10 reasons to visit Italy in 2025: the best new holidays and cultural events
The Cilento coast in Campania has long attracted Italian holidaymakers, but overseas visitors tend to head further north to the better-known Amalfi coast. That is starting to change – the Natural Adventure Company reports that UK Google searches for the Cilento coast are up 110% over the past 12 months. The company has run a self-guided walking holiday there since 2022 (from £915 for eight nights' B&B and three dinners).
On Foot Holidays launched a self-guided walking route from coast to mountains last year (from £1,180 for seven nights' B&B and three dinners).
And Saddle Skedaddle has a new guided coast-to-coast cycling holiday from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, including a final stretch along the Cilento coast from Palinuro to Paestum (£1,995 for seven nights' B&B and three lunches).
Can't decide between the countryside and the city? The recently renovated 15th-century Villa Fiaccherella is on a peaceful hillside among olive groves, overlooking Florence. There are six bedrooms, including one in a turret, plus a modern kitchen, large dining room and a sitting room with a fireplace. The gardens stretch around three sides of the house and there is an arched patio for eating outdoors.
The swimming pool is shared with Villa Fontallerta next door, but a private pool is planned. There is a family-run, farm-to-table restaurant in a greenhouse down the hill, and it is a short walk to the bus stop for the half-hour ride into Florence.From €840 a night, sleeps 12, sawdays co.uk
The LETS literature museum opened in Trieste, north-east Italy, last September, celebrating the literary heritage of the city. It focuses on James Joyce, who lived and wrote there from 1904 to 1920; the Trieste-born novelist and playwright Italo Svevo; and the local poet Umberto Saba.
The museum has also devised a number of literary walks through Trieste, including one focusing on cafes and bars once frequented by intellectuals and artists.
The town of Gorizia (a 40-minute drive) is the joint 2025 European capital of culture with neighbouring Nova Gorica, across the border in Slovenia. The programme of events in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region includes concerts by Alanis Morissette and Robbie Williams, and exhibitions by Steve McCurry and Andy Warhol.Museum free, lets.trieste.it
Agrigento in southern Sicily is the Italian capital of culture for 2025. The city's most celebrated sight is the Valley of the Temples, which has some of the best-preserved classical sites in the country. This is the spectacular setting for a concert by Il Volo, an Italian operatic pop trio, plus performances of Greek and Latin tragedies, open-air film screenings, a fireworks display and more. Hundreds of other events are taking place throughout the year at sites including the Luigi Pirandello theatre, the Cathedral of San Gerlando, and the churches and museums of the old town.
There is an almond blossom festival in March, a classical music week in June, and a celebration of the sea in August, in nearby San Leone.
Food is a highlight of any trip to Sicily, and the island has also been named this year's European Region of Gastronomy.More information at lavalledeitempli.it
KE Adventures has a new family-friendly trip to Basilicata in southern Italy. Guided activities include a cooking class in Matera; hunting for the tracks of wolves, boar and deer in the Pollino national park; gorge walking and white-water rafting; and a gelato workshop in Maratea. There is also free time to explore the caves of Matera and spend a day at the beach in Maratea, or do more activities such as ziplining and kayaking.
Families spend two nights in a cave hotel and five in family-run B&Bs and guesthouses. The holiday is suitable for children aged seven and above.From £1,795 adults/£1,495 children for seven nights, including breakfast and two lunches, keadventure.com
This spring, Tracey Emin has her first solo exhibition in Italy at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, which will include historical and recent drawings, paintings, sculptures, video, installations and photography conveying Emin's 'controversial and lacerating aesthetic'.
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The palazzo, a cultural hub in Florence, is built around a Renaissance courtyard that hosts concerts, performances and installations. Exhibitions range from surveys of old masters to contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei and Marina Abramović. After the Emin show, the gallery marks 20 years of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women (17 April-31 August), followed by a Fra Angelico retrospective (26 September-26 January 2026). Stay at Ruby Bea (doubles from €80), an art-filled hotel that opened last summer.Gallery entry from €15 adults, €6 kids, 16 March to 20 July, palazzostrozzi.org
Much Better Adventures has a new four-day guided trek across Elba, Italy's third-biggest island. The Great Elban Traverse follows an east-to-west trail along coastal cliffs and rocky ridges, including an ascent of Monte Capanne, Elba's highest peak (1,019m), for panoramic views of Montecristo, Pianosa and Corsica.
Three-star hotel accommodation and transfers from Pisa are included. The trip is suitable for intermediate to advanced hikers who can handle six to eight hours of hiking a day, with steep ascents and descents. For less experienced walkers, the company also has two new 'moderate' treks along the western Italian riviera and in the Dolomites.From £1,186 for five nights, including breakfast, four lunches and two dinners, muchbetteradventures.com
Casa Cook, the boutique hotel brand originally launched by package holiday giant Thomas Cook nine years ago (and which has since been sold on), is launching its first property in Italy – and its first non-beach destination. Casa Cook Madonna (doubles from €200 B&B), which opens in June, is a 50-room mountain retreat in Madonna di Campiglio, a village in the Dolomites. Activities include hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, lake swimming, skiing (the ski lifts are a three-minute walk away) and wine tasting.
The hotel has a gym, spa and sauna, and runs yoga classes; the menu is curated by Jacob Jan Boerma, a three-Michelin-starred chef. Guests in late summer/early autumn could attend the Sounds of the Dolomites music festival, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary (27 August to 4 October, isuonidelledolomiti.it).
Luxi Bia, an abandoned farming hamlet in the Sulcis area of southern Sardinia, is gradually being brought back to life. The new owners, who live in one of the houses, are rebuilding other crumbling properties using the original stones and techniques, furnishing them with the help of local artisans, then renting them out. La Residenza, a one-bedroom apartment, was finished in 2023, and Casa Corte, a two-bedroom house, has just opened. Casa Cubo, a second apartment, is coming in a few months.
The owners say: 'The area is lovely and wild, with an extraordinary wealth of landscapes from deep Mediterranean forests to endless vineyards, rocky cliff sides and sandy beaches.'Casa Corte is from €250 a night, sleeps four, pretziada.com
The Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome has a major exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of Edvard Munch's death. Munch: The Inner Scream comprises 100 paintings, drawings and prints. Each room is accentuated with contrasting colours and lighting effects, and is dedicated to a key theme in Munch's work, such as 'illness and death', 'tormented love' and 'psychological introspection'.
If you need cheering up afterwards, head to the new art'otel Rome Piazza Sallustio (opens 6 March). Rooms at this five-star hotel don't come cheap, but the restaurant terrace opens to the public from April, and is a sunny spot to enjoy an aperitivo, DJs and live music.Munch exhibition €19.50, 11 February to 2 June, ticket.it
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