The Best Places for a Honeymoon in Italy

The Amalfi Coast is the postcard Italian honeymoon for a reason. Positano cascading down the cliffs in pink and apricot, boats coming and going from the beach below, dinner on a terrace where the candles flicker because the sea breeze keeps moving them. There is no scenery in Italy more dramatic, and no coast more set up for couples. Ravello sits above it all and quietly outclasses the harbor towns. Praiano is the move if you want the coast at half the price and half the crowds.

Lake Como is the destination couples leave most reluctantly. The lake life of long lunches on the water, afternoon boat rides between villages, and waking up to mist on the mountains is a different gear from Italy's coastal energy. The hotels are why it works: Passalacqua, Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Mandarin Oriental, Villa d'Este. Each one is a destination in itself. Bellagio is the postcard village. Tremezzo and Lenno are the prettiest bases. Varenna is the quiet, less-touristed pick.

Capri is one of the few places that genuinely looks better than the pictures. The Faraglioni rocks rising from electric blue water, the swim from a boat at sunrise, the Piazzetta at aperitivo, the silence of the island after the day-trippers leave at 5pm. Capri rewards staying overnight more than almost anywhere in Italy. The day-tripper version of Capri is a completely different experience from the staying-on-island version.

The right Florence and Tuscany honeymoon is two trips in one. Three nights in Florence for the Uffizi, the Duomo climb, dinners in Oltrarno, and the rooftop bar at the St. Regis at sunset. Then three or four nights at a countryside hotel like Borgo Santo Pietro or Castello di Reschio, with vineyards, a cooking class, a wine tasting in Chianti, and absolutely nothing else on the schedule. The contrast is what makes the trip.

When I lived in Rome I learned that the city is at its most romantic between aperitivo and dinner. The light on the buildings, the buzz on the piazzas, the way Romans dress for an evening out. Add the Colosseum lit at night from the rooftop bar at Palazzo Manfredi (one of my favorite hotels in Italy) and the case for Rome on a honeymoon writes itself. Rome works best as the start or end of an itinerary, paired with a slower second stop.

Venice is pure atmosphere. There is no car, no metro, no normal city noise. Just water, footsteps, bells, and light bouncing off canals. Two or three nights is exactly right. Long enough for breakfast at the Gritti, dinner in Cannaregio, a morning at Burano with its painted houses, and one twilight gondola ride that you'll be glad you did despite knowing it's a tourist thing. Stay in San Marco or Castello for the canalside hotels.

Puglia is what couples who have been to Italy before book on the second trip. It is also, increasingly, what couples who have done their research book on the first one. The masseria hotels are the reason. These are working farm estates (olive groves, vineyards, citrus, sometimes a horse stable) converted into the most quietly luxurious hotels in Italy. Borgo Egnazia is the headline. Masseria Torre Maizza, Masseria San Domenico, La Peschiera, and Don Ferrante are the runners up. Add Polignano a Mare, Monopoli, Alberobello, Ostuni, and Lecce for the towns, and beaches that compete with anywhere in the Mediterranean for the days in between.

Five pastel villages stacked on the Ligurian cliffs, connected by hiking trails and a local train. Cinque Terre is the honeymoon for couples who want to actually move during the day, then collapse on a terrace at sunset with a glass of Sciacchetrà and a plate of trofie al pesto. Vernazza is the most photogenic. Monterosso is the only one with a real beach. Manarola has the best sunset. Porto Venere, just south, is the quiet alternative I send couples to who want the views without the foot traffic.

I lived in Sicily and the case for it as a honeymoon destination is straightforward: the warmest sea in Italy, the most dramatic landscape, the best food per dollar, and a culture so layered it feels like a different country. Taormina is the obvious honeymoon base. Clifftop terraces over the Ionian Sea, Mount Etna on the horizon, the San Domenico Palace (the Four Seasons in the White Lotus hotel) and Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo as the marquee stays. Add a day on the Aeolian Islands by boat and Sicily punches above almost any honeymoon in Italy for sheer drama.

The Dolomites are the answer for couples who can't picture themselves on a lounge chair for seven days. Pink granite peaks rising over alpine meadows, mountain hut lunches with handmade pasta and Lagrein wine, glacial lakes for swimming in summer, hotels like Aman Rosa Alpina, Adler Lodge Ritten, and Mandarin Oriental Cristallo in Cortina. This is Italy by way of South Tyrol, with German road signs, dumplings on the menu, and some of the most extraordinary mountain scenery on earth.