Things to Do in Italy (2026)

Italy · IT

Cabinovia Daolasa - Val Mastellina, stazione intermedia

High above the Val di Sole village of Commezzadura, the Daolasa–Val Mastellina gondola lifts you almost 1,200 metres from a valley-floor station at Daolasa (814 m) up to the alpine terrace of the Bassetta del Monte Vigo at around 2,040 m. The Maps pin marks the intermediate station of this two-section ride: the Malghetto di Mastellina at 1,373 m, where cabins pause between the lower and upper legs and where, in summer, walkers can step off and set into the mountainside. Operated by Funivie Folgarida Marilleva, the eight-seat cabinway is a gateway rather than an isolated lift: it carries skiers and hikers straight into the Folgarida–Marilleva domain, which joins by linked slopes to Madonna di Campiglio and Pinzolo in a ski area of more than 150 km of runs and around 58 lifts. It is also the heart of an unusual 'road-rail-cable' system — the Trento–Malé–Mezzana railway stops right at the base of the gondola, letting you leave the car behind entirely.

Lake

Italy · IT

Colombo Lake

Lago Colombo is a high-altitude alpine reservoir perched at 2,046 metres in the Orobie Bergamasche, the rugged mountain range north of Bergamo. Created by a dam built between 1924 and 1928, this basin of 144,000 square metres is one of several artificial lakes that make up the hydroelectric system of the upper Val Brembana. Today it is best known as a jewel along the famous Ring of Lakes hike—a dramatic circuit passing through a constellation of alpine tarns surrounded by peaks over 2,500 metres.

Place of worship

Italy · IT

Fontana di san Giulio

Tucked in the woods where a narrow valley slides down to Lake Orta, the Fountain of San Giulio is one of the quietest and most atmospheric shrines on the lake's western shore. At its heart is a spring said to gush from the living rock, beside a small 16th-century oratory raised in honour of Saint Julius, the evangeliser whose legend binds the whole lake. Pilgrims once came here by the thousands to draw water believed to heal the sick, call the rain and drive locusts from the fields. Today the site is open free of charge and easy to reach: a few dozen steps along a flagstoned lane from Via Monte Bianco lead you into a hush of trees and stone. It is a place for a short, contemplative stop rather than a grand monument—part of a walk that ties the hillside villages to the lake and to the island of San Giulio glowing across the water.

Catholic cathedral

Italy · IT

Cathedral of the Holy Savior

Perched at the highest point of Montalcino — a hilltop town celebrated for its Brunello wine and the sweeping Val d'Orcia landscape below — the Cathedral of the Holy Savior (Concattedrale di San Salvatore) is a striking Neo-Classical church that commands the town's upper ridge. Though its clean-lined facade with six Ionic columns dates to the early 19th century, the site has been Montalcino's spiritual heart since around the year 1000, and it was elevated to cathedral status by Pope Pius II in 1462. Inside, visitors find a luminous white-and-gold interior housing paintings by Francesco Vanni, 11th-century sculptural fragments from the original Romanesque parish church, a fine 1858 Agati organ, and a monumental high altar designed by the cathedral's own architect. Just outside, a 16th-century stone well harbors a surprising contemporary artwork by Jannis Kounellis.

Scenic spot

Italy · IT

Valle delle scale

Valle delle Scale — the “Valley of the Steps” — is a shaded, green picnic woodland on the edge of San Giorgio Lucano, in the far south-west of the Matera province, set at the foot of the Pollino National Park. It is the kind of place locals escape to on a hot day: a fenced high-trunk forest threaded with footpaths, fitted out as a municipal equipped park with barbecue niches, long wooden picnic tables, bocce courts and a simple “percorso natura” trail, all gathered around a chalet-style restaurant. Beyond everyday picnics, the glade has a festive side: for several summers it hosted the Sarmento in Fermento eco-festival, where the clearing filled with reggae and roots music, free-climbing, aerial dance and art installations, with open camping under the trees. For walkers and sightseers, it makes an easy, cool base from which to reach the hilltop borgo of San Giorgio Lucano, the lunar clay badlands of the calanchi, the lake of Monte Cotugno and the trails of Pollino.

Italy · IT

Nemi

Nemi is a jewel-box medieval town perched on the rim of a volcanic crater in the Alban Hills, about 30 kilometres southeast of Rome. Its name comes from the Latin nemus — "holy wood" — a sacred grove once dedicated to the goddess Diana. Today, the same wooded slopes, the mirror-still lake below, and a cluster of towers and lanes that seem to materialise from the forest make Nemi one of Italy's most atmospheric small destinations, recognised in 2023 among the "Most Beautiful Towns in Italy" and holder of the Touring Club's Orange Flag for environmental and tourism quality.

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Cabinovia Daolasa - Val Mastellina, stazione intermedia

Colombo Lake

Fontana di san Giulio

Cathedral of the Holy Savior

Valle delle scale

Nemi

Finding your next place…

A little more
of Italy.

Cabinovia Daolasa - Val Mastellina, stazione intermedia

Colombo Lake

Fontana di san Giulio

Cathedral of the Holy Savior

Valle delle scale

Nemi