89 historic places
Historic Places in Italy
Ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and everything between
A map-based guide to historic places to visit in Italy — the ruins of ancient Rome, Pompeii and Vesuvius, Renaissance Florence and Venice, and the battle sites of the world wars.
Historical-753Palatine Hill
The hill where Romulus founded Rome and emperors built their palaces.
Heritage-509Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio)
The sacred hill of Rome, redesigned by Michelangelo for a pope.
Historical-500Roman Forum
The marketplace where Caesar was cremated and empires were declared.
Heritage-450Paestum Greek Temples
Three mighty Greek temples lost in a malarial swamp for a thousand years.
Heritage-440Valley of the Temples, Agrigento
Greek temples better preserved than in Greece—built by a slave-rich colony.
Heritage-420Temple of Segesta
A perfect Greek temple that was never finished—and never used.
Heritage-413Neapolis Archaeological Park, Syracuse
The city that beat Athens—and where Archimedes died at a soldier's sword.
Historical-329Circus Maximus
Rome's chariot-racing stadium that packed in a quarter-million fans.
Historical-312Appian Way
The 'Queen of Roads' where 6,000 crucified slaves once lined the route.
Historical-9Ara Pacis Augustae
Augustus's marble altar to peace—reassembled from fragments dug from mud.
Heritage-4Ostia Antica
Rome's own Pompeii—the harbour city that fed a million people.
Historical27Villa Jovis, Capri
The clifftop palace where Emperor Tiberius ruled Rome in self-exile.
Heritage30Verona Arena
A Roman amphitheatre still packing 15,000 in—now for opera, not blood.
Historical79Herculaneum
Buried in 20 metres of mud that preserved wooden doors and scrolls.
Nature79Mount Vesuvius
The only active volcano on mainland Europe—and history's deadliest.
Historical79Pompeii
A whole Roman city frozen mid-life by ash in a single afternoon.
Heritage79Villa of the Mysteries
A 2,000-year-old fresco of a secret cult that no one fully understands.
Historical80Colosseum
Emperor Titus opened it with 100 days of games that killed 9,000 animals.
Historical113Trajan's Column
A 30-metre marble comic strip of a bloody two-war conquest.
Heritage113Trajan's Markets, Rome
The world's first shopping mall—a six-storey Roman complex of 150 shops.
Heritage125Pantheon
The largest unreinforced concrete dome on Earth—still, after 1,900 years.
Heritage130Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
An emperor's private empire in miniature—120 hectares of imperial fantasy.
Historical139Castel Sant'Angelo
An emperor's tomb turned fortress where popes hid from invading armies.
Historical200Catacombs of San Callisto, Rome
20 km of tunnels where half a million early Christians were buried in secret.
Heritage216Baths of Caracalla
A marble spa for 1,600 bathers, powered by 50 furnaces underground.
Heritage313Basilica of Aquileia
The largest early Christian floor mosaic in the West, hidden for centuries.
Heritage320Villa Romana del Casale
The world's richest Roman mosaics—including the famous 'bikini girls.'
Heritage386Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, Milan
Where a bishop defied an emperor and forced him to beg forgiveness.
Heritage430Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna
A tiny chapel whose starry blue ceiling enchanted Cole Porter into song.
Heritage547Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna
Byzantine mosaics of Justinian and Theodora that still glow with gold.
Heritage839Amalfi & the Amalfi Coast
A cliff-hanging republic that once rivalled Venice—home of the compass and sea law.
Heritage1094St Mark's Basilica, Venice
Byzantine gold and a saint's body smuggled out of Egypt under pork.
Heritage1100Basilica di San Clemente, Rome
Three churches stacked over a pagan temple—a lasagna of 2,000 years.
Heritage1119Two Towers of Bologna
Leaning medieval towers—one so tilted a rival was left half-built and doomed.
Heritage1182Monreale Cathedral
Norman-Arab-Byzantine mosaics of pure gold covering 6,500 square metres.
Heritage1240Castel del Monte, Apulia
An octagonal castle of eights whose true purpose remains a riddle.
Heritage1253Basilica of St Francis, Assisi
Giotto's frescoes of the saint who spoke to birds—cracked open by an earthquake.
Heritage1300San Gimignano
The 'Medieval Manhattan'—14 stone towers built by rival families in spite.
Heritage1305Scrovegni Chapel, Padua
Giotto's frescoes here changed Western painting forever—built to buy off sin.
Historical1320Venetian Arsenal
The world's first assembly line—a warship a day at its wartime peak.
Historical1322Palazzo Vecchio
The fortress town hall where Savonarola was tortured and hanged.
Historical1340Doge's Palace, Venice
The seat of a 1,000-year republic—linked to its prison by the Bridge of Sighs.
Heritage1345Ponte Vecchio
The only Florence bridge Hitler's army spared when it blew up the rest.
Heritage1348Siena Cathedral
The cathedral Siena tried to make the world's biggest—until the plague struck.
Heritage1349Piazza del Campo, Siena
A shell-shaped medieval square where horses race bareback twice a year.
Heritage1372Leaning Tower of Pisa
A bell tower that began tilting during construction—and never stopped.
Historical1385Castello Estense, Ferrara
A moated castle where a duke beheaded his wife and son for adultery.
Heritage1386Milan Cathedral (Duomo)
A Gothic forest of 3,400 statues that took nearly six centuries to finish.
Heritage1396Certosa di Pavia
A Carthusian monastery so lavish it was meant as a dynasty's mausoleum.
Heritage1436Florence Cathedral (Duomo)
Brunelleschi raised the largest brick dome ever—without knowing quite how.
Heritage1442Basilica of Santa Croce
The 'Temple of Italian Glories'—tomb of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli.
Historical1450Sforza Castle, Milan
A ducal fortress where Leonardo worked and Michelangelo left a final Pietà.
Historical1451Old Port of Genoa & Columbus's House
The maritime republic that gave the world Christopher Columbus.
Heritage1452Florence Baptistery (Gates of Paradise)
Golden doors Michelangelo said were worthy of being the Gates of Paradise.
Heritage1464Camposanto Monumentale, Pisa
A holy cemetery built on soil shipped from Golgotha—its frescoes lost to war.
Heritage1472Ducal Palace of Urbino
The 'city in the form of a palace' that defined the ideal Renaissance court.
Heritage1474Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
The Gonzaga court where Mantegna painted a ceiling that opens to the sky.
Cultural1498The Last Supper (Santa Maria delle Grazie)
Leonardo's masterpiece survived a bomb that flattened the wall beside it.
Cultural1504Galleria dell'Accademia (David)
Michelangelo carved a 5-metre giant from a block others called ruined.
Cultural1512Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo spent four years on his back to paint the ceiling of the world.
Heritage1524Medici Chapels (San Lorenzo)
Michelangelo's marble tombs for the dynasty that made the Renaissance.
Heritage1550Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens
A banker's palace the Medici seized—later home to Napoleon's sister.
Heritage1572Villa d'Este, Tivoli
A cardinal's water garden of 500 fountains, run entirely by gravity.
Historical1578Turin Cathedral (Shroud of Turin)
Home of the linen some believe wrapped the crucified Christ.
Cultural1581Uffizi Gallery
The Medici's private art hoard, from Botticelli's Venus to Caravaggio.
Heritage1591Rialto Bridge, Venice
A single stone arch that beat Michelangelo's design to span the Grand Canal.
Heritage1626St Peter's Basilica
Built over an apostle's grave by the greatest artists of the Renaissance.
Heritage1650Walls of Lucca
Renaissance ramparts so obsolete they became a tree-lined promenade.
Heritage1651Piazza Navona
A Baroque square shaped by a Roman stadium—and a bitter artists' feud.
Heritage1725Spanish Steps
The staircase beside the room where the poet Keats died at 25.
Heritage1762Trevi Fountain
Fed by a 2,000-year-old aqueduct, it swallows €1.5 million in coins a year.
Cultural1778Teatro alla Scala, Milan
The opera house where a single boo can end a career—rebuilt after WWII bombs.
Heritage1780Reggia di Caserta
The largest royal palace in the world—Italy's answer to Versailles.
Cultural1824Egyptian Museum, Turin
The world's oldest Egyptian museum—outside Cairo, the greatest collection on Earth.
Historical1860Marsala (Garibaldi's Landing)
Where 1,000 red-shirted volunteers landed to conquer a kingdom.
Historical1861Palazzo Carignano, Turin
The birthplace of united Italy—where the first national parliament met.
Historical1870Porta Pia, Rome
The breach where Italian troops stormed in to end 1,000 years of papal rule.
Heritage1889Mole Antonelliana, Turin
A synagogue that became the tallest brick building in Europe—now cinema's temple.
Historical1911Il Vittoriano (Altare della Patria)
A blazing-white monument to Italy's first king—nicknamed 'the wedding cake.'
Historical1943Gela (Sicily Landings)
Where Patton's tanks met a Panzer counterattack that nearly reached the sea.
Historical1943Naples Underground (Napoli Sotterranea)
Greek quarries turned aqueducts turned WWII air-raid shelters for thousands.
Historical1943Salerno Landings (Operation Avalanche)
The Allied invasion of mainland Europe that nearly ended in disaster.
Historical1943Salò (Italian Social Republic)
The lakeside town that gave its name to Mussolini's puppet Nazi state.
Historical1944Anzio Beachhead
An Allied landing meant to be a lightning strike—that stalled for four months.
Historical1944Ardeatine Caves (Fosse Ardeatine)
335 Romans shot in caves in 24 hours as Nazi reprisal for a bombing.
Historical1944Marzabotto (Monte Sole Massacre)
The worst civilian massacre in Western Europe—770 killed, many of them children.
Historical1944Monte Cassino Abbey
The birthplace of Western monasticism, bombed to rubble in WWII's bloodiest Italian battle.
Historical1945Piazzale Loreto, Milan
Where Mussolini's body was hung upside down before a jeering crowd.
Heritage1950Sassi di Matera
Cave homes lived in for 9,000 years—then condemned as 'the shame of Italy.'