The island of Capri is one of the loveliest resorts in Italy, a dramatic island soaring upward from the sea, with sweeping views, whitewashed homes and villas, fragrant lemon trees, narrow winding lanes, and flower-filled courtyards. The main town of Capri is the center of most of the hotels, restaurants, and elegant shops -- and the milling throngs. The heart of the resort, Piazza Umberto I, is like a grand living room, lined with cafes.

To foreigners unfamiliar with the complexities of all the "Italys" and their regional types, the Neapolitan is still the quintessence of the country and easy to caricature ("O Sole Mio," "Mamma Mia," bel canto). If Sophia Loren (a native who moved elsewhere) evokes the Italian woman for you, you'll find more of her look-alikes here than any other city. Naples also gave the world Enrico Caruso.
Naples is extraordinary, and it is the Neapolitans who make it so. Is it a sense of doom from living in the shadow of Vesuvius that makes many Neapolitans so volatile, perhaps so seemingly blind to everything but the pain or pleasure of the moment? Poverty and overcrowding are the more likely causes. But whatever the reason, Naples remains the most vibrant city in Italy -- a steaming, bubbling, reverberating minestrone in which each block is a village, every street the setting for a Punch-and-Judy show, and everything seems to be a backdrop for an opera not yet composed. It is said that northern Italians vacation here to remind themselves of the time when Italy was molto italiano -- really Italian.

Campania has the Sorrentine peninsula and the romantic towns of the Amalfi Coast: Positano, Amalfi, Ravello … Connecting these towns is the Amalfi Drive, a cliff-hugging stretch of road that tests one's faith in civil engineering as it snakes above rocky cliffs plunging into the sea. Erosion has contorted the rocks into mythological shapes and hollowed out grottoes where the air is turquoise and the water an icy blue. White villages, dripping with flowers, nestle in the coves or climb like vines up the steep terraced hills; small boats dot the blue below like brightly colored fish. The road must have a thousand turns, each with a different view, on its dizzying 69-km (43-mi) journey from Sorrento to Salerno. En route, it traverses some of the most drop-dead gorgeous real estate on earth.

One of Italy's most majestic sights lies on the edge of a flat coastal plain: the remarkably well-preserved Greek temples of Paestum. This is the site of the ancient city of Poseidonia, founded by Greek colonists probably in the 6th century BC. When the Romans took over the colony in 273 BC and the name was latinized to Paestum, they changed the layout of the settlement, adding an amphitheater and a forum. Much of the archaeological material found on the site is displayed in the well-labeled Museo Nazionale, and several rooms are devoted to the unique tomb paintings discovered in the area, rare examples of Greek and pre-Roman pictorial art.

Dramatically situated in the Gulf of Gaeta, this island is of volcanic origin. Called the Emerald Island, Ischia is studded with pine groves and surrounded by sparkling waters that wash up on many sandy beaches. In Greek mythology, it was the home of Typhoeus (Typhon), who created volcanoes and fathered the three-headed canine Cerberus, guardian of the gateway to Hades, and the incongruous Chimera and Sphinx. The island covers just over 47 sq. km, and its prominent feature is Monte Epomeo, a volcano that was a powerful force and source of worry for the Greek colonists who settled here in the 8th century B.C. The peak is dead, having last erupted in the 14th century, but it's still responsible for warming the island's thermal springs.. Ibsen lived in a villa near Casamicciola to find the solitude necessary to complete Peer Gynt.