Italien

A heady mix of haunting ruins, awe-inspiring art and vibrant street life, Italy's hot-blooded capital is one of the world's most romantic and charismatic cities.

Cradle of the Renaissance, romantic, enchanting and utterly irresistible, Florence (Firenze) is a place to feast on world-class art and gourmet Tuscan cuisine.

Gillar du att kombinera världsmetropol med vacker natur, frisk luft – och mängder av tryfflar? Följ med vår skribent Sofia Zetterqvist på jakt efter "det svarta guldet" en timme utanför den italienska huvudstaden.

Snart måste besökare betala för att njuta av en av Sardiniens vackraste stränder – La Pelosa. Detta för att myndigheterna ska ha råd att ta hand om strandens ekosystem och minska antalet gäster.

Neither part of fashion conscious, Ferrari-producing northern Italy, nor the siesta-loving, anarchic world of the south, Abruzzo is something of an enigma. Despite its proximity to Rome and its long history of tribalism and pre-Roman civilisation, it sits well down the pecking order of Italian regions in terms of touristic allure.

With a pristine medieval centre and an international student population, Perugia is Umbria’s largest and most cosmopolitan city. Its centro storico (historic centre), seemingly little changed in more than 400 years, rises in a helter-skelter of cobbled alleys, arched stairways and piazzas framed by solemn churches and magnificent Gothic palazzi (mansions). Reminders of its lively and often bloody past are everywhere, from ancient arches and medieval basilicas to Renaissance frescoes by the likes of Perugino and Raphael.

Bisected by the spinal Apennine mountains, Abruzzo and Molise make up Italy’s forgotten quarter, blessed more with natural attractions than cultural colossi. A major national-park-building effort in the 1990s created an almost unbroken swath of protected land that stretches from the harsh, isolated Monti della Laga in the north to the round-topped Majella mountains further south.

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.

I maj öppnar Villa Dagmar upp portarna på Östermalm i Stockholm – ett nytt boutiquehotell för "den världsvana resenären". Hotellet har hämtat inspiration från italienska renässanspalats och piazzor. Perfekt för en weekend till Italien – fast i Stockholm.

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.