ITALY
Italy is a sumptuous feast for the senses. Every corner overflows with beautiful landscapes, remarkable cities, villages, castles, and pleasure villas, all decorated with dazzling art. Add exquisite food and wine, and the innate style and charm of the Italian people, and not least of all, the national passion for going over the top with bravura. In Italy life is somehow richer, grander, sweeter.
Weather
Italy's climate varies from north to south and from lowland to mountain top. Winters are long and severe in the Alps, with snow falling as early as mid-September. The northern regions experience chilly winters and hot summers, while conditions become milder as you head south. The sirocco, the hot and humid African wind that affects regions south of Rome, produces at least a couple of stiflingly hot weeks in summer.
Festivals & holidays
The pre-Easter Carnivale is closely associated with Venice; Holy Week Easter processions are especially flamboyant at Taranto, Chieti and Sicily; and Florence explodes a cart full of fireworks on Easter Sunday. Festivals honouring patron saints are also particularly colourful events; for example the Fiestas di San Nicola in Bari and San Gennaro in Naples, the Festival of Snakes in Abruzzo (May) and the Fiesta of Sant'Antonio in Padua (June). Events betraying more than a hint of history include the Race of the Candles and Palio of the Crossbow in Gubbio (May), the Sardinian Cavalcade (May), the Regata of the Four Ancient Maritime Republics (which rotates between Pisa, Venice, Amalfi and Genoa, and is held in June), Il Palio in Siena (July & August) and Venice's Historic Regatta (September).
Please choose an Italian region for a list of available properties and further details: