Italien

Flamboyant, guarded, feisty yet staunchly aristocratic, Palermo is a seething mass of contradictions. Pock-marked buildings, broken pavements and decrepit infrastructure reveal deep political and economic cracks, and yet all are easy to overlook when you enter a church full of luminously beautiful Byzantine mosaics, wander along a street of stately baroque palazzi (palaces) or eavesdrop on the genial banter between canny stall owners and bargain-hunting housewives at a street market. Palermo is a cryptic creature, a city where nefarious neglect and soul-stirring beauty have always linked arms, where preconceptions are concurrently affirmed and subverted, where light and shade stir impressions that bury deep under your skin.

Bästa restaurangerna, klassiska kaféer och mysiga tågutflykter. Milanoexperten Louise ger oss tips på vad du inte får missa i den italienska storstaden.

I juni längtar vi till Medelhavets inbjudande vatten, lummiga vandringsstigar och solnedgångar på mysiga restauranger vid havet. Men även till karga landskap och dramatiska vyer. Här är tio tips på sköna resmål i juni.

Italiens kust är en dröm många går och längtar till – turkost vatten, badstränder, parasoll och vackra byar med härliga restauranger. Vi listar tre kustområden och tipsar om mat, boende och aktiviteter (när du är klar med att bara ligga och jäsa på stranden).

Capri är precis så fantastiskt man kan tänka sig. Vagabonds Åsa Johansson som bor i Italien, listar åtta favoriter som du inte får missa när du besöker den mytomspunna ön!

Reseappen Gayze vill öppna upp världen för HBTQ+-resenärer. Bakom appen, som är en kombinerad dating-, rese-, och informations-app står den svenska doun Stelios Vasilantonakis och Elin Wibel.

The volcanic outcrop of Ischia is the most developed and largest of the islands in the Bay of Naples. An early colony of Magna Graecia, first settled in the 8th century BC, Ischia today is famed for its thermal spas, manicured gardens, striking Aragonese castle and unshowy, straightforward Italian airs – a feature also reflected in its food. Ischia is a refreshing antidote to glitzy Capri.

If a Vespa-riding, siesta-loving, unapologetically chaotic Italy still exists, it's in Calabria. Rocked by recurrent earthquakes and lacking a Matera or Lecce to give it high-flying tourist status, this is a corner of Italy less globalised and homogenised. Its wild mountain interior and long history of poverty, Mafia activity and emigration have all contributed to its distinct culture. Calabria is unlikely to be the first place in Italy you'd visit. But if you’re intent on seeing a candid and uncensored version of la dolce vita that hasn’t been dressed up for tourist consumption, look no further, ragazzi (guys).

Much of Basilicata is an otherworldly landscape of mountain ranges, trackless forests and villages that seem to sprout organically from the granite. Not easily penetrated, it is strategically located, and has been dominated by the Lucanians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Lombards, Byzantines, Saracens, Normans and others. Being the plaything of such powers has not been conducive to a quiet or happy fate.

Italy's peeling, sun-bleached south is the country at its most ancient, soulful and sensual. Down here, the ruins are older, the lunches longer, and the landscapes wilder and more intense.