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

Unusual
Attractions
in Italy

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.

Luke Cata

Added by Luke Cata

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."

Dylan

The Monsters of Bomarzo

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

Added by CDysert75

The Sunken City of Baia

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

SkareMedia

Added by SkareMedia

Torre Argentina (Roman Cat Sanctuary)

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

Annetta Black

Added by Annetta Black

Libreria Acqua Alta

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

Added by zackofalltrades

Poveglia Plague Island

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

Porta Alchemica

An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

Added by athomio

See All 508 Things to Do in Italy See All 508 Places

Atlas Obscura Trips

Culinary Naples: Producers, Purveyors, and Pizzaioli

Mar 22—Mar 27, 2020

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.

Atlas Obscura Trips

Culinary Naples: Producers, Purveyors, and Pizzaioli

Tao Tao Holmes

Unique
Food & Drink
in Italy

Threads of God

Gastro Obscura

Threads of God

To eat the world's rarest pasta, you must first complete a 20-mile pilgrimage.

Gastro Obscura

rachelrummel

Added by rachelrummel

Strawberry Tree Fruit

Gastro Obscura

Fruits & Vegetables

Strawberry Tree Fruit

The lychee-looking fruit appears in everything from jam and liqueur to the Aeneid and Madrid's flag.

Gastro Obscura

Jared Rydelek

Added by Jared Rydelek

Sfogliatella

Gastro Obscura

Sfogliatella

This layered pastry from Italy's Amalfi Coast may have origins in a 17th-century convent.

Gastro Obscura

StepYoshi

Added by StepYoshi

Saint Agatha's Breasts

Gastro Obscura

Saint Agatha's Breasts

This ricotta and marzipan pastry honors the Sicilian saint's most noteworthy body part.

Gastro Obscura

rachelrummel

Added by rachelrummel

See all 56 things to eat in Italy See all 56 things to eat in Italy

Explore Italy

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Recent Italy Activity

hertysaforma4 wants to go to Monteruga Ghost Town

hertysaforma4 has been to Monteruga Ghost Town

erinaceouscouchee has been to The Village of Craco

erinaceouscouchee has been to The Aventine Keyhole

hhamilton wants to go to University of Florence Museum of Pathological Anatomy

Stories
About Italy

The torchlight turns the village of Novacella into a storybook scene.

Italian Vineyards Are Glowing From the Light of Hundreds of Torches

It's a beautiful, if imperfect, antidote to crop-damaging cold.

by Matthew Taub

Olive groves in the Puglia countryside.

Italian Olive Oil Is Facing a Perfect Storm of Climate and Pests

It may not be long before the country has to import some of its supply.

by Noor Al-Samarrai

Massimo Rapella keeps chickens in a two-acre chestnut forest in Valtellina, north of Milan.

The Italian Farmer Returning Chickens to the Wild

His chestnut forest is home to thousands of hens.

by Vittoria Traverso

How an Italian Writer’s Imaginary Garden Became a Place of Literary Pilgrimage

Soon, the Garden of the Finzi-Continis may no longer be a fiction.

by Diego Courchay

February 18, 2019

The restored pool in Bùs del Budrio in February 2018.

The Habitat Restoration Project to Save a Tiny Italian Cave Worm

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

by Erica Tennenhouse

February 01, 2019

Two Moka pots, together on a counter.

The Humble Brilliance of Italy's Moka Coffee Pot

In the era of pods, the iconic item has become an endangered species.

by Dan Nosowitz

December 07, 2018

Locals from Val Germanasca foraging wild herbs to make Serpui, a grappa seasoned with wild thyme that is typical of northwest Italy.

Reviving the Lost Tradition of Cooking Flowers

It was once common across rural Italy.

by Vittoria Traverso

November 12, 2018

A Columbarios Roman burial ground funerary inhumation exhibition pictured in Merida, Extremadura, Spain.

The Ancient Roman Libation Tubes That Connected the Living to the Dead

Families poured offerings through vessels directly installed into graves.

by Teresa Bitler

October 31, 2018

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