10 Best Sights in Italy

At the base of a sheer cliff, the pounding sea has carved an entrance to a vast fantastic cavern filled with stunning water pools, stalactites, and stalagmites. The dramatic cave and coves, discovered by fishermen in the 18th century, are popular tourist attractions for their sheer natural beauty. You must visit with a guide; tours start on the hour. It's possible to reach the caves by boat or by land. Between April and November, boat trips depart regularly from the port of Alghero for €17 round-trip (admission to the grotto is extra). To reach the grotto by land, you can descend the 654 dizzying steps of Escala del Cabirol ("Goat Steps"), which are cut into the steep cliff here. By public bus or, in summer, the Beach Bus from Alghero's Via Catalogna, the trip to the top of the stairway takes about 50 minutes. Allow 15 minutes for the descent by foot. Visitors arriving by land must book beforehand by telephone or online at  www.algheroexperience.it.

According to legend, it was at the huge natural lake of Pergusa that the Greek goddess Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to live with him in hell. Ringed these days by a motor-racing track and overlooked by modern villas, a less evocative setting for the myth would be hard to imagine. Far more inspiring is the nearby hilltop known as Cozzo Matrice, riddled with caves that have niches carved into their walls for tombs, votive objects, and candles, with 360-degree views stretching as far as Mount Etna and the coast. One of the caves is known as the Grotta di Ade, or Cave of Hades, and would indeed be a far more resonant spot for his abduction of Persephone to the Underworld than the overexploited lake.

Thought to be originally from the Byzantine period (although their exact history is still unknown), these caves carved out of stone can be found in and around town. They were originally used as burial sites, but then eventually became homes, although how or why is still a mystery. They were actually still inhabited up until the 1960s. Today the curious tiny houses are open to the public, and those closest to town have been turned into a museum by the local government. 

Only when the Grotta Azzurra was "discovered" in 1826, by the Polish poet August Kopisch and Swiss artist Ernest Fries, did Capri become a tourist destination. The watery cave's blue beauty became a symbol of the return to nature. In reality, the grotto had long been a local landmark. During the Roman era it had been the elegant, mosaic-decorated nymphaeum of the adjoining villa of Gradola. The water's extraordinary sapphire color is caused by a hidden opening in the rock that refracts the light. Locals say the afternoon light is best from April to June, and the morning in July and August. The Blue Grotto can be reached from Marina Grande or from the small embarkation point below Anacapri on the northwest side of the island, accessible by bus from Anacapri. You board one boat to get to the grotto, then transfer to a smaller boat that takes you inside.

About 14 km (9 miles) southwest of Barga, after following a winding road flanked by both sheer cliffs and fantastic views, you come to Tuscany's Cave of the Wind. As the result of a steady internal temperature of 10.7°C (about 51°F), the wind is sucked into the cave in the winter and blown out in the summer. It has a long cavern with stalactites, stalagmites, "bottomless" pits, and subterranean streams. One-, two-, and three-hour guided tours of the cave are given. (The one-hour tour is offered only from November through March.)

Set in the bowels of Monte Tuoro, this legend-haunted cave was dedicated to Cybele, the Magna Mater, or Great Mother of the gods—hence the somewhat corrupted name of the cave. A goddess with definite eastern origins, Cybele did not form part of the Greek or Roman pantheon: worship of her was introduced to Italy in 204 BC at the command of the Sibylline oracle, supposedly for the purpose of driving Hannibal out of Italy. At dawn the cave is touched by the rays of the sun, leading scholars to believe it may also have been a shrine where the Mithraic mysteries were celebrated. Hypnotic rituals, ritual sacrifice of bulls, and other orgiastic practices made this cave a place of myth, so it's not surprising that later authors reported (erroneously) that Emperor Tiberius used it for orgies. Nevertheless, the cave was adapted by the Romans into a luxurious nymphaeum (small shrine), but little remains of the original structure, which would have been covered by tesserae, polychrome stucco, and marine shells. If you want to see the few ancient remains, you have to step inside the now-unprepossessing cavern.

More than 300 feet high, 900 feet long, and 200 feet wide, this gigantic cave is filled with spectacular stalactites and stalagmites. The required tour takes 50 minutes. Bring a sweater to ward off the year-round chill and be willing (and able) to descend 500 steps and then climb back up. To get here you can take Bus No. 42, which leaves every 30 minutes from the Piazza Oberdan; a more scenic route is to take the tram uphill from Piazza Oberdan to Opicina, where you connect with Bus No. 42.

Near the entrance to the huge, strange Grotto Arpaia, at the base of the sea-swept cliff, is a plaque recounting the strength and courage of Lord Byron (1788–1824) as he swam across the gulf to the village of San Terenzo, near Lerici, to visit his friend Shelley (1792–1822). The poet is said to have written his lengthy narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in Portovenere.

Located on Levanzo's rugged northwestern coast, Italy's most important example of cave art, the Grotta del Genovese, displays a stunning set of paintings and incised drawings dating from the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. The guide explains in fascinating detail how the small red and black figures of animals, fish, and insectlike humans were created here between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, and how they were discovered by a holidaymaker in 1949.

Transport to the grotto, which is privately owned, may be included in the price of the ticket. Arriving by sea, a 20-minute ride, allows you to experience Levanzo's beautiful coast, but is not possible when the sea is at all rough as the boat must negotiate a narrow inlet in order to disembark passengers. The alternative is overland via Jeep, though this involves a downhill walk along a track for the last half mile. The whole excursion by boat or Jeep takes around 90 minutes. You can also make your own way here on foot along inland paths from Levanzo town, a walk of around one hour each way.

Visits to the site must be booked online, by email, or by phone at least 48 hours in advance, but ideally several days ahead during the busy summer months. Note that neither touching the engravings nor photographing them is allowed, and sturdy shoes are advised.

From Scauri, steep and narrow Contrada Zighidi climbs up to a small roadside parking lot (marked track 971 Grotta del Bagno Asciutto). Take a look first at the Byzantine tombs cut into the rock, then head downhill along a narrow track into broad, flat Valle di Monastero, planted with miniature olive trees and neat vineyards. The path then leads up through a charming, crumbling, and semi-abandoned village of dammusi before arriving at a car park with information boards, from where a clearly marked path leads to the Bagno Asciutto, a natural cave with hot steam emissions where you can lie and sweat before cooling off from a small courtyard surrounded by stone benches and fantastic views.