911 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in Italy - Atlas Obscura

Unusual Attractions in Italy

Santa Maria della Concezione Crypts

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."

Sorrento, Italy

Valle dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills)

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

Torre Argentina (Roman Cat Sanctuary)

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.

The Monsters of Bomarzo

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

Libreria Acqua Alta

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

Quartiere Coppedè

Architectureal fantasy quarter of Rome.

The Sunken City of Baia

A submerged archeological park still holds the wonders of a Roman Sodom.

Galleria Sciarra

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.

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Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Italy

BackDoor 43

One of the world’s smallest bars, just 13 square feet, is brimming with speakeasy flair.

Florence, Italy

Babae Wine Window

Drink wine handed out through a window as part of an age-old tradition.

Servian Wall at McDonald's

Inside this Mcdonald's you can dine on your Big Mac and fries next to a 2,500-year-old Roman wall.

Thermopolia of Pompeii

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

See all 24 places to eat in Italy See all 24 places to eat in Italy

Atlas Obscura Trips

Culinary Naples: Producers, Purveyors, and Pizzaioli

From street food to lavish feasts, piping-hot coffee to smooth aperitivos, folk songs to opera, hilltop farms to urban wilds, immerse yourself in the greatest culinary and cultural experiences of Naples, meeting lively local Neapolitani for whom this is the only way to live.

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Stories About Italy

A CEA Demining team scours a wedge of land next to a rail line at the outskirts of Bologna, Italy.

Tagging Along With Italy's Unexploded Bomb–Hunters

There's less and less for the country's demining companies to find. Sometimes they pine for the good old days.

by Alessio Perrone

Italy has roughly 237 <em>vie fittizie</em>, or fictitious streets, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in Sicily.

The Italian Streets That Don't Exist on Any Map

How a system designed for circus performers and traveling salesmen helps homeless people access services.

by Catherine Bennett

A block carrying an ancient Roman inscription was reused in a medieval wall in Conza. On the left, the remains of the Roman forum can be seen below street-level buildings that survived a 1980 earthquake.

In 1980, an Earthquake Destroyed an Italian Town—and Revealed Another

In Conza today, millennia of history seem to exist all at the same time.

by Federico Formica

Nine teams of battlers take part in Ivrea's Battle of the Oranges.

Ivrea's Battle of the Oranges Is Raucous, Sticky Fun

The Italian Carnival celebration involves one town, nine teams, and three tons of citrus.

by Ashawnta Jackson

Maria Cristina Borgazzi, the daughter of Noemi, who opened the eponymous trattoria in 1958, holding one of the restaurant's main dishes: pasticcio.

The Italian Town Where You Can Eat Like a Renaissance Royal

Residents of Ferrara dine like 16th-century dukes.

by Rebecca Ann Hughes

February 22, 2022

A gray horse is the central element in a monument to the unsolved murder of Ruggero Pascoli.

The Unsolved Murder That Haunted a Beloved Italian Poet

A stirring mosaic marks the spot where Ruggero Pascoli was killed in 1867, shaping his son Giovanni's prolific art.

February 3, 2022

An <em>Opera dei Pupi</em> heroic knight puppet.

Palermo's Unique, Centuries-Old Puppet Tradition Enters a New Era

The Sicilian city's puppeteers are finding novel ways to keep the art form alive.

by Anna Staropoli

December 10, 2021

The Morettino's coffee plants in Palermo, Italy.

Climate Change and the Dream of Growing Coffee in Sicily

As temperatures rise, one family hopes to establish the world’s northernmost coffee plantation.

by Lorenzo Tondo

October 25, 2021

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