JigsawItaly’s Most Beautiful Cities: Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Palermo
A tour of six great Italian cities, from the Colosseum and Brunelleschi's dome to the canals of Venice, the bay of Naples and the golden mosaics of Palermo.
Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than almost any other country, and many of its treasures are found in its cities. Each one has its own character: ancient Rome, Renaissance Florence, Venice on the water, busy Milan, lively Naples and sunny Palermo. Here is a short tour of all six, with puzzles of their most famous sights.
Rome
For more than two thousand years Rome has been a capital: of an empire, of the Catholic world and, since 1871, of Italy. Ancient ruins stand side by side with churches, palaces and busy streets. The Colosseum, opened in AD 80, could hold around 50,000 spectators. The Pantheon, built around the year 125 under the emperor Hadrian, still has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, open to the sky through a round hole at the top.
Nearby, the Roman Forum was the heart of public life in the ancient city, with its temples, law courts and triumphal arches. The Trevi Fountain, finished in 1762, is where visitors throw a coin over their shoulder in the hope of coming back one day. Castel Sant’Angelo, built as the tomb of the emperor Hadrian, later became a fortress of the popes, and the Spanish Steps climb from Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinità dei Monti.
The Colosseum at Dusk, Rome
The Pantheon, Rome
The Roman Forum
Trevi Fountain, Rome
The Vittoriano, Rome
Castel Sant’Angelo beside the Tiber, Rome
Spanish Steps and Barcaccia Fountain, Rome
Piazza del Popolo from Above, Rome
Inside the Colosseum, Rome
Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, Rome
Florence
Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance, home to artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Botticelli. The great brick dome of its cathedral, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and completed in 1436, was the largest dome in the world when it was built and still rules the skyline. The best view of it is from Piazzale Michelangelo, on the hills south of the River Arno.
The Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, has crossed the Arno since 1345, lined with little shops that hang out over the water; since 1593 they have belonged to goldsmiths and jewellers. Nearby are the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s great art museums, Michelangelo’s David, carved from a single block of marble between 1501 and 1504, and Cellini’s bronze Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall since the Middle Ages, looks over Piazza della Signoria, and across the river the Pitti Palace opens onto the Boboli Gardens.
Florence Cathedral at Dusk
Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo
Ponte Vecchio, Florence
Uffizi Gallery Courtyard, Florence
Michelangelo’s David, Florence
Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence
Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, Florence
Pitti Palace Courtyard, Florence
Neptune Fountain in the Boboli Gardens, Florence
Marble Details of Florence Cathedral
Venice
Venice is built on more than a hundred small islands in a lagoon, with canals in place of streets and boats in place of cars. The Grand Canal winds through the city for nearly four kilometres in the shape of a backward S, lined with palaces built by rich merchant families. For centuries the only way to cross it on foot was the Rialto Bridge, rebuilt in stone and finished in 1591.
St Mark’s Square is the city’s great public space, at the foot of St Mark’s Basilica and its tall brick bell tower. At the entrance to the Grand Canal stands Santa Maria della Salute, a domed church built as a thank-you after a terrible plague in 1630. Behind the Doge’s Palace, the enclosed Bridge of Sighs led prisoners to the jail, and out in the lagoon Murano is famous for its glass and Burano for its brightly painted houses.
Gondolas on the Grand Canal, Venice
Rialto Bridge by Day, Venice
Grand Canal at Sunset, Venice
St Mark’s Square, Venice
St Mark’s Campanile, Venice
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
Venice from St Mark’s Campanile
Bridge of Sighs over the Canal, Venice
Colourful Canal Houses, Burano
Canal and Footbridge, Murano
Giants’ Staircase in the Doge’s Palace, Venice
San Giorgio Maggiore Island from Above, Venice
Milan
Italy’s capital of business and fashion is also home to one of its grandest churches. Milan Cathedral took almost six centuries to finish, from 1386 to the 1960s, and its roof bristles with 135 spires and thousands of marble statues. Visitors can walk among them on the roof terraces.
Next door, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, opened in 1867, is one of the oldest shopping arcades in the world, with two glass-roofed streets crossing beneath a great glass dome. In the evening, people gather along the Naviglio Grande, a canal dug from the 12th century that once carried marble for the cathedral. The Arco della Pace, a triumphal arch begun in Napoleon’s time, closes the far end of Parco Sempione, the park behind the Sforza Castle.
Naples
Naples lies on a wide bay below Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79 and is still active today. Founded by Greek settlers as Neapolis, the ‘new city’, it has one of the largest historic centres in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. Naples is also the home of pizza: the classic Margherita is said to have been named after Queen Margherita in 1889.
On the waterfront, the Castel dell’Ovo stands on the small island where the first settlement began, while the Castel Nuovo, built by the Angevin kings at the end of the thirteenth century, guards the port. On Piazza del Plebiscito, the domed church of San Francesco di Paola was modelled on the Pantheon in Rome.
Palermo
The capital of Sicily shows a different side of Italy. Over the centuries Palermo was ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, and each left its mark. The Palatine Chapel, consecrated in 1140 inside the Royal Palace, combines golden Byzantine mosaics with a wooden ceiling painted in an Islamic style. Together with the cathedral and other Arab-Norman buildings, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy, and the city’s open-air markets are famous for their noise, colour and street food. When the summer heat rises, people head for the sandy beach at Mondello, just north of the city.
Beyond the cities
Between the cities lies the countryside that painters have loved for centuries. In Tuscany, rows of vines and cypress trees roll towards the medieval towers of Siena on the horizon. You can find every one of our Italian puzzles, cities and countryside alike, on the Italy page.
