The Culture and Cuisine of Northern Italy

The grand, gutsy capital of Emilia Romagna is home to the world’s oldest university – it is a red-bricked, porticoed place of academia, antique libraries and independent book shops. But Bologna is best known and beloved worldwide for its food: ribbons of taglietelle topped with hearty helpings of ragú, parcels of flavour-packed tortellini, shavings of rich, nutty parmesan cheese. The medieval lanes are crowded with butchers, bakeries and wine cellars; even the Due Torri (the Two Towers), the city’s soaring medieval symbols, teeter over the terracotta roofs as if drunk on the region’s finest Pignoletto.  

Shakespeare may never have visited Verona himself, but his most iconic play has long imbued the elegant city on the banks of the Adige with a sense of drama. The fountains and towers that adorn the lively Piazza delle Erbe, the fine bottles of Veneto red that age in the cellars of old-world trattorias, and the first-century Roman amphitheatre that towers over the Piazza Brà certainly help set the stage for the city’s iconic annual opera festival. 

The name alone evokes grand, stuccoed daydreams, and Lake Como is old-school glamour at its finest. It’s long been a high-rolling hideaway for the rich and famous, who while away their summers on cypress-shaded terraces of vast private villas. But the destination outshines any A-lister: reaching through the lush, green foothills of the Italian Alps, the three-armed lake is the jewel in Lombardy’s crown, where winding roads link pretty villages and ferries criss-cross the water, whisking passengers from one immaculately landscaped garden party to the next.

Whether hoarding its Renaissance treasures or booming as Italy’s economic powerhouse, Milan looks as sharp as the artful window displays of the Via Napoleone. The stylish capital’s strengths are not merely sartorial: the museums of the medieval Castello Sforzesco chart everything from ancient art to innovative furniture; La Scala stands as one of the world’s most iconic opera houses, and cocktail bars clink at aperitivo hour along the lively canals of Navigli.