Italien

Sicily's wild and empty interior is a beautiful, uncompromising land; a timeless landscape of silent, sunburnt peaks, grey stone villages and forgotten valleys. Traditions live on and life is lived at a gentle, rural pace. It's an area that encourages simple pleasures – long lunches of earthy country food, meanders through hilltop towns, quiet contemplation over undulating vistas. It’s also an area of surprising natural diversity – one minute you’re driving through rolling hills reminiscent of Tuscany, the next through pockets of eucalypt bush akin to Australia.

Set in the shadow of the snow-covered Rhaetian Alps and hemmed in on both sides by steep, verdant hillsides, Lake Como (aka Lake Lario) is perhaps the most spectacular of the three major lakes. Shaped like an upside-down Y, measuring around 160km in squiggly shoreline, it's littered with villages, including exquisite Bellagio and Varenna. Where the southern and western shores converge is the lake's main town, Como, an elegant, prosperous Italian city.

Abruzzo är så okänt att knappt italienarna vet var det ligger, trots att här finns både höga berg där man kan åka skidor och fina stränder vid Adriatiska havet. Välkommen till det vilda Italien!

Hub of the Renaissance and now the cosmopolitan heart of modern Florence, the enchanting maze of narrow streets between the Duomo and Piazza della Signoria packs one almighty historic and cultural punch. A neighbourhood harking back to Dante, the Romans and beyond, this is where the city’s blockbuster sights – and most tourists – can be found. Cafe life is naturally vibrant in this chic neck of the woods, as is shopping, which climaxes with the designer strip, uber-fashionist Via de' Tornabuoni.

Italiens kulturhuvudstad för 2022 har presenterats – och det är en riktig färgklick den här gången! Den lilla staden Procida ligger på ön med samma namn i Neapelbukten. Följ med in bland de pastellfärgade gränderna!

There's a whiff of Paris in Turin's elegant tree-lined boulevards and echoes of Vienna in its stately art-nouveau cafes, but make no mistake – this elegant, Alp-fringed city is utterly self-possessed. The industrious Torinese gave the world its first saleable hard chocolate and Italy's most iconic car, the Fiat.

När Vagabonds redaktör tar sikte på Sicilien lämnar han de upptrampade stigarna i öst och beger sig till öns västra sida för vandring och en övergiven by.

Orientexpressen mellan Paris och Istanbul var länge det lyxigaste och snabbaste sättet att resa österut. Vi skaffade varsitt tågluffarkort, begav oss till Gare de Lyon och tog rygg på det legendariska lyxtåget. Var god tag plats, stäng dörrarna! Nu åker vi.

Poets and politicians, divas and dictators, they've all been drawn to captivating Lake Garda (Lago di Garda). In fact, 7% of all tourists to Italy head for the lake’s shores, taking to its wind-ruffled waters in the north and village- and vineyard-hopping in the south. Surrounded by three distinct regions – Lombardy, Trentino Alto-Adige and the Veneto – the lake’s cultural diversity attracts a cosmopolitan crowd. Mitteleuropeans colonise northern resorts such as Riva del Garda and Torbole, where restaurants serve air-dried ham and Austrian-style carne salada (salted beef), while in the south, French and Italian families bed down in Valtenesi farmhouses and family-friendly spa towns such as Sirmione and Bardolino.

Vagabond möter Therese Elgquist som förälskat sig i Italien och följt sin dröm. Nu bor hon i Rom när det faller henne in och uppmuntrar andra att våga resa solo.