Foreigners flock to Puglia — the heel of Italy's boot — for its cutesy white-stone fishing villages south of Bari and conical hobbit-like stone houses, called trulli, in the pretty Valle d'Itria. 

Further south you'll find the sleepy Salento peninsula — the very southern tip. The main city of Lecce is known for its sumptuous baroque architecture. Olive groves stretch across the countryside as far as the eye can see. 

The coastline is also extraordinary. On the eastern side, it's a dramatic roller coaster of prickly pear-topped cliffs, filled with stalactites and stalagmites. The western coast has some of the finest beaches in Italy.

When the Cinque Terre are too crowded and Portofino is too glitzy, you need genteel Camogli, the understated belle of the Ligurian coast. Backed by rearing forested hills, with its candy-colored houses racked up along the pebbly bay, it's the classic Italian Riviera, and still retains a feel of yesteryear. 

This is one place where it's worth splashing out — grand dame hotel Cenobio dei Dogi sits on the glassy gulf, with terraces cantilevered over the water. The town is beautiful to wander

Straddling the hills in the central Marche region, due east across the Apennine Mountains from Florence, Urbino is one of Italy's great art cities. 

The walled brick city is home to the enormous twin-towered Palazzo Ducale, the court of Duke Federico da Montefeltro, one of the main drivers of the Renaissance outside Florence. 

His sprawling palace is now a vast art gallery displaying much of his collection, including works from Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, and Raphael.

If you are looking for an easy getaway from Rome to enjoy a couple of days on the beach, then you should consider beautiful Gaeta. 

Located in between Rome and Naples and easy to reach by train from the capital, Gaeta is a pretty town with a historical center, a beautiful natural position and a fantastic sandy beach with golden sand and clear blue waters.

It is a lovely destination for a few days on the coast and one of the best beaches near Rome, even just for a day away from the city.

A former island off the coast of Tuscany, now connected to the mainland via three narrow sandbars, Monte Argentario is quite a special rugged spot for those looking to mingle sea and mountain fun, all in one place. 

This is a place where you can only imagine the Italian elite seeking out a hidden getaway the hidden groves of Argentario’s coastline.

Italians know the Riviera del Conero offers an all-around holiday. A variety of locations for any type of holiday, from the infinite hills to the blue sea. 

Over 20 km of coastline and numerous blue-flag beaches, a promontory overlooking the sea that gives rise to caves, coves and creeks in between the white rock and vegetation of Conero Regional Park, where wildlife and flora alternate with stunning views. 

Seriously, locals love Lago di Iseo so much it almost feels like spoiling it to include it on this list. Wedged between the Lombardy cities of Bergamo and Brescia, this picturesque body of water is the antidote to the larger, often touristy, and overcrowded lakes in the same northern region. 

The small towns around the lake are essentially still fishing villages, running on the same seasonal rhythms that have sustained them for centuries.