Italy Archives

Cagliari: Sardinia’s Historic Capital

A limestone arch and double stairway below the Castello quarter of Cagliari, Sardinia, with its pastel houses and walls.

Cagliari: Sardinia’s Historic Capital Cagliari, Sardinia’s capital, rises from the Gulf of Angels in layers. Down by the harbour are the arcaded streets of the Marina quarter; above them, on a limestone hill, sits Castello, the walled citadel that Pisan merchants fortified in the thirteenth century and that Aragonese and Savoyard viceroys later ruled from. […]

Alghero: Catalan Sardinia on the Northwest Coast

The sandstone sea walls and bastions of Alghero, Sardinia, with the old town and a tiled bell tower rising behind them.

Alghero: Catalan Sardinia on the Northwest Coast Alghero, on Sardinia’s northwest coast, is the one town in Italy where a form of Catalan is still part of everyday life. Since the Aragonese siege of 1354 it has looked as much towards Barcelona as towards Rome, and the evidence is everywhere in its old town: honey-coloured […]

Villa Romana del Casale: The Roman Mosaics of Sicily

The Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina, Sicily, its excavated Roman rooms sheltered by low ochre pavilions below a wooded hillside.

Villa Romana del Casale: The Roman Mosaics of Sicily The Villa Romana del Casale lies in a quiet wooded valley a few kilometres outside Piazza Armerina, in the hill country of central Sicily. Built in the early fourth century AD over an older farmhouse, it was the centre of a great agricultural estate, and almost […]

Trapani, Erice and Mozia: Western Sicily’s Salt Coast

Salt pans and a stone windmill in the Saline di Trapani e Paceco reserve near Trapani, Sicily, at sunset, with Monte Erice behind.

Trapani, Erice and Mozia: Western Sicily’s Salt Coast At the western tip of the island, Trapani, Sicily, sits on a narrow curved spit of land running out into the sea, with salt pans and windmills spread along the flat coast to the south and the limestone mass of Monte Erice rising behind. Within a short […]

Syracuse and Ortigia: Greek Sicily’s Greatest City

The Baroque façade of Syracuse Cathedral on Piazza Duomo, Ortigia, Syracuse, in warm late-afternoon light.

Syracuse and Ortigia: Greek Sicily’s Greatest City Syracuse, Sicily, was founded by settlers from Corinth around 734 BC and became the largest and most powerful city of the Greek West, a rival to Athens and Carthage. Cicero, writing in the first century BC, called it the greatest of the Greek cities and the most beautiful […]

Arab-Norman Palermo: Monreale, Cappella Palatina and Sicily’s Layered Past

Aerial golden-hour view of the Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) above Palermo's rooftops

Arab-Norman Palermo: Monreale, Cappella Palatina and Sicily’s Layered Past Step inside the Cappella Palatina in Palermo’s Norman Palace and three artistic traditions collide in a single room: Byzantine gold mosaics covering the walls, an Arabic muqarnas ceiling carved into a honeycomb of painted geometry, and Norman stonework holding the whole structure together. It’s easy to […]

Nuragic Civilization of Sardinia: Su Nuraxi, Tombs of the Giants and Island Heritage

A lone nuraghe stone tower silhouetted on a hilltop against a warm, hazy sky in Sardinia's interior

Nuragic Civilization of Sardinia: Su Nuraxi, Tombs of the Giants and Island Heritage Long before Rome existed, Sardinia’s interior was dotted with thousands of drystone towers built by a people who left no written record of themselves. We call them the Nuragic civilization, after the nuraghi, or stone towers, that still stand across the island […]

The Valley of the Temples: Agrigento’s Greek Ruins in Sicily, Italy

The Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, at golden hour

The Valley of the Temples: Agrigento’s Greek Ruins in Sicily, Italy On a limestone ridge above Sicily’s southern coast, the Valley of the Temples preserves one of the finest collections of Greek architecture anywhere outside Greece itself. Seven Doric temples, raised by the Greek colony of Akragas from the sixth century BC, still stand watch […]

Things to Do in Sardinia Beyond the Beach: Cagliari, Nora and Barumini

Sardinia coastline and countryside beyond the beach

Things to Do in Sardinia Beyond the Beach: Cagliari, Nora and Barumini Sardinia’s coastline draws most of the attention, but the island’s real depth lies inland and in its cities. Cagliari’s hilltop citadel, the Roman ruins at Nora, and the Bronze Age towers of Barumini tell a longer, stranger story than any beach can — […]

Sardinia Itinerary for Cultural Travellers: Cagliari to Alghero, Italy

Cagliari waterfront and old town skyline, Sardinia, Italy

Sardinia Itinerary for Cultural Travellers: Cagliari to Alghero, Italy Most visitors to Sardinia arrive for the coastline and never get much further than it. A route built around Cagliari, Nora, Barumini and Alghero asks something different of the traveller: patience with a landscape that reveals its history in layers, from Bronze Age stone towers to […]

Best Time to Visit Sicily, Italy: Weather, Festivals and Touring

Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, in spring morning light with almond blossom in the foreground

Best Time to Visit Sicily, Italy: Weather, Festivals and Touring Sicily rewards travellers who choose their season carefully. Arrive in the wrong month and you’re touring the Valley of the Temples under a punishing midday sun, watching shops shutter for the afternoon riposo, and rationing your energy across a handful of sites. Arrive in spring […]

Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica

Composite of Mediterranean island scenes: a Baroque harbourfront, Greek temple columns, Bronze Age stone towers and a clifftop citadel

Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica Four islands, four very different histories, and one sea that has connected them for three thousand years — that is the premise behind a well-built Mediterranean islands itinerary. Malta’s Baroque capital, Sicily’s Greek and Arab-Norman layers, Sardinia’s Bronze Age towers and Corsica’s mountain villages rarely appear in […]

A Sicily Itinerary for Culture Lovers: Noto to Palermo, Italy

Aerial view of Palermo's historic centre, Sicily, showing the Arab-Norman cathedral dome and terracotta rooftops with the sea beyond

A Sicily Itinerary for Culture Lovers: Noto to Palermo, Italy Most Sicily itineraries are built around the coastline — a string of beach towns loosely connected by a hire car. The route that actually makes sense of the island runs the other way, through the Baroque squares of Noto, the Greek ruins of Syracuse, the […]

Assisi, Italy

Lying amid Umbria’s rolling plains is the city of Assisi, best known as the birthplace of Saint Francis, Italy’s patron saint and founder of the Franciscan order.

Empires in World History

A History of Empires Throughout the World The history of human civilisation has been for the most part a history of empire. The term empire refers to the rule by a particular group in a…

The Rise of Venice

Gondolas on narrow canal in Venice, Italy

The Birth of Venice Italy The floating city of Venice has a long history dating from the sixth century CE, when it emerged following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. As successive waves of Germanic and Hunnic invasions tore through northern Italy, they sparked a refugee crisis, with many fleeing to the safety of […]

Caesar and Cleopatra in Egypt: Politics, Power, and the Nile

Caesar and Cleopatra in Egypt: Politics, Power, and the Nile By Marco Stojanovik When Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria in 48 BCE, Egypt was already teetering on the edge of civil war — and the encounter that followed between the Roman dictator and the exiled queen Cleopatra VII would reshape the ancient world. Their alliance, […]

Bologna, Italy

Bologna Italy Tours & History Bologna city, capital of and largest city of the Emilia Romagna region in Northern Italy, might not be as popular a destination as other Italian cities like Rome and Venice. But for those who are in the know, the city offers unparalleled experiences in art, architecture, and cuisine. The city […]

Pisa & Genoa, Italy

Rise of Pisa and Genoa Maritime Republics A view of Pisa’s Cathedral Square, featuring the Cathedral, the Tower and the Baptistery, taken just after sunrise.

Amalfi, Italy

With a single main street winding upwards, and tiny alleyways that duck under and through its buildings, Amalfi seems like an unlikely rival to the great Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. And yet, between roughly 850 and 1100, the town served as the capital of the Duchy of Amalfi, a militaristic and economic powerhouse that dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade, before being superseded by the other maritime republics of the North.

Gondolas and the Bells of Venice

The gondola (or Gondole) is the most famous and unique Venetian boat and was first mentioned in a document at the end of the 11 th century. It is believed that the gondolas were used long before they were documented, and their origins traced back to Malta, Turkey or Avignon. All gondolas are black since, in 1609, a decree was issued, and it was declared that a gondola of Venice’s waterways could only be painted in black.

Small-group travel, thoughtfully paced

Category: Italy