I will soon be leaving for Italy and surrounding areas without an itinerary, and wanted to know if there are any must see locations for landscape photography.
Thanks

Italy offers a very wide palette of landscapes... From the alpine regions of northern Italy to the volcanoes of Sicily and Eolie islands you could spend a couple of years or much more. In between, you'll find Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples and the always popular regions like Umbria or Tuscany.
You can start by visiting Lisa's galleries, Stefano Caporali's galleries and Sicily Landscape.

Italy, a small country, offers a lot, for landcapes photography, from mountains, to countryside, sea and lacs.
I will just indicate some places familiar to me, but which are also must see places.

1) Tuscany, one of the regions of Italy, offers a lot in terms of photography, first of all very nice landscapes, but also beautifull old villages, which are very well maintained and with interesting landscape in the surroundings.
For landscapes, probably,the best area is located in the middle of the region, in a triangle between the city of Florence, Pisa and Siena.
Go to SANTA LUCE or ORCIANO PISANO villages (near Pisa) for country landscape, than VOLTERRA village, and than proceed to SAN GIMIGNANO, MONTERIGGIONI villages and surroundings: they are good for the landscapes and the villages themselves.
Siena city is also nice for photography.
Than MASSA MARITTIMA and GAVORRANOvillages and the surrounding area.

2) Sea
Closed to Tuscany, at its neighbord, 2,5 hours drive from Florence, there is the CINQUE TERRE area, five villages (RIOMAGGIORE, MANAROLA, CORNIGLIA, VERNAZZA, MONTEROSSO) right on the rocky sea, with lovely landscape and gorgeous sunsets.

I am living in LUCCA, Tuscany, which is also a very nice city, with the impressive Walls surrounding the city : go on Google Earth and have a look of the different places.

Enjoy your trip and best regards!

Alex

I'll throw one more ingredient in the pot : Abbruzzi - the Campo Imperatore area is easy to reach and boasts superb mountains, within sight of the adriatic sea on clear days.


Castel del Monte Rocca Calascio from Campo Imperatore, fall 2007

Edit : location finally 99% sure and linked to a gallery, please excuse the numerous family snapshots but a few images are of more general interest

My favourite area is the coastline of north sardinia from Olbia up to Santa Teresa di Gallura in front of Corsica.
Together with other photographers we have some 360° panorama images online at http://www.360cities.net/area/italy - zoom out of the map and browse the regions.

Greetings from Genoa, Italy

Val d'Arigna (Valtellina, Lombardy) in April-May (if you like hiking): peaks (rocky and cloudy... numinous, 3000 m. high), glaciers (small but stubborn), snow, waterfalls, green and fat grass, wild cherry blossoms, some sheeps, all in one picture...

Don't forget the photogenic Amalfi Coast south of Naples. Breathtaking.

for me it would have to be 1/ venice 2/ tuscany, 3/ umbria, 4/ amalfi coastline, stunning locations, enjoy.