This is not Venice or the Amalfi Coast, nor even the capital or Florence. The two new Italian entries in the 2026 Time Out ranking dedicated to the most beautiful places in the world are the historic center of Bologna, in seventh place, and the promontory of Capo Testa, in northern Sardinia, in eighth position. The list is updated annually by the British magazine, and this year it goes from 44 to 51 destinations. There are four Italian destinations in total, with the Stelvio National Park and Puglia confirmed.
Bologna seventh in the world: the medieval center that doesn’t look like a museum
Among the countless Italian and European historic centers, Bologna climbs the ranking to seventh position.
The merit, according to Time Out, is largely that it is still a lively place, with historic butchers, bookshops, trattorias where pasta is made properly and terracotta-coloured porticoes. The magazine recommends the Quadrilatero market as an entry point to the city.
Capo Testa, the Sardinian granite that seems like another planet
Eighth in the general ranking, Capo Testa is a granite promontory in northern Sardinia, smoothed by millennia of wind. Time Out describes the enormous rocks as “bubble-shaped”, recalling a landscape that has little of the Mediterranean and a lot of the lunar.
From the Antina Vedetta viewpoint you can embrace the entire scene: the gray cliffs, the sea that changes color depending on the time, and below the beach of Cala Francese.
The confirmations: Stelvio and Puglia remain in the rankings
In addition to the two new entries, Italy also brings two confirmations compared to the previous edition: the Stelvio National Park, thirty-second, and Puglia, forty-third, with the baroque of Lecce and the trulli of Alberobello among the explicit references of the magazine.
The complete ranking of the 51 most beautiful places in the world
We leave you with the complete ranking:
- Picos de Europa, Spain
- Komodo National Park, Indonesia
- The Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, United States
- Douro Valley, Portugal
- Big Sur, United States
- Ullswater, England
- Historic center of Bologna, Italy
- Capo Testa, Sardinia, Italy
- Victoria Falls, Zambia/Zimbabwe
- Punakha Valley, Bhutan
- Co-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Valletta, Malta
- Disko Island, Greenland
- Brecon Beacons, Wales
- Red Rocks Amphitheater, United States
- Choquequirao, Peru
- New Forest, England
- Hà Giang, Vietnam
- Lakeland, Finland
- Lillafüred, Hungary
- West Cork, Ireland
- Altiplano, Bolivia
- Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Sky Lagoon Hot Springs, Iceland,
- Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
- Highlands, Scotland
- Dakhla, Western Sahara
- Bay of Kotor, Montenegro
- Zhangye National Geopark, China
- Storms River, South Africa
- Elephant Rock, Iceland
- Bacalar Lagoon, Mexico
- Stelvio National Park, Italy
- Lord Howe Island, Australia
- Natural oasis Janjske Otoke, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- The dunes of Erg Chebbi, Morocco
- Three Whale Rock, Thailand
- Paradise Bay, Antarctica
- Milford Sound Fjord, New Zealand
- Koh Rong Samloem island, Cambodia
- Ella, Sri Lanka
- Maria Island National Park, Tasmania, Australia
- Ocho Rios Blue Hole, Jamaica
- Puglia region, Italy
- Cavendish Beach, Canada
- Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
- Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
- Savannah, United States
- Jaipur, India
- Hormuz Island, Iran
- Hoi An, Vietnam
