A lakeside city of Roman roots, silk, rationalist architecture and understated northern elegance Como is frequently introduced through its lake, which is understandable because Lake Como has a talent for stealing attention. Mountains descend steeply into deep blue water, villas…
A vertical village of fishermen, fashion and impossible beauty on the Amalfi Coast Positano is one of those places that seems to have been designed by someone who considered flat ground unimaginative. Houses climb the cliff in tiers, stairways substitute…
The city on the volcanic cliff, where Etruscans, popes and underground secrets share the same stone Orvieto appears before you like a place that has decided geography should also be architecture. The old city rises on a great plateau of…
The Renaissance court on the water, where the Gonzaga turned a marshland city into an artistic universe Mantua is one of Italy’s great surprises because it looks, at first, too quiet to have been so important. The city sits in…
Rome at the Foot of the Alps Aosta is one of those Italian cities that makes first impressions quietly and then refuses to leave your mind. It does not arrive with the theatrical self-confidence of Rome or Venice. It stands…
Cathedrals, Engines, and the Art of Taking Flavor Seriously Modena is one of the most Italian cities in Italy, which may sound like a suspiciously circular compliment until you spend a little time there. Then it begins to make perfect…
The Small Hill City That Helped Teach Europe How to Dream Urbino does not overwhelm the visitor by size. It does something more subtle and, in the long run, more impressive. It persuades you that scale can be deceiving. Seen…
A refined Emilian city where duchesses, opera, painting and extraordinary food learned to coexist Parma has an unusual talent for elegance without arrogance. The city is cultured, prosperous and beautifully proportioned, yet it rarely behaves as though it expects the…
Some motorcycle companies are born from a business plan. Cagiva was born from impatience. It came from a family that knew how to manufacture metal, but whose sons wanted more than components and respectable industrial routine. They wanted the smell…
Before Pirelli became a name painted across racetracks and stretched above factory gates, it was the idea of a young engineer studying a material most Italians barely understood. In the early 1870s, rubber seemed almost magical: flexible, waterproof and capable…