Italian Coastal and Lake Resorts
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Latest page update: 19 January 2025
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By Dion Protani
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The Italian coastal and lake resorts are the favourite destinations for summer holidays. With the beautiful summer sunshine comes a desire to be close to the water in order to keep cool and here we can discover the very best of what Italy has to offer with its resorts.
Typically, most people opt for seaside resorts and Italy has something to offer for everyone with a variety of options. There are the resorts where the main requirement is a sandy beach and places to eat, larger seaside towns where there's perhaps a marina and a larger shopping area or something more intimate such as a traditional fishing village. |
Tropea, Calabria
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Italy has some world famous coastal areas where you can explore a number of towns and resorts or look for a simple beach that's not particularly close to a town and away from the maddening crowds so to speak.
It's not all about the seaside though: Italy has some of the largest and most beautiful lakes in the world with the big three in the north providing an overwhelming choice of resorts. Each of Lake Garda, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are surrounded by dozens of beautiful lakeside towns while some of Italy's smaller lakes can be just as enticing.
It's not all about the seaside though: Italy has some of the largest and most beautiful lakes in the world with the big three in the north providing an overwhelming choice of resorts. Each of Lake Garda, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are surrounded by dozens of beautiful lakeside towns while some of Italy's smaller lakes can be just as enticing.
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The top ten Italian beach resorts were chosen with certain criteria in mind. Selected from thousands of possible locations, this collection forms the outstanding group of towns or smaller resorts that have the best beaches, the prettiest towns or just the most wow factor compared to their rivals.
Included in this list were Taormina in Sicily, Vieste in Puglia and Tropea in Calabria, all of which are in southern Italy, while at the opposite end of the country the likes of Sestri Levante and Monterosso al Mare in Liguria were included alongside Biodola on the Tuscan island of Elba. Cefalù in Sicily, Santa Teresa Gallura in Sardinia and Sperlonga in Lazio complete the list but in what order? |
Sestri Levante, Liguria
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In a slightly different way to the top ten beach resorts above, the seaside towns of Italy section is a collection of the best, larger coastal towns across the country.
Here we find three of the famous coastal towns of Campania: Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi, the latter two being the most popular resorts on the Amalfi Coast. From the south, we also see Polignano a Mare in Puglia and Scilla in Calabria. Sardinia is also represented in this section with the town of Alghero, followed by four towns in northern Italy: Rimini, Portofino, Portovenere and Sanremo. |
Alghero, Sardinia
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The coastal towns of Southern Italy include resorts from a number of regions including Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Campania and Lazio.
With the beautiful turquoise waters of its Salento region it's no surprise that Puglia features heavily in this list with San Foca, Trani, Santa Maria al Bagno and the beautiful Otranto all represented. Sicily's Santa Flavia and Fontane Bianche are the two southernmost entries in this category while heading north we find Pizzo in Calabria and Agropoli in Campania. The one entry from the Molise region is Termoli on the Adriatic Coast while over on the opposite Tyrrhenian Coast we find Gaeta in the Lazio region. |
Santa Maria al Bagno, Puglia
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The coastal towns of northern Italy come from both sides of the country with a selection from the Adriatic Coast to the east and some from the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas to the west.
Liguria features heavily here with the famous seaside towns of Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Camogli all present. Further south along the coast from Liguria we find ourselves in Tuscany with Castiglioncello and the beautiful Viareggio, famous for its Liberty-style architecture and its flamboyant carnival. Across on the Adriatic we have Muggia in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Caorle in Veneto, Portonovo in Marche and colourful Cesenatico in Emilia-Romagna with its daily displays of sailboats. |
Cesenatico, Emilia Romagna
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Away from the obvious attractions of seaside and coastal resorts, many Italians choose to spend their summer holidays or weekends away at one of the many fantastic lakes around the country.
This collection of the best lakeside towns of Italy isn't centred just around the most famous lakes in the north but from around the country with a few surprises thrown in that are more off the beaten track. Of course, Lake Garda, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are very well represented on this list but we can also find some great lakeside towns down in the Lazio region close to Rome. |
Varenna, Lake Como
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Aside from the resorts and seaside towns themselves, there are some dazzling Italian coastal areas with long stretches of beaches, rocky coves and bays of turquoise waters.
Perhaps the most famous of those is the Amalfi Coast in the southern region of Campania with towns like Positano and Amalfi the most popular. There are dozens pf other towns and beaches on the Amalfi Coast besides those and it's a similar story in Puglia where the Salento region has so many beaches and resorts to offer. Puglia can also count the Gargano Peninsula within its confines while the northern region of Liguria has several coastal areas. |
Positano, Amalfi Coast
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Continuing the theme of beautiful coastal towns we move on to the best fishing villages of Italy. These pretty, often colourful coves where fishermen have been plying their trade for hundreds of years provide some of the best days out and holiday bases.
The five villages of the Cinque Terre in Liguria are represented in this section with the stunning Vernazza along with near-neighbours Riomaggiore and Manarola. Also from Liguria are two pretty bays in the city of Genoa: Nervi and Boccadasse. Procida's Marina Corriccella in southern Italy has graced the cover of many a guide book and there are similar treasures to be found. |
Marina Corricella, Procida
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Chosen from thousands of Italian beaches, the very pick of the crop have been gathered into two sections.
In the first section are the best beaches in Italy; these are beaches that aren't usually part of a larger town around them and are famous for just being a beach, rather than a resort so to speak. There's also a separate section of beach resorts which are places teeming with life during the summer months, with restaurants and lots of accommodation options close by. Italy has some 4,600 kilometres of coastline and lots of beaches! |
Cala Corsara Beach, Sardinia
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