Italy travel guide: when to go, what to see and what it costs

Rome needs at least three full days: one for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine on a combined ticket valid 24 hours, one for the Vatican Museums and St Peter's, one for the baroque centre and Trastevere on foot. The Vatican Museums are quietest on Wednesday morning during the papal audience. Around the capital, Ostia Antica and the Villa d'Este at Tivoli each make a half-day trip by train. Book the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel online, as on-site queues often top an hour in peak season.

Florence covers on foot in two to three days, but the Uffizi and the Accademia must be booked in timed slots as soon as they open. Beyond the city, Tuscany suits a driving loop: Siena and its Piazza del Campo, the towers of San Gimignano, the cypress-lined roads of the Val d'Orcia, the Chianti wineries between Florence and Siena. Allow three to four days for the region. Pisa is a half-day from Florence, one hour by train. Read more about the Cinque Terre, on the northern edge of Tuscany.

Venice is best early and late, once the day trippers have gone: sleep at least two nights in the historic centre, not in Mestre. One day covers Murano, Burano and Torcello by vaporetto. An access fee applies on certain busy days, so check online before you travel. The surrounding Veneto is worth the detour: Verona and its Arena, which stages operas in summer, Padua and the Scrovegni Chapel by reservation, the Palladian villas along the Brenta. Two days give a first sense of the region.

Milan takes a day and a half: Leonardo's Last Supper must be booked weeks ahead, and the Duomo terraces are reached by lift or stairs. To the north, Lake Como works best from Varenna, on the rail line, with hub-and-spoke ferries to Bellagio and Menaggio. The Dolomites, to the east, are hiked from June to September: the loop around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo takes three to four hours. See the northern lakes region to plan this part of the trip.

Naples deserves two to three days: the listed historic centre, the National Archaeological Museum which holds the original Pompeii frescoes, and Pompeii or Herculaneum in a day on the Circumvesuviana line. The Amalfi Coast is 90 minutes away: stay in Sorrento, better connected and cheaper than Positano, and take the seasonal ferry rather than the SITA bus. Capri is a day trip. For the whole region, allow five to six days including inland Campania and Paestum.

Sicily needs a week and a car. The east holds the essentials: Taormina and its Greek theatre facing Mount Etna, Syracuse and the island of Ortygia, the baroque of Noto and Modica. Etna is climbed by cable car then 4x4 to around 2,900 metres, or on foot with a licensed guide. The west, around Palermo and Trapani, adds the mosaics of Monreale, the Greek temples of Segesta and Selinunte and the Marsala salt pans. The Aeolian Islands are reached by hydrofoil from Milazzo between April and October.

Puglia is discovered over four to five days by car: Lecce for its soft-stone baroque, Alberobello and its trulli, the Salento coast down to Santa Maria di Leuca, Polignano a Mare on its cliff. Matera, in neighbouring Basilicata, is visited for its Sassi, districts of cave dwellings where you can sleep. Bari and Brindisi airports serve the region with direct flights from Paris for part of the year. This is the cheapest, least crowded Italy outside July and August.