Dua Lipa and Callum Turner spent their honeymoon working across Italy this summer, and the detail worth stealing is not the hotels, spectacular as those were. It is the pacing. They stayed in each place long enough to actually be there rather than collecting it.
What follows leans on where people who could holiday anywhere in the world keep returning. Some of it is predictable. A fair amount of it is not.
Porto Ercole, Tuscany
A small harbour town on the Tuscan coast that has kept its fishing village bones, and a stop on the Lipa honeymoon. The address everyone knows is Il Pellicano, opened in the 1960s by the British couple Michael Graham and Patsy Daszel, and still the reason a good many people come at all.
Positano, Campania
One of the most photographed towns anywhere, and it earns the attention. Madonna and Jennifer Lopez have favoured the private Villa TreVille, while Anne Hathaway and Sienna Miller have both spent time here. Le Sirenuse is still where you want to be when the sun goes down.
Capri
An island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula that has been a holiday destination since Roman times. Limestone cliffs, sea caves including the Blue Grotto, and a level of glamour that has never really dipped.
Ischia
Capri takes the attention and Ischia takes the people who would rather avoid it. The island is volcanic and far greener than most visitors expect, with wild rosemary underfoot and fig trees everywhere. Stanley Tucci talks about it often and warmly.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Dolomites
Proof that Italian glamour does not require a coastline. Cortina sits in the Dolomites in the northeast of the country, where altitude and Italian habits combine into something you will not find in the Alps elsewhere. Brunello Cucinelli and Alberta Ferretti are among the regulars.
Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany
Where Italians themselves go for a beach holiday. Sand rather than rock, mountains directly behind it, and a guest list that has run over the years from Andrea Bocelli to the late Giorgio Armani.
Portofino, Liguria
Taylor Swift put the view into a song on The Life of a Showgirl, and she joins a long queue of artists taken with the painted houses and the varnished Riva boats in the harbour. The Kardashians and Beyonce have both passed through.
Venice
Built for occasions, and it has hosted plenty of them. George and Amal Clooney married here in 2014 and Jeff and Lauren Sanchez Bezos in 2025, and the film festival brings most of Hollywood through every autumn.