Singular sensations: the 10 best Italian islands

1 Tremiti Islands

1 Tremiti Islands

The Tremiti islands are one of southern Italy's best-kept secrets. At the top of the heel of Italy, this sleepy group is scattered 20km off the coast of Puglia's Gargano peninsula and surrounded by the limpid waters of the Adriatic. The islands' main attractions are their spectacular beaches, amazing rock formations, and caves and grottoes such as the Grotta delle Viole. It's all thanks to the largely limestone geology. The largest of the five islands, which form part of the Parco Nazionale di Gargano, is San Domino. The neighbouring San Nicola is uninhabited, but contains one of the islands' best sights - the dramatically situated remains of the fortified abbey of San Nicola perched on a rocky promontory over the sea.

Getting there: Fly into Bari. For train connections to the coast see www.trenitalia.it. Adriatica (00 39 081 317 2999; www.adriatica.it) operates regular motorboat and hydrofoil services between San Domino and several ports along the coast, including Termoli, Vieste, Ortono and Manfredonia. Single fares start at €7.40 (£5.20). The Hotel Gabbiano (00 39 0882 463 410; www.hotel-gabbiano.com), Piazza Belvedere, is located in the centre of the town of San Domino. It offers double rooms with breakfast from around €45 (£32) per person per night, based on two sharing.

2 Elba

Off the Tuscan coast, Elba is Italy's third largest island after Sicily and Sardinia. Its indented coastline is fringed with white swaths of beach, while its densely wooded interior is criss-crossed by walking routes and picturesque villages such as Marciana and Capoliveri. The island's beauty is best described by an ancient Greek legend, which tells of a crown owned by the goddess Venus that fell into the sea off the island's coast, transforming it into a precious gem. Most people are familiar with Elba as the place where Napoleon was exiled. He stayed at San Martino, 6km from Portoferraio, between 1814 and 1815. Just outside the village of Marciana you can take a cable car of sorts to the summit of the island's highest mountain, the 1,018m Monte Capanne. If you are afraid of heights, beware; you are transported in nothing more than a small metal cage suspended from a cable, just big enough to take two people standing up. But if you dare, it's worth the hike for the panoramic views.

Getting there: Fly into Pisa. From Pisa take the train to Piombino. Details through Trenitalia (see above). Ferries and hydrofoils operated by Toremar (00 39 081 317 2999; www.toremar-elba.it) to Elba depart from the uninspiring industrial port of Piombino on the Tuscan coast. Single fares start at €9.40 (£7). The small Hotel Ilio (00 39 0565 908 018; www.hotelilio.it) in Marciana offers double rooms with breakfast from €43 (£30) per person, based on two sharing.

3 Favignana

Favignana is a butterfly-shaped island off the western coast of Sicily. The largest of the Egadi Islands, Favignana's geographic position has played a large part in shaping its history, for it has been a port of call for travellers and colonisers over the centuries. The combination of the island's strategic location and its reliance on the surrounding seas for its livelihood is also responsible for a fascinating, if bloody, tradition, which has been carried down the years and continues to this day. "La Mattanza" is the ritual killing of schools of migrating tuna, which takes place in the second half of May each year. The fishermen force the tuna through a complicated system of underwater nets into a "chamber of death" where the fish are slaughtered. If this seems too gory a prospect, the island still has plenty to offer visitors - a sun-baked landscape, ancient sites, including the grotto of San Nicola where you can view graffiti created by the island's prehistoric inhabitants, and spectacular diving around its coast.

Getting there: Fly into Palermo. There's a bus from the airport to Trapani. Siremar (00 39 081 317 2999; www.siremar.it) operates regular ferry and hydrofoil crossings from Trapani in Sicily to Favignana. Single fares start at €2.90 (£2). L'Approdo di Ulisse Club (00 39 0923 922 525; www.apprododiulisse.com) offers double rooms on a full-board basis from €92 (£66) per person, based on two sharing.

4 Panarea

Off the north-eastern tip of Sicily, the Aeolian archipelago is a cluster of seven volcanic islands surrounded by azure waters and rocky outcrops, referred to as "the seven sisters". The islands take their name from the lord of the winds, "Aeolus", who, according to Homer, had his kingdom on the island of Stromboli. Each one has its own special charm. Tiny Panarea is the well-heeled and sophisticated party island of the chain - although this is a relative term. Its clutch of chic hotels and villas are strung out around its tiny port, San Pietro. At night, Panarea affords superlative views of the glowing tip of its neighbour, Stromboli. The best way to explore the island's hidden coves and tourmaline-hued waters is to rent a boat for around €25 (£16) per day along the seafront at San Pietro. Drop anchor and while away an afternoon in the sun in a picture-perfect bay such as the one at Cala Junco.

Getting there: Fly into Naples, Catania or Palermo. There are regular ferry and hydrofoil connections between the islands, Naples and Milazzo in Sicily. Snav (00 39 081 428 5555; www.snav.it) offers daily hydrofoil connections, journey time five hours, from Naples for €73 (£52) per person one way. Siremar offers services to the Aeolian islands from Milazzo in Sicily from €12 (£8) one way. The chic Hotel Raya (00 39 090 983 013) in San Pietro offers double rooms with breakfast from €142 (£100) per person, based on two sharing.

5 Salina

Salina may be only 20 minutes from Panarea by hydrofoil, but its atmosphere is quite different. Salina is the greenest island of the group and is dominated by the twin peaks of two extinct volcanoes: Fossa delle Felci and Monte Pirri. The island is best known for its vines, which produce a sweet dessert-style wine called Malvasia di Lipari. These are complimented by acres of caper bushes that flourish across the island. One of its most dramatic beaches is the black sea front at Pollara, used as a backdrop for the film Il Postino (most of which was shot on the island), with its spectacular cliffs towering above the sand and deserted fishing huts on the water's edge.

Getting there: (See Panarea for transport information.) One of the most charming places to stay is the Hotel Signum (00 39 090 984 4222; www.hotelsignum.it) in the small town of Malfa. This pretty hotel, with its traditional pink and terracotta-coloured Aeolian farm buildings, is surrounded by fragrant gardens. A double room with breakfast costs from €130 (£92).

6 Pantelleria

One of the most far-flung of Italy's islands, Pantelleria is a solitary drop in the ocean, marooned in the middle of the Mediterranean, 70km off the coast of Africa and 110km from Sicily. Even its name suggests something exotic - Pantelleria is derived from the Arabic "Bent-el-Rhia or "daughter of winds". Its unique landmarks are the hundreds of dammusi - small cubic dwellings, which are scattered across the island. Constructed from lava boulders with Arabic-style cupola roofs, they are cool havens in the summer when temperatures soar. Throughout the island there are funeral mounds called sesi, built by neolithic visitors believed to have sailed from Libya. Pantelleria does not possess any golden swaths of beach, but it has bathing spots around its 52km perimeter, and some of the clearest waters in Europe. The Arco dell'Elephante is particularly popular. A natural volcanic rock formation, it is so called because it resembles an elephant's trunk taking a slurp of water.

Getting there: (See Favignana for flight information.) Siremar (see above) offers hydrofoil connections from Trapani from €22 (£16) per adult one way. Think Sicily (020-7377 8518; www.think sicily.com) offers luxuriously appointed dammusi for rent on the island, starting at around €2,270 (£1,500) per week.

7 Sardinia

Sitting beneath Corsica, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Sardinia is Italy's largest island. In 1948 it was given the same autonomous status as some other regions, such as Alto-Adige and Sicily. Its most celebrated piece of coastline is on its northern tip, the Costa Smeralda, or "emerald coast", populated by well-heeled Italians who visit its upmarket resorts, including Porto Cervo. But Sardinia's charms extend far beyond here, and there is plenty more to do than simply lie on its golden beaches liberally sprinkled around the 1,949km of coastline. Since Roman times, Cagliari, on the southern coast, has been the island's capital. Its castello, or old town, is an atmospheric and tightly packed warren of streets. Just 65km north, Barumini, dating from 1,100 BC, is one of the best-preserved examples of Sardinia's native "nuraghic" civilisation. The archaeological remains of Su Nuraxi are among thousands of mysterious stone dwellings that dot the landscape in various states of disrepair.

Getting there: British Airways (0870- 850 9850; www.ba.com) flies from London Gatwick to Cagliari from £150 return. Ryanair (0871-246 0000; www.ryanair.com) offers return fares from London Stansted to Alghero from £60. Mason Rose (020-235 3245; www.masonrose.com) offers double rooms at the Forte Village on a half-board basis from £180 per person per night, based on two sharing.

8 Capri

A rocky crag lying west of the Sorrentine peninsula and a short hop from Naples, nowhere evokes the carefree Mediterranean idyll quite like Capri. And, while the small twisting alleyways of the two main towns on the island, Capri and Anacapri, can become clogged with traffic, it still casts its spell on the thousands of visitors who flock there in high summer. Undoubtedly, the most famous of the island's attractions is the blue grotto or "Grotto Azzura", a 60-metre-long sea cave best viewed from a boat, although it is also possible to walk there from Anacapri. Capri has always been a popular destination, even in Roman times, and the island is scattered with sites of historical importance, most notably the Villa Jovis. One of 12 imperial villas built on Capri, the Villa Jovis dates from the first century AD when it was built for the degenerately pleasure-seeking Emperor Tiberius. Forgo the tourist tat and treat yourself to a bottle of the divine-smelling "Fiori di Capri" by Carthusia, a fragrance

invented in 1380 at the Monastery of San Giacomo, made from a heady blend of flowers grown on the island.

Getting there: Citalia (020-8686 5533; www.citalia.com) offers a week at the Hotel Floridiana from £719 per person, based on two sharing, including return flights from London Gatwick to Naples, hydrofoil transfers and half board. Caremar (see Siremar above) operates services from Naples and Sorrento from €4 (£2.80) each way.

9 Ponza

In many ways, Ponza is the quintessential Italian island; a thin sliver of land just 8km long off the coast of Lazio between Rome and Naples and the largest of this lesser-known group of volcanic specks called the Pontine islands. The approach to the island's main town and port of the same name is picture-perfect - a cluster of houses tumble down a steep hill to a long seafront promenade lined with boats. Originally Roman, Ponza's port was re-modelled by the Bourbons in the late 1770s with the help of the celebrated architect Francesco Carpi. The forces of nature are much in evidence in Ponza's rugged coastline - there are lots of hidden coves, caves and cliffs to explore, including the naturally formed swimming pool, "la piscina naturale". But one of the real pleasures of a stay here is ordering a plate of deliciously fresh spaghetti alla vongole in one of the restaurants behind the main square, and savouring the island's unique slow pace.

Get there: Fly into Naples or Rome. Snav (see above) and Caremar (see above) offer regular services from Naples and Formia on the Lazio coast to Ponza. The Hotel Gennarino a Mare (00 39 077 180 071; www.emmeti.it/gennarino) juts out over the water in San Pietro, with its own moorings, and offers double rooms with breakfast from €180 (£128) per night.

10 Venice

"La Serenissima" is, as everyone knows, an island of pure romance. With its gondolas, canals, hidden passageways and opulent palazzi, its charms never fade. Venice has captivated travellers, artists and lovers down the centuries, and nothing quite prepares you for your first glimpse of this watery apparition of an island floating in the middle of the Venetian lagoon. The "island" of Venice is actually a mosaic of 118 tiny islands. These are intersected by the Grand Canal linked by three bridges, most famously the Rialto. Napoleon described St Mark's Square as the "finest drawing room in Europe" and its daily Rialto market is a riot of local colour. The best thing to do in Venice, however, is to throw away your map and get lost in the labyrinth of streets and alleyways.

Getting there: Cresta (0870-33 33 303; www.crestaholidays.co.uk) offers two-night breaks in Venice at the Hotel Centauro from £304 per person, based on two sharing, including return flights from London Gatwick to Venice, and breakfast.