Ten Italian Cities from Merano to Gela, North to South

Merano, the second largest city of South Tyrol after Bolzano, was capital of the County of Tyrol in the 13th century until the court moved to Innsbruck in 1420. Its mild climate later made it a fashionable spa, drawing Franz Kafka and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and it still blends Austrian and Italian heritage.

Imola sits on the river Santerno and is traditionally the western entrance to Romagna. It is best known for the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, which hosts the Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and once hosted the San Marino Grand Prix.

Imperia is a young city on the Ligurian coast: it was created on 21 October 1923 by joining the towns of Porto Maurizio and Oneglia with several surrounding village communes. It is the capital of its own province, with about 42,000 residents.

Monteriggioni is a walled hilltop town built by the Republic of Siena between 1213 and 1219 as a frontier garrison against Florence. Its 565 meter circuit of walls keeps fourteen square towers near their original height, and Dante compares the giants at the edge of Hell to them in the Inferno.

Latina was founded on 30 June 1932 as Littoria, part of a project to drain the Pontine Marshes, and was inaugurated after 171 days of construction. Renamed Latina in 1946, it is one of the youngest cities in Italy and has about 127,000 inhabitants.

Barletta is an Adriatic port in Apulia where part of ancient Cannae, site of Hannibal's victory in 216 BC, lies within its territory. It was a staging point for Crusaders, is famed for the 1503 Challenge of Barletta, and holds the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze Roman statue about 4 meters tall.

Sassari is the second largest city on Sardinia after Cagliari, with 120,231 residents as of 2026. Its urban origin dates to around the turn of the 12th century, and it was ruled in turn by the Giudicato of Torres, the Pisans, an independent republic allied with Genoa, and the Aragonese and Spanish crowns.

Catanzaro is the capital of Calabria, on a ridge between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts. Between the 9th and 11th centuries it was Europe's leading center of silk production, earning the nickname City of the Two Seas, and it became the official regional capital in 1970.

Vibo Valentia was founded probably in the late seventh century BC as the Greek colony of Hipponion by settlers from Locri, and became the Roman colony of Vibo Valentia in 194 BC. It was called Monteleone until 1861 and Monteleone di Calabria until 1928, when it took back its Roman name.

Gela is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily by area and population. Greek colonists from Rhodes and Crete founded it around 688 BC, the playwright Aeschylus lived and died there in 456 BC, and Allied forces first landed in Sicily at Gela in 1943.