Smaller Cities That Showcase Italy Better Than Rome

Bologna: the food capital that isn't pretending

Bologna is the most underrated major Italian city. It has 40 kilometres of porticoed walkways, two leaning towers (one of which leans more than Pisa), a food culture that invented things you've been eating your whole life, and a student population that keeps prices and energy honest.

The Quadrilatero, the small grid of streets behind Piazza Maggiore, is still a working food market. Pignoletto in plastic cups, mortadella by the slice, tigelle and squacquerone for lunch. Skip the spaghetti bolognese, because it doesn't exist locally. Eat tagliatelle al ragù instead.

Verona: not just the balcony

Verona's reputation gets stuck on the fictional Juliet balcony, which is genuinely the worst attraction in northern Italy. Skip it. The Roman arena is the third largest in the country and still hosts opera in summer. The Castelvecchio bridge is a Scaligeri-era engineering trick. The view from Castel San Pietro at sunset is one of the best in Italy.

Aperitivo in Piazza delle Erbe with a spritz and a small plate is a daily ritual locals still actually perform.

Lecce: the Baroque south

Lecce is built from a soft limestone that the local Baroque sculptors used to extraordinary effect. The Basilica di Santa Croce is the headline act, but the entire centro storico is carved like cake. The city sits in the heel of Italy, two hours from anywhere by train, and that distance keeps the crowds modest.

Use Lecce as a base for the Salento: Otranto on the Adriatic, Gallipoli on the Ionian, and the white town of Ostuni an hour north.

Parma: food on a small scale

Parma is the home of Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, and culatello. You can do a food tour that visits all three producers in a single day, eat lunch at a roadside trattoria where the menu is six items, and be back in town for an evening opera at the Teatro Regio.

The Battistero, the pink octagonal baptistery, is one of the most quietly beautiful buildings in Italy.

Mantua: Renaissance in miniature

Mantua is small, surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, and was once one of the most powerful courts of Renaissance Italy. The Palazzo Ducale is enormous and almost empty of tourists. The Camera degli Sposi frescoes by Mantegna are the kind of thing you'd queue for an hour to see in Florence. Here you walk straight in.