Lifestyle in Italy

Off north-west Sardinia, Italy’s car-free prison island with rare white donkeys is a place of pale coves, wind-swept cliffs and quiet roads where the animals amble freely.Closed to the public for 112 years, it served first as a quarantine station and penal colony, then as a prisoner-of-war camp and,

Autumn is prime time for truffle season in Italy.

October is a great month for visiting Italy. Destinations are quieter, the weather is mild rather than cold, and the autumn calendar brings plenty of events. There are many places worth packing for across the country.

In one Italian village, houses, stairways and bell towers follow the mountain ridge as if they are trying to reach the sky.

October in Italy brings heritage weekends inside normally closed palazzi, late harvest visits at family-run wineries, and chestnut and truffle sagre in hill towns.

High in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, San Pellegrino in Alpe is the sort of place that makes a road trip feel properly rewarding.

Anyone visiting the lagoon city, especially between October and March, should expect some gray and wet days. But there are also plenty of things to do in Venice when it rains, and the city inevitably gains in charm. Without the crowds under the sun, museums can be visited at a leisurely pace, churches reveal details that normally escape our notice, and historic cafés become perfect refuges. Here, then, are the best places to take shelter.

At more than 4,500 metres above sea level, where thin air makes every breath harder and the night sky puts on an unequalled display, stands a building unlike any other in Europe. A wooden cabin, perched on Punta Gnifetti in the Monte Rosa massif, has held the continental record as Europe’s high

A mountain road in Piedmont has reopened for 2026 after its winter closure.

Golden hills, thermal steam rising at sunset and vineyards turning ruby-red: autumn in Tuscany creates a natural setting that seems to have stepped out of a painting. At this time of year, villages and lesser-known small towns show a more authentic side, with museums, Renaissance squares and artisan workshops. Grape harvest and truffle season add solid reasons for a trip, bringing together food, scenery and history.

Between October and November, the Marche region is transformed: the woods explode with warm colors, the medieval villages become more interesting, and the festivals fill the squares with the scents of truffles and chestnuts. Discover what to see in the Marche region this fall, exploring the best spots for foliage, the most charming villages to visit in autumn, and the unmissable festivals.

The Gentlemen, the Netflix series created by Guy Ritchie, features sweeping fields, historic houses, London clubs and, in its second season, available since 3 September 2026, even Italian lakes.

Autumn food festivals in Italy are a proper window into regional cooking.

Each year, as summer gives way to the cooler air of inland Sardinia, one of the island’s most authentic cultural events gets underway. Autumn in Barbagia 2026 opens up the villages of central Sardinia between September and December, turning old courtyards, craft workshops and wine cellars into

It is neither a pub legend nor a temporary installation. In Abruzzo, there is a wine fountain that pours Montepulciano d’Abruzzo day and night, free of charge, for anyone who approaches with a glass. The Abruzzo wine fountain is a permanent feature within a working winery, created for walkers and travellers making their way through the coast and hills.

For years, buying a home by a lake largely meant buying a view. That is no longer the case. People choosing a second home on Lake Como or Lake Maggiore are looking for something more complex than a scenic panorama: a place to use throughout the year, where work and leisure can sit alongside each other, and where families can spend longer periods. That is the central argument put forward by Paola Cleps, senior sales consultant at Savills Residential, in an analysis of the high-end second-home market around northern Italy’s lakes. It is a market undergoing a cultural transformation before an economic one.

Food festivals in Italy are one of the best ways to eat well without spending a fortune, particularly outside the big cities. Many are sagre: community events centred on a local ingredient, a seasonal harvest or a traditional dish.

Prince Salina knew that “if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change”. On Pantelleria, one of Italy’s most remote islands, time seems to have taken that line quite literally.

As the muggy heat eases but the days remain bright, a warm outdoor soak feels particularly welcome. Italy has free thermal springs, natural pools and waterfalls where access is free all year round. September makes the experience even better, with fewer people than during peak season and temperatures that make it easy to stay in the water for a while. Here are four well-known spots, along with a few useful details for planning the day.

Italy is home to small and large seaside towns all along its coastline, each with its own character and attractions.

Work eligible for tax relief falls into four main categories set out by law: extraordinary maintenance, restoration and conservative renovation, building renovation, and measures for safety, efficiency and accessibility. To establish which renovation works qualify for tax deductions in Italy in 2026, it is enough to check that the project falls within one of these legal categories.

People living in apartment buildings or historic centres rarely have a section of roof available for solar panels. To address this issue, sustainable construction has begun experimenting with solutions that can be incorporated directly into vertical façades. One technology that is still not widely used but is gaining ground is designed for those who want to reduce consumption without altering the building’s structure: solar window panels, also called photovoltaic windows.

For visitors to Naples, the metro can be part of the sightseeing rather than simply a way of getting around. The city’s network includes 20 stazioni dell’arte — art stations — across Lines 1, 6 and 11, bringing contemporary art into everyday public transport.Together, the stations in Naples con

Anyone who has seen the first images from The Dog Stars, Ridley Scott’s latest film and felt they recognised something was right. The director chose Italy as the main setting for his post-apocalyptic film, creating scenery that feels both familiar and strange. With a budget of $110 million, a crew of more than 400 Italian professionals and 100 international staff, The Dog Stars is one of the largest productions filmed in Italy in recent years.

A mountain bivouac is a small shelter, usually unmanned, intended to provide a safe roof for hikers and mountaineers at high altitude. Unlike a staffed mountain hut, there is no host to welcome visitors and no hot menu. A bivouac is basic and spartan and, for many people, one of the most authentic experiences the mountains can provide. Here is what a bivouac is and what to expect.