From avoiding English-Italian translation traps to exploring Italy’s lesser-known travel destinations, our weekly newsletter La Bella Vita offers you an essential starting point for eating, talking, drinking and living like an Italian.
La Bella Vita is our regular look at the real culture of Italy – from language to cuisine, manners to art. This newsletter is published weekly and you can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to newsletter preferences in ‘My Account’ or following the instructions in the newsletter box below.
Italy is one of the world’s favourite summer holiday destinations and, though it’s a diverse country with countless sights to see, most visitors seem to flock to the same few hotspots – from ‘art cities’ such as Florence, Venice and Rome to picturesque regions like the Amalfi Coast and the Cinque Terre.
These destinations draw millions of visitors every summer, with large tourist crowds known to regularly overwhelm popular attractions and museums during peak travel period.
If you’re looking for a more relaxed, less claustrophobic Italian travel experience this summer, there are countless options – but it’s not always easy to narrow them down.
To help you head off the beaten path, we handpicked some of the best lesser-known places to visit around Italy.
Though these aren’t all completely unknown, they’re the sort of destinations where we believe you can enjoy an authentic Italian experience.
9 alternative places to visit in Italy in 2025
As all language learners will know, Italian contains a lot of words that are either the same or very similar to English but have subtly different (or even completely opposite) meanings.
Some of these ‘false friends’ are amusing, but others can be cruel, and you might end up in hot water if you get the meanings mixed up.
To help you avoid trouble or embarrassment, we put together some of the most frequently mistranslated words.
9 of the most common Italian translation fails
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Italians are known to take their food very seriously, with foreign adaptations of ingredients or methods used in traditional Italian recipes often sparking cries of outrage around the country.
This strong sense of pride extends to food production, with Italian farmers and winemakers fiercely defending their products via a stringent labelling system.
But food and drink labels can be more than a little confusing to the average non-Italian shopper.
If you find it hard to remember what the difference is between DOP, DOC, IGT or DOCG, here’s a helpful explanation – and a look at whether this is always a mark of superior quality.
Italian food and wine: What does the DOP label mean – and are these products better?
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Is there an aspect of the Italian way of life you’d like to see us write more about on The Local? Please email us at news@thelocal.it.