5 ITALIAN CITIES YOU MUST VISIT AT LEAST ONCE IN YOUR LIFETIME

How many Italian cities do you have to visit to claim that you know Italy?
Italy is the home of beauty, and you can find everywhere a museum to visit, a church with masterpieces to admire or a village to discover.
It’s very hard to make a list of the cities to visit at least once in your lifetime; actually, it’s almost impossible.

So I decided to take my memory book and compile my personal list of the Italian cities to visit. (READ ALSO: 5 italian cities to see in 2017).
A list made according to my personal experience, but to which you can add your own Italian cities to visit.
Yes, you can add your suggestions to this list. How?
Leave your own comment with the Italian cities which, in your opinion, we must visit.
All your suggestions will become a new post containing the list of other marvellous places to see in Italy.

READ ALSO: The most beautiful cities in the world, 5 birth places of important painters to see.

1. Turin

An elegant city full of masterpieces, from the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) to the National Museum of Cinema, Turin is the city you don’t expect.
A journey into the history of a city boasting a glorious past, a population who made the history of Italy’s economy and a present that make it a fascinating lady.
READ ALSO: 5 gardens to see in Italy, with the gardens of the Palace of Venaria in Turin.

2. GENOA

Genoa is a city overlooking the sea, and its historic centre is a web of narrow alleys to discover. Its 16^th-century palaces (The Palazzi dei Rolli which I’ve already written about) are an UNESCO World Heritage Site of incredible value.
I dedicated a lot of posts to Genoa because its historic shops and its monuments are scattered anywhere. Let Genoa enchant you and lose yourself in its narrow streets.

2. MANTuA

Virgil’s homeland and reign of the Gonzaga family, Mantua is an open-air museum, and it was also the 2016 Italian Capital of Culture, and I told you everything about my journey dedicated to culture.

Mantua houses two masterworks of Italian architecture, the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace) featuring over 500 rooms, and the Palazzo Te (Te Palace) with a series of paintings in the Camera dei Giganti (Giants’ Room).

READ ALSO: Free museums in Mantua, a cheap visit to the city of the Gonzaga family.

3. GARDONE RIVIERA, Brescia

Gardone Riviera is situated on the western bank of Lake Garda.
Its climate is mild all year round, and I often go there for two reasons: Gardaland (the amusement park) and the Vittoriale degli Italiani (the Shrine of Italian victories) that was the residence and the citadel of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio.

4. VENEZIA

Venice is my favourite city and I had to put it on this list.
Unique and inimitable, it’s the Italian city you must necessarily visit at least once in your lifetime.
You should go there during the Carnival, the Biennale or simply for a weekend dedicated to art or to romanticism. I can’t make a list of its unmissable sights because in Venice everything is magical, and you’ll find all the links to my articles in the post What to see in Venice.

Image source: Monaco – Venezia.it

5. TAORMINA, Messina

Taormina is one of the most famous cities in the world.
Goethe defined it as “an edge of paradise on earth”, and he was right because when you see the Teatro Greco Romano (the Greek-Roman Theatre, also known as the Ancient Theatre of Taormina), the landscape surrounding it and when you reach Isola Bella, a small island 1 square kilometre large, connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of sand, you can’t help but agree with him.