UNESCO World Heritage sites in Italy

Italy has 47 UNESCO World Heritage sites; a mark of the cultural and geographic richness of the nation. That is more than any other country and represents around 5% of the World Heritage list. If you are an Italy completist you could spend months picking them off one by one.

We feature many of Italy's UNESCO sites on Italy Heaven, and here's an index of their destination pages. They are listed in roughly geographical order, starting in the north and continuing to the south and islands.

	UNESCO World Heritage Site	Description	Destination page
	The Dolomites	Mountain range in the Italian Alps. Added in 2009; Italy's second 'natural' listing.	The Dolomites
	Longobards in Italy, Places of Power	A selection of important Lombard sites including Cividale del Friuli	Cividale del Friuli
	Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps	Over a hundred small sites, including several across northern Italy
	Monte San Giorgio	Mountain with fossil remains. By Lake Lugano, this site used to be wholly in Switzerland, but an extension has added some Italian terrain.
	Venice and its Lagoon	Beautiful city and its lagoon surroundings	Venice
	City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto	Architectural treats by Palladio and others in the pretty town of Vicenza, as well as some of the fine countryside villas dotted around the Veneto region, many of which belonged to Venetian nobles	Vicenza, Vicenza villas, Villas along the Brenta Canal
	Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua	Pioneering sixteenth-century botanic garden belonging to the historic University of Padua; a lovely well-cared-for oasis in the town centre.	Padua
	Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia	Ruined Roman city in the north-east of Italy, with fine early Christian mosaics in its ancient basilica	Aquileia
	City of Verona	Medieval city and Roman arena	Verona
	Rock Drawings in Valcamonica	Italy's first entry on the UNESCO list; a valley filled with rock-etchings carved from prehistory until the time of the Romans	Can be reached from Lake Iseo
	Crespi d'Adda	A little-known entry, Crespi d'Adda is a model town near Bergamo built between the 19th and 20th centuries for factory workers	The village is located between Bergamo and Milan. Has a great website (external link).
	Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes	Railway crossing the Alps between Italy and Switzerland. A new addition in 2008.
	Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci	One of the most famous paintings in the world, and Milan's only entry on the cultural list.	Milan
	Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy	16th and 17th-century chapels on hills around the Piedmont (Piemonte) and Lombardy (Lombardia) regions
	Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli	Renaissance and Baroque palaces in central Genoa, and an early kind of public housing development: aristocratic residences used also to house visitors	Genoa
	Residences of the Royal House of Savoy	Grand buildings around Turin built for the ruling Savoy dynasty, future kings of Italy	Turin
	Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)	Villages and islands along the rugged Ligurian coast, where the old terraced agriculture is being revived	Porto Venere, Cinque Terre
	Mantua and Sabbioneta	Renaissance town-planning in northern Italy. A new addition to the list in 2008.
	Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta	Ferrara is a town in the Emilia-Romagna region once ruled by the powerful Este family, who left grand buildings behind	Ferrara
	Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna	Another important historic town in Emilia-Romagna, Ravenna succeeded Rome as the capital of the Western Empire, and is famous for its early Christian and Byzantine mosaics	Ravenna
	Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena	Still in Emilia-Romagna, Modena has a grand Romanesque cathedral and a leaning tower.
	Historic Centre of Urbino	Urbino, in Le Marche, boasted one of the greatest Renaissance courts; its historic centre is a monument to those days	Urbino
	Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan Sites	Hilltown with grand basilica and restored Giotto frescoes	Assisi
	Piazza del Duomo, Pisa	Beautiful open square in which stand the city's best buildings, including the famous Leaning Tower	Pisa
	Historic Centre of Siena	Picturesque Tuscan town	Siena
	Historic Centre of Florence	Florence is perhaps the finest art city in the world, with museums full of priceless paintings and sculptures	Florence
	Historic Centre of San Gimignano	An attractive hilltop town with some surviving medieval towers.	San Gimignano
	Historic Centre of the City of Pienza	Pretty village in Tuscany with a palace built by Pope Pius II.	In the region of Tuscany
	Val d'Orcia	Agricultural landscape around Siena, beloved of artists and of travel journalists	Around Siena.
	Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia	Remains of the vanished Etruscan civilisation in northern Lazio	Cerveteri
	Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura	Basically, all the good stuff in Rome	Rome
	Villa Adriana (Tivoli)	Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli, one of the small town's two UNESCO sites	Tivoli
	Villa d'Este, Tivoli	Spectacular garden in Tivoli, famous for its many fountains.	Villa d'Este
	18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex	Massive palace built for the Bourbon rulers of Naples
	Historic Centre of Naples	The centre of Naples is chaotic but also includes historic streets and fine buildings	Naples
	Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata	Roman ruins around Naples	Naples
	Costiera Amalfitana	The famous Amalfi Coast, where villages cling to rugged cliffs	Amalfi Coast
	Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological (sic) sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula	Ruined temples at the Greek site of Paestum (Greek Poseidonia), and surroundings	Paestum
	Castel del Monte	A remarkable octagonal castle near Bari, built for the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II	Castel del Monte
	The Trulli of Alberobello	Humble whitewashed conical-roofed houses called trulli are a feature of this area of Puglia	Alberobello
	The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera	Cave-dwellings in Matera, in the Basilicata region of Italy's south	Matera
	Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica	Extensive Greek ruins around a former Greek city in Sicily	Siracusa
	Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto (South-Eastern Sicily)	Baroque town-planning following an earthquake	Noto
	Archaeological Area of Agrigento	Greek ruins in the Valley of the Temples, Sicily	Agrigento
	Villa Romana del Casale	Close to Piazza Armerina in Sicily, this Roman villa is important for its incredible mosaics, excavated in the twentieth century.	Piazza Armerina and the Villa Romana del Casale
	Isole Eolie (Aeolian Islands)	Italy's first 'natural' listing, these are active volcanic islands north of Sicily	Aeolian Islands
	Su Nuraxi di Barumini	Strange prehistoric nuraghe structures in Sardinia	Sardinia