7 Best Destinations for a Honeymoon in Italy

When I was planning my first trip to Italy, my then-fiancé and I toyed briefly with the idea of eloping while we were there. A quick look at the paperwork made it clear that “Italy” and “eloping” don’t go together easily, and we dropped the plan. But it’s no surprise Italy keeps turning up near the top of honeymoon lists, for the same reason we wanted to marry there: it’s ridiculously romantic.

So if organizing a wedding in Italy sounds like too much, a honeymoon in Italy is the next best thing. The harder question is where. So many places in Italy seem made for a romantic trip that you almost can’t go wrong. Almost.

I know people who honeymooned in Rome and loved it, and there are romantic Rome hotels that can make it feel luxurious. But Rome is big, loud and full of sights you’ll feel you ought to see, so it doesn’t make my list. Here are my top seven, and they work just as well for any romantic Italy trip, honeymoon or not.

Before you pick: three questions

• When is the wedding? Italy’s coast is at its best from June to September and at its busiest in August, when Italians take their own holidays. For a honeymoon between November and March, pick a city or the countryside. Many beach hotels close in winter.
• Do you want to move or stay put? One base for a week is more relaxing than four hotels in ten days. Two bases (say, a city and then the coast or the countryside) is the sweet spot for most couples.
• Car or no car? Tuscany, Sardinia and much of Sicily are far easier with a car. The Amalfi Coast, Venice and the lakes are easier without one.

Tuscany

Sure, the whole “Tuscan Sun” thing has been done to death, and at some times of year you’ll meet more tourists than Italians in the famous hill towns. But people keep coming back for a reason. It’s bloody gorgeous.

You know those photos of misty green hills, with cypress trees lining the drive up to an old stone farmhouse? Those places exist, all over Tuscany, especially in the Val d’Orcia south of Siena. The food is simple and good, the wine is legendary, and there’s nothing quite like sharing a gelato with your sweetheart in a cobbled piazza.

Base yourselves somewhere quiet for most of the trip, ideally a restored farmhouse or an agriturismo with a pool, and give Florence two days unless you truly hate art. For hill towns, look at Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano in the Val d’Orcia, or Lucca, which is flat, walled and on the train line. San Gimignano, Montalcino and Pienza have no train station, so without a car you’ll depend on buses. Honestly, rent the car. Go in late spring or in September and October, for the grape harvest.
>> More Tuscany travel information

Amalfi Coast

Pastel houses stacked up a cliff above a blue sea: the Amalfi Coast is the picture most people have in mind when they say “Italian honeymoon.” It’s been a playground for the rich and famous for a long time, which only adds to the appeal.

Positano is the famous one and the most romantic to look at. Amalfi is the practical base, with the most buses and ferries. Ravello, up on the hill, is quieter, with gardens and summer concerts, and the best choice if you want calm. Sorrento isn’t technically on the Amalfi Coast, but it’s cheaper, closer to the trains and a short ferry from everything. For more privacy, stay on an island: Capri for glamour, Ischia for thermal spas, Procida for pastel-painted quiet.

The catch is summer: the one coast road jams, the buses fill and hotel prices peak. Go in May, June or September if you can, and use the ferries to get between towns. Walk at least part of the Path of the Gods above Positano together; it’s the best free thing on the coast.
>> More Amalfi Coast travel information

Sicily

This may look like an odd pick for a honeymoon list, but after I heard an Amateur Traveler podcast episode about Sicily, I became convinced it’s the ideal honeymoon for couples who want the more intense, less polished Italy and want to escape the crowds. The guest was Madeline Jhawar, a former Italy tour guide who now plans custom Italy trips, and who spent her own honeymoon in Sicily. She pointed out that Sicily is where Italy’s tour guides go on vacation. I can’t think of a better endorsement.

Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean. Summers are hot, winters are mild, and spring and autumn are ideal, which makes it one of Italy’s best choices for an off-season honeymoon. You get beaches, Greek temples at Agrigento and Segesta, Arab-Norman churches in Palermo and Monreale, and Mount Etna. Taormina, on its cliff above the sea with Etna behind it, is the classic romantic base and has the island’s grandest hotels. Cefalù is smaller, with a real town beach, and baroque Ortigia in Syracuse is lovely for a few days.

Travel here is less straightforward than in the north: trains are slow, and you’ll want a car to get beyond the main towns. A bit of Italian and a spirit of adventure help. You’ll be rewarded with warm weather, warm people and some of the best food in the country.
>> More Sicily travel information

Italian Lakes

If I told you the most romantic scenes in the Star Wars prequels, the balcony kiss and the wedding itself, were filmed on Lake Como, would that convince you? The lakes were a honeymoon favorite long before any film crew turned up, and it’s easy to see why: grand old villas and gardens, mountains dropping into the water, and ferries that make getting around part of the fun.

Lake Como is the famous one, and George Clooney’s house is only its best-known villa. Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio sit in the middle of the lake, all linked by ferry, and make the easiest bases. Lake Maggiore, with the Borromean Islands and their palace gardens, is a close second and a bit quieter. Lake Garda is bigger, sunnier and more of a family resort. With a week you could stay on one lake and hop between its towns by boat, or split the time between two. How decadent does a lake-hopping honeymoon sound? The lakes are at their best from April to October. Many hotels close in winter.
>> More Italy lakes travel information

Liguria

I think of the Cinque Terre as the budget traveler’s version of the Amalfi Coast. You get the same colorful cliffside villages, but you’re squeezing past hikers on narrow trails instead of rubbing shoulders with the vacationing elite. All the attention on those five villages has overshadowed the rest of the coast, which is, after all, the Italian Riviera.

Portofino is the glamorous one, a small harbor of yachts and pricey hotels that’s lovely in the evening once the day boats leave. Santa Margherita Ligure and Camogli, just along the coast, are easier on the budget, and Portovenere, at the southern end near the Cinque Terre, is as pretty as any of them with far fewer people. If you do stay in the Cinque Terre, go outside July and August. Walking the Via dell’Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola is a romantic cliche that works; it reopened in 2024 and now needs a booked time slot.
>> More Liguria travel information

Sardinia

Italy’s other big island is more remote and far less populated than Sicily. It’s the right choice for couples who are happy to rent a car, want some active days outdoors, and still want a white-sand beach to recover on after a hard hike.

Sardinia is famous for its beaches, and the water is as clear as anywhere in the Mediterranean. The Costa Smeralda in the northeast is the glamorous end, with luxury resorts and yachts. The beaches of the south around Chia and Villasimius, and the wilder Gulf of Orosei on the east coast, are better for quiet. Avoid August: Italians pack the island, and prices and crowds peak. June and September are ideal.

Beyond the beaches, Sardinia is great for hiking, sailing, mountain biking and kayaking, and the interior, with its stone nuraghe towers and mountain villages, feels like nowhere else in Italy. Fly into Olbia or Cagliari, or take the overnight ferry from the mainland with your car.
>> More Sardinia travel information

Venice

You knew I had to include Venice, right? I’ve written more than once about how much I love the city. There are good reasons to skip it on a honeymoon, but few places can match it for sheer romantic “wow.” Do it right and you can sidestep the things people warn you about.

I wouldn’t spend a whole honeymoon here unless your pockets are bottomless, because Venice is expensive. But it deserves a couple of nights, if only for early-morning Venice before the day-trippers arrive and late-night Venice after they’ve gone. The perfect honeymoon to-do list here is to wander the narrow streets, get thoroughly lost, and have only your new spouse for company. Bonus points if it’s a little chilly and you have to walk close together. Because you’re staying the night, you don’t pay the day-tripper access fee Venice charges on some peak days, though you do register for a free QR code. For a splurge, the Danieli, on the waterfront by St. Mark’s, reopened as a Four Seasons in July 2026.

I’ll be the first to admit that loving Venice takes a bit of effort. If you want a honeymoon that runs on autopilot once you arrive, look elsewhere. If you’ll meet Venice halfway, I highly recommend it. It’s still my pick if my husband ever says the words “second honeymoon.”
>> More about romantic hotels in Venice
>> More Venice travel information

Seven isn’t the limit

These seven barely scratch the surface. I left out the beaches and whitewashed towns of Puglia, the green hills of Umbria, the vineyards and truffles of Piedmont, and a thousand other places for a romantic trip. If you can’t choose, combine: a city plus somewhere to do nothing is the formula that rarely fails. Venice and the lakes, Florence and the Tuscan countryside, or Naples and the Amalfi Coast all pair easily by train. For a February honeymoon, read our winter honeymoon Q&A.

photo by yanivba, enhanced with Picnik.com by me