All direct flights to Italy from the UK & Ireland

Destination summary

One of those destinations that almost doesn't need any talking up, Italy is perfectly capable of handling its own PR.

The evocative names of its cities alone should be enough to sell prospective travellers to this perennial European hot spot: Florence, Naples, Pisa, the Eternal City (and capital) Rome. Those four offer so much to see and do even before one factors in the country's other substantial assets: luscious Tuscan countryside, exclusive ski resorts, miles of unspoilt coastline, the sun-soaked isles of Sicily, Sardinia and Capri.

And then there are the Italian people's passions: food and wine that varies hugely from region to region; the football mania apparent on match day on the streets of such Northern powerhouses as Milan and Turin; religion, with lavish Catholic churches a feature of almost every town and city one visits; and, of course, the glorious, wide-ranging array of culture: consider Florence, the city-as-art-gallery showcasing the very best of the Renaissance, or Venice, with its annual film festival and year-round old-world glamour, a seductive maze of corridors, stairwells and, of course, canals.