The 20 best cities in Italy, ranked (and why Rome isn’t No.1)

, registeror subscribeto save articles for later.Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Over the course of more than 40 years, I have lived in Rome and Venice and visited my selection of Italy’s 20 best cities multiple times. I therefore bring my prejudices to bear.Others will have different passions and rank cities accordingly. Shoppers will relish Milan more than I do. Gastronomes will place Bologna higher. Those who love Italy’s earthier Latin cities will favour Naples and Palermo.Be warned – what Italians call a city, we might call a town, in part a legacy of Italy’s medieval city-states. Once a city, always a city – even if these “cities” today are not what they were. Missing from my list are former cities such as Lucca, Matera, Urbino and Ravenna – for all that they are superb places to visit.Then there’s the Big Three: Rome, Florence and Venice. These cities are some of the world’s busiest and visiting can be dispiriting, as anyone...