This is the Italy chapter from Lonely Planet's Western Europe guidebook.

The land that's turned its lifestyle into a designer accessory, Italy is one of Europe's great seducers. Ever since the days of the 18th-century Grand Tour, travellers have been falling under its spell and still today it stirs strong emotions.

• lap up the dolce vita in Italy's mesmerising capital, Rome
• maps
• take a vaporetto ride past grand but crumbling canalside palaces in Venice
• transport
• marvel at the Medicis' art collection in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Rome & around, Ostia Antica, Tivoli, Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Northern Italy, Genoa, Cinque Terre, Turin, Milan, Verona, Padua, Venice, Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna, the Dolomites, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Canazei, Val Gardena, San Martino Di Castrozza, Tuscany, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Umbria, Le Marche, Perugia, Assisi, Urbino, Southern Italy, Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Matera, Bari, Lecce, Sicily, Palermo, Aeolian Islands, Taormina, Mt Etna, Syracuse, Agrigento, Sardinia, Cagliari, Cala Gonone, Alghero, Understand Italy, History, People, Arts, Environment, Food & Drink, Survival Guide, Directory, Getting There & Away, and Getting Around.