Backpacking Italy: 12 best places to visit
The most rewarding stops for backpackers in Italy, ranked and mapped — and real routes through them, written by travellers who went.
Read Italy stories1
Rome
Lazio
Ancient ruins and la dolce vita.
2
Venice
Veneto
Canals and crumbling palazzi.
3
Florence
Tuscany
Renaissance art capital.
4
Amalfi Coast
Campania
Cliffside pastel villages.
5
Cinque Terre
Liguria
Five clifftop fishing towns.
6
Milan
Lombardy
Fashion, design, duomo.
7
Lake Como
Lombardy
Villas on an alpine lake.
8
Naples
Campania
Pizza's chaotic birthplace.
9
Tuscany
Tuscany
Rolling vineyards and hill towns.
10
Pompeii
Campania
City frozen by Vesuvius.
11
Sicily
Sicily
Volcanoes, ruins, street food.
12
Dolomites
Trentino-Alto Adige
Jagged pink mountain peaks.
Backpacking routes through Italy
Real trips through Italy, drawn on maps by the people who took them.
Naples, the Amalfi Coast and Matera: Southern Italy on a Backpacker Budget
How to do Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and Matera by local train, SITA bus and ferry, with real 2026 costs and the crowds mostly dodged.
Rome to Venice by Rail: Italy's Classic Route Without the Classic Price Tag
A two-week Rome to Florence to Venice rail route with Bologna and Verona stopovers, 2026 train prices, booking tricks and honest budget advice.
Hiking the Dolomites on a Budget: Cortina, Tre Cime and the Rifugio Life
A week of Dolomites hiking from Venice: buses to Cortina, the Tre Cime loop, a night in a rifugio, Lago di Braies early, and Val Gardena to finish.
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