Travel Reads > Italy
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• Why western Sicily is Italy’s emerging arts hub [The Guardian]
“Art is helping to revitalise Sicily’s ghost towns and deserted urban spaces, with the earthquake-hit town of Gibellina becoming Italy’s first Capital of Contemporary Art.”
• The Italian city where life is sweetest in winter (archive) [BBC Travel]
“February is when much of Italy hibernates. But in Turin – an elegant ducal city at the foot of the Italian Alps – this frigid month is when the city comes alive.”
• Slow train to Turin: a winter journey through the Swiss Alps to Italy [The Guardian]
“By travelling during the day on scenic routes, travellers can soak up spectacular landscapes before taking in Turin’s cultural heritage.”
• The Italian paradise island with no roads, no phone signal — and almost no tourists [CNN Travel]
“Palmarola has no town and no roads. There is no electricity, no mobile phone coverage and no ferry terminal. On most days, the only way to reach the island is by small boat from Ponza, five miles away across the Tyrrhenian Sea.”
• Italy’s new nun-mapped pilgrim trail (archive) [BBC Travel]
“As Italy grapples with overtourism, a series of ancient trails resurrected by nuns winds through the forgotten landscapes where Benedictine monasticism shaped medieval Europe.”
• Slow travels in the Veneto [Laura McVeigh]
“Freya Stark’s City of a Hundred Horizons, Venice’s Giudecca, cinema life, Chioggia, & the language island hidden in a forest.”
• The local way to Mondello Bay [Souvenirs]
• I hiked right up to the Vatican’s back door on this underrated Italian camino [Adventure]
• Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere [Without Maps]
“Writer Jan Morris came before me, and showed me where to go.”
• ‘When the church door opens, it’s like a miracle’: the phone app that’s a key to Italy’s religious art [The Guardian]
• The European region with a ‘split personality’ [BBC Travel]
“Straddling Italy and Austria, the Dolomite Mountains blend three languages, two identities and one breathtaking landscape – but their delicate balance is being tested.”
• How this Italian town came to be known as the ‘City of Witches’ [Smithsonian Magazine]
“Centuries ago, it was said that Benevento was a gathering place for the occult. Today, superstitions still run deep.”
• The European train that travels by sea (archive) [BBC Travel]
“Italy’s sleeper from Milan to Sicily ends with a rare rail-ferry crossing that’s threatened by a new mega bridge.”
• Rome Diaries: The grandeur of antiquity [Tom Fish Is Away]
“Keeping my head on a swivel in the Italian capital.”
• The beautiful chaos of Naples [Nomad Foodies]
“Embracing and escaping the madness of this marvellous metropolis in late summer 2025.”
