Vacation life feels sweeter, safer, and more serene among cypress trees and old stone buildings. When the day’s big decisions revolve around choosing pasta shapes and routing scenic drives, life slows to a civilized pace, allowing us to appreciate even the smallest of details in bas relief. For your next big holiday, consider heading for the rolling hills—and shimmering lakes! and alpine peaks!—of northern Italy.

For the Group Text >> An hour’s drive from Milan, the biodynamic winery and boutique hotel Locanda La Raia in Piedmont has restored two apartments (decorated with Piedmontese pieces and contemporary design objects) accommodating up to nine guests. If you need to brush up on your Italian wine regions, here’s a handy guide from our friends at Kingdom magazine.

Drop the Mic >> And land it onto vinyl in the Darsena Listening Suite at Il Sereno. This is the hotel experience that audiophile dreams are made of: more than 500 albums, horn speakers, a turntable, and a vintage reel-to-reel deck. All yours for the playing (while looking out at the shimmering waters of Lake Como, no less).

Extended Aperitivo >> When the family-run Grand Hotel Fasano reopens on Lake Garda this season, it will debut a new lakefront beach bar and take bookings through Christmas and New Years for the first time. Not far away are the rolling hills and vineyards of Franciacorta and L’Albereta, the Relais & Chateaux inn beloved for its green, art-filled estate (as seen in the top photo), in-house Bellavista winery, Chenot Espace spa, and a pizzeria by TheBestPizza award-winner Franco Pepe.

Design Details >> A few ambitious rehabilitation projects—like this historic Tuscan hamlet, and this Puglian palazzo featured on Remodelista—showcase the beauty of working with new materials on old bones. At the rustic-modern alpine house San Luis in South Tyrol, guests can swim indoors in front of a cozy open fire.

Gateway to Style >> The 64th edition of Salone del Mobile 2026 runs from April 21 to April 26 in Milan. The design world’s most notable fair sheds light on furniture trends, artisanal craftsmanship, cultural influences, economic anxieties, archival excitement, and wild experiments of the design mind. It’s exciting to be in the mix, or just adjacent to it. Architectural Digest offers a city guide with insider tips for tapping into the city’s creative spirit.

Shed a Tear for Blank Pages >> The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) officially launched this month in 29 European Union member states, including Italy. The new border-crossing procedure collects and registers fingerprints and facial data from visitors and replaces the antiquated (but charming?!) passport stamp.

Grand Hotel Tremezzo, the most storied hotel in one of the most storied locales, just celebrated its 115th year as a premier Lake Como destination. The location is picture-perfect, with century-old terraced gardens and extravagant displays in landscaping. The hotel’s four restaurants are splashy and stunning (and considered the birthplace of modern Italian cuisine); the spa features an Italian hammam as well as Santa Maria Novella products (the oldest apothecary in the country); the 77 elegant guest rooms mix classic and contemporary designs. The sleep reports are so positive that the property sells the sought-after Beltrami bed linens at a fast clip on Sense of Place, Grand Hotel Tremezzo’s online boutique (285€ for a king flat sheet). Can this kind of pinch-me perfection be repeated? Well, the De Santis family also owns nearby hotel Passalacqua, which was nearly immediately crowned the world’s best when it opened in 2022.

Get lost in a good book. Add an Italian accent.