Not only does Italy have breathtaking beaches, incredible architecture, mouth-watering food and beautiful countryside, it also has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country on the planet. It hosts a grand total of 58, and we’ve picked our 30 favourites that you should definitely add to your travel wish list, from world-renowned cities like Venice and Rome to lesser-known historic sites and natural wonders.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, Rome's city centre has an awe-inspiring 25,000 points of environmental and archaeological interest. There are the big hitters, of course, ranging from the nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum to the incredibly well-preserved Pantheon, but there are plenty of under-the-radar treasures to explore too. Check out the Keats-Shelley House, where the Romantic poet John Keats died in 1821; the Palazzo Bonaparte, a fine-art gallery housed in a 16th-century Baroque building once the home of Napoleon's mother; plus the less-visited neighbourhoods of Quartiere Coppede and Trastevere.
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With its colourful towns atop rugged cliffs and beaches lapped by glittering azure waters, it’s no surprise the Amalfi Coast is a honeypot for tourists. This spellbinding stretch of shoreline, covering 11,231 hectares in southern Italy, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The organisation cites a combination of impressive natural landscapes and unique cultural heritage as the reason for the designation.
Few locations in Italy attract quite so much attention as Venice, the famous 'Floating City' which earned its UNESCO classification back in 1987. The unusual metropolis, which was founded in the 5th century AD and sprawls across more than 118 islands, has borne witness to its fair share of history and has plenty of inspiring landmarks. Piazza San Marco is where you’ll find the best-known spots, including the 11th-century Basilica di San Marco – head there early to beat the crowds.
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Volcanic eruptions were responsible for creating these seven islands (Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi), which lie off the coast of northeast Sicily just near the toe of Italy’s boot. They’ve been studied by volcanologists for decades thanks to their fascinating shapes and landforms, which shed light on how volcanoes sculpted the landscape here – and have major implications for the study of other volcanic regions around the world.
The whole of Alberobello, located in the southern Italian region of Puglia, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1996. It’s recognisable for its conical limestone buildings, or trulli, which were built here from the 14th century onwards using prehistoric construction methods. In actual fact, trulli aren’t unique to Alberobello – they’re found throughout central Puglia’s Itria Valley – but nowhere else are such large numbers found in one place. Today they serve as houses for the village’s 10,000-strong population, as well as churches, shops and even a museum.
Tuscany is a hub for foodies, as well as being home to some of the country’s most impressive arts and cultural sites. But it’s the region’s landscapes that really leave a lasting impression on most visitors. Nestled amid rolling hills and cypress trees the Val D’Orcia received its UNESCO classification in 2004, as it’s considered a unique example of Renaissance farming landscape. The layout of the farms, villages and towns here showcases an idealistic system pioneered in the 13th and 14th centuries, based on a utopian belief in fair farming practices and aesthetically-pleasing fields.
Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1995, the old centre of Naples is full of historic buildings to explore. These include the Monastery and Church of Santa Chiara, dating back to the 14th century, the 13th-century Castel Nuovo, and the gorgeous Royal Palace, built in the 17th century when the city was under Spanish rule. The city’s origins are older than any of them – it was founded in the 6th century BC by Greek settlers.
Milan is packed with impressive architecture both ancient and modern, but the jewel in its crown is the Dominican Church and Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, its sole UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inside the 15th-century structure is Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper, which is held in the refectory of the former convent. Owing to its unparalleled cultural, religious and artistic significance, the artwork can only be seen on a specially-booked tour, with no more than 25 people allowed in the refectory at one time.
By far the most famous building in Pisa is its iconic Leaning Tower, whose image has graced countless postcards, photo albums and guidebooks. This 14th-century tower, along with four other important landmarks in the Piazza del Duomo, was classified as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The other spectacular buildings found here are the Cattedrale di Pisa, a Romanesque masterpiece dating to 1064, the Battistero di San Giovanni, a circular 14th-century Roman Catholic church, and the Camposanto di Pisa, a 13th-century cemetery.
A source of fear and wonder for millennia, Mount Etna is a mighty 10,900-foot (3,320m) active volcano on the east coast of Sicily. In fact, it’s one of the most active stratovolcanoes in the world, and centuries of lava flows have formed the dramatic landscapes that surround it: all cinder cones, summit craters and steep slopes. The 19,237-hectare uninhabited site around the volcano was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 thanks to its global scientific importance.
You'll undoubtedly be moved by the haunting ruins of Pompeii, the once-prosperous Roman city all but destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The site, which is located 14 miles (23km) southeast of Naples, was buried beneath a blanket of ash for centuries, before being rediscovered by archaeologists by accident. Together with the smaller and better-preserved town of Herculaneum and the city of Torre Annunziata, the region was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 thanks to its unparalleled archaeological and cultural value.
There are two parts to this World Heritage Site on the southeastern coast of Sicily. One is the ancient city of Syracuse, which was founded by Greeks around the 8th century BC and contains important buildings like the Temple of Athena, a Greek theatre and a sanctuary to Apollo. Meanwhile, the Necropolis of Pantalica consists of an incredible 5,000 burial chambers carved directly into the rock, dating to between the 13th and 7th centuries BC. Both give a fascinating insight into Italy in Greek and Roman times, and have yielded a wealth of knowledge to historians and archaeologists over centuries.
Situated just over an hour’s drive from Venice, the stunning city of Ferrara is packed with medieval churches, castles and frozen-in-time squares and surrounded by fortified city walls. The city, which gained its place on UNESCO’s list in 1995, was an intellectual and artistic hub during the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries, attracting leading thinkers and artists of the time including Jacopo Bellini, Piero della Francesca and Andrea Mantegna.
In 2021, the porticoes (porches) of the historic northern Italian town of Bologna were designated a UNESCO site. Dating back as far as the 12th century, these column-supported sections of old buildings, which were described as "an expression and element of Bologna’s urban identity" by the organisation, are found throughout the city: no street is complete without them. In fact, the city's Portico di San Luca is the longest portico in the world, measuring a phenomenal 2.4 miles (3.8km). Bologna is also a UNESCO City of Music, with Mozart, Rossini and Wagner all having close ties to the town.
At every street corner in Florence, you’ll find jaw-dropping architecture, beautiful artwork and reminders of the city’s medieval past – so it’s perhaps no wonder that the historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. Naturally, there’s no shortage of sites to explore here, but we’d recommend making a beeline for the Piazza del Duomo, the world-class Uffizi Gallery and the beautiful Ponte Vecchio bridge, filled with fancy jewellery shops.
There are an impressive 500 fountains in the gardens of Villa d’Este, a 16th-century palace approximately one hour outside Rome. The property and its surrounding grounds, which together cover around four and a half hectares, are considered an unparalleled example of Renaissance architecture and landscape design. In fact, the stunning gardens were an early model for many similarly grand landscapes throughout Europe.
Straddling the Ravenna and Ferrara provinces, the Po Delta (Italy's only delta) is a spectacular natural landscape known for its rich biodiversity, with a wealth of birds, plants and animals to watch out for. The UNESCO-recognised Biosphere Reserve encompasses just under 140,000 hectares of land, which varies from coastal sand dunes to lagoons and marshes. There are plenty of options for exploring the park, including hiking, horse riding, cycling and boating.
Five fishing villages make up Liguria’s iconic Cinque Terre: Monterosso, Vernazza (pictured), Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. Famed for its pretty pastel buildings perched along jagged cliffs in a charming, higgledy-piggledy manner, the region also has an array of terraced fields and gardens nestled into the steep rock. Cinque Terre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site – along with Portovenere and the nearby islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto – in 1997.
In the southern part of the Piedmont region, you’ll find a spectacular landscape of vineyards draped across rolling hills, which turn tantalisingly gold in the early-evening sunlight. Not only do stunning vistas abound here, it’s also one of the foremost wine-producing regions in the country. Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 thanks to its long history of viticulture – which is thought to go as far back as the 5th century BC, a result of ancient vine pollen being found in the area – the wine-growing landscape is considered a model for many other regions throughout Europe. In ancient times it was a crossroads of culture, where Celts met Etruscans in search of delicious vino.
Although they’re located 19 miles (30km) away from each other, these two towns are included in one World Heritage Site thanks to their striking similarities. Both are considered stellar examples of Renaissance town planning, but while Mantua is a Roman city which was renewed and extended in the 15th and 16th centuries, Sabbioneta was built in its entirety during this later period. Both are considered exquisite examples of ideal Renaissance towns, with defensive walls, a grid layout and plenty of important communal spaces and monuments.
Eight towns on the island of Sicily – Caltagirone, Militello Val di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa (pictured) and Scicli – have been included in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. They were all destroyed or damaged by an earthquake in 1693, and rebuilt in a unique late-Baroque style. It’s this distinctive and intricate architectural style that makes them unique, according to UNESCO, which says that the region "represents a considerable collective undertaking in response to a catastrophic seismic event".
Sicily has a wealth of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and nine religious and civic structures in Palermo, on the island’s northern coast, were awarded the designation in 2015. They include three churches, two palaces, a bridge and a cathedral, plus the cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalu. The buildings showcase a unique combination of Byzantine, Islamic and Western European cultures: peoples from the Normans to North Africans have set up camp on the island during its long history.
Built across three rolling hills, the walled city of Siena in southern Tuscany was a centre of medieval banking and a great rival to Florence in the Middle Ages. The 4.4-mile-long (7km) fortified walls, punctuated with bastions, towers and gates, still follow the contours of the hills and enclose the city's historic core. Inside the defensive strongholds lie Siena's many architectural treasures: the Piazza del Campo (which serves as the venue for the twice-yearly horse race Palio di Siena), the striped Duomo and the lofty Torre del Mangia among them.
Built on a hilltop in the central Italian region of Umbria, this walled city is best known for being the birthplace of Saint Francis in the late 12th century. However, it has been an important spiritual and cultural site since Roman times. Significant landmarks include the Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi, a spectacular cliff-clinging church which contains the tomb of the famous saint, as well as the Basilica di Santa Chiara, a 13th-century church that houses the tomb of Saint Clare (one of St Francis's followers). The two structures sit at opposite ends of the city.
Attracting its fair share of star-crossed lovers, Verona is the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and it’s much sleepier than nearby Venice making it an ideal city break. The UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was founded in the 1st century BC, has oodles of winding medieval streets, attractive open squares and Renaissance churches to explore. It’s also thought to contain one of the best-preserved collections of Roman remains in northern Italy, which includes a city gate, archway, theatre and a remarkably intact arena.
Although it’s sometimes overlooked in favour of other tourist hotspots on the Adriatic Coast, Ravenna has a treasure trove of spiritual and historic riches. In fact, its early Christian monuments, dating to the 5th and 6th centuries AD (when the area was part of the Byzantine Empire), are seen as some of the best surviving examples of their kind in the world. Eight landmarks are included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery and the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, each containing a wealth of blue-tiled mosaics, Italian marble and religious artwork.
In the heart of the stunning Camonica Valley, or Val Camonica in Italian, there’s a hidden treasure: one of the greatest collections of prehistoric rock drawings in the world. More than 140,000 figures and symbols make up the cave art, which was created over a period spanning 8,000 years. The drawings depict themes linked to farming, deer hunting, navigation, war and magic, and are considered an invaluable contribution to the fields of prehistory, sociology and ethnology.
Situated in the foothills of the Alps, Bergamo’s medieval upper city is surrounded by impressive Venetian walls which stretch 3.7 miles (6km) in length. Beginning in 1561, the fortifications were built on the order of the Republic of Venice, but the city never came under fire, which is why they're among the best-preserved walls in Italy. The city walls are part of a wider UNESCO World Heritage Site – inscribed in 2017 – which recognises Venetian defensive structures from the 16th and 17th centuries, across an area that stretches over 621 miles (1,000km) to Croatia and Montenegro.
Seen from above, the perfectly regular layout of the buildings in Crespi d’Adda looks almost too symmetrical to be real. This former workers' village, located between Bergamo and Milan, is considered one of the best preserved ‘company towns’ from the late 19th century. It was built to house and entertain the workforce at the adjoining textile factory. The town was founded by the industrialist Cristoforo Benigno Crespi and developed by his son Silvio Benigno Crespi, who wished to give their workers a higher quality of life than in other factory towns by constructing a sports centre, a theatre and even a hydroelectric power station to provide free electricity.
We can’t think of many more picturesque train journeys than this epic passage through the Swiss Alps. Opened in 1904, the railway consists of two sections: the 42-mile (67km) Albula line and the 38-mile (61km) Bernina line. Combined, the feat of engineering passes through an astonishing 55 tunnels as well as across 196 viaducts and bridges, which includes this particularly scenic one – the Landwasser Viaduct. It was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2008 as it’s considered an impressive technical, architectural and environmental achievement, which revolutionised the surrounding area.