I am not the biggest Lonely Planet person but I have a few and they do have accommodation recommendations which I haven't used in more than a decade if not longer - well since the internet. But it’s beyond just a land of warm hospitality – it’s a magical combination of cultural history, wild nightlife and unspoilt nature. For more than two weeks, the Umbrian town stages art exhibitions, opera, ballet and classical music. It’s not uncommon to wake up on a spring or summer morning and find everything outside dusted in sand, particularly in Italy’s south.

International White Truffle Fair Chefs, cooks and foodies flock to Alba in October to delight in the eye-wateringly expensive white truffle. Italy is a country that lives to eat, where food is central to social life and culinary traditions are revered with heartfelt pride. But while recipes and ingredients might differ, the passion behind the pride is universal and whether you’re in Palermo or Parma, there are no more exciting words to hear than ‘ Buon appetito’. The five villages are no longer the isolated hamlets they once were, but there’s still a feeling of authenticity here, with few roads, perfectly preserved architecture and a network of stunning coastal and mountain trails. Facilities at the larger resorts are generally world-class, with pistes ranging from nursery slopes to challenging black runs.Tucked away in a particularly mountainous kink at the eastern end of the Italian Riviera, the villages of the Cinque Terre (pronounced chin-kwe ter-re, with a rolled "r" sound) were shaped by their profound isolation. Applaud the Renaissance architecture of Urbino, 3 one of many historic hill towns in Le Marche and Umbria.

She will take you for a slow late afternoon horseback ride immersed in the Alta Murgia National Park. Discover erotic frescoes and kilometres of haunting Hobbit-like tombs in the Etruscan cemeteries of Cerveteri and Tarquinia 4 in northern Lazio.Further south still, you can walk with the gods on the Amalfi Coast, enjoy stunning seascapes on the Gargano, and escape to the highlands of Calabria and Basilicata. Every season has something suggestive that makes the sea unique, which is why it’s wonderful to admire it and practise sport throughout the year. Relive the past at Pompeii, take a world-class Tuscan wine tour and explore the unspoilt wilderness of Sardinia; all with your trusted travel companion. Then, have a caffè leccese, an espresso shot with ice and a finger of almond syrup, with a sweet pasticciotto at Martinucci. Hotels can book out for the entire April to October season (as the locals laughingly say, there is no shoulder season) and are almost all closed outside of that.

Its tranquil, tangled streets lead to a broad and breezy sea-facing terrace, the only vantage point from where you can see (and photograph) all five villages at once. The Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958) Historical novel evoking the social tremors that shook Sicily during Italian unification.Region profiles cover when to go, where to stay, what's on, cultural insights, and local food and drink recommendations to refuel and refresh.