Art & Architecture

Antiquity (8th century BC – 5th century AD)

Etruscan tomb paintings (Tarquinia), Greek temples (Agrigento, Syracuse, Paestum), Roman architecture (Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum), mosaics (Pompeii, Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily).

Romanesque & Gothic (11th–14th centuries)

Romanesque churches (San Miniato al Monte in Florence, Pisa Cathedral), Norman-Arab architecture in Sicily (Cappella Palatina, Monreale Cathedral), Gothic cathedrals (Siena, Orvieto, Milan), Giotto's frescoes (Assisi, Padua).

Renaissance (15th–16th centuries)

THE Italian contribution to world culture. Brunelleschi's dome (Florence), Leonardo's Last Supper (Milan), Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and David (Rome, Florence), Raphael's Rooms (Vatican), Botticelli's Birth of Venus (Uffizi), Palladio's villas (Vicenza).

Baroque (17th–18th centuries)

Theatrical drama and exuberance: Bernini's sculptures and urban designs in Rome (St. Peter's Square, Fountain of the Four Rivers), Caravaggio's chiaroscuro painting, the Baroque towns of Sicily (Noto, Ragusa, Modica), Borromini's architecture (San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane).

Modern & Contemporary (19th–21st centuries)

Futurism (Boccioni, Balla — National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome), Metaphysical painting (de Chirico), Arte Povera (Merz, Pistoletto), contemporary stars (Maurizio Cattelan, Vanessa Beecroft). Architecture: Renzo Piano (Genoa, Paris, New York), Massimiliano Fuksas, Zaha Hadid's MAXXI in Rome.

1. Vatican Museums, Rome — Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms, ancient sculptures. €17.
2. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence — Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Caravaggio. The Renaissance under one roof. €20–25.
3. Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence — Michelangelo's David. €12.
4. Galleria Borghese, Rome — Bernini's sculptures, Caravaggio, Raphael. In a villa in the park. €15. Reservation required.
5. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples — The finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The "Gabinetto Segreto" (erotic art from antiquity) is infamous. €15.
6. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice — Venetian painting from Bellini to Canaletto. €12.
7. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan — Mantegna, Caravaggio, Raphael. Milan's most important art museum. €15.
8. Museo Egizio, Turin — The second most important Egyptian collection in the world (after Cairo). €15.
9. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice — Modern art on the Grand Canal: Picasso, Pollock, Ernst, Dalí. €16.
10. MAXXI, Rome — Zaha Hadid's museum for contemporary art and architecture. The building is the artwork. €12.