unfinished Pietà. The courtyards are free to walk through and Sempione park opens out behind it — the easiest place in central Milan to sit down outdoors. Half a day with the museums, twenty minutes if you are cutting through.