About us
The Atlante dei Luoghi Storici is an independent project that brings together Italy's castles, abbeys, historic villages, archaeological sites, theatres, lighthouses, museums, villas and palaces in one guide, with the practical information you need to plan a visit.
- historic places
- 41,099historic places
- regions
- 20regions
- lines (types of place)
- 9lines (types of place)
- pages with an English description
- 4,076pages with an English description
- pages with a photo
- 20,032pages with a photo
- with opening hours
- 2,028with opening hours
- UNESCO places
- 392UNESCO places
- free on the first Sunday
- 321free on the first Sunday
Why this site
Search for "castles in Tuscany" or "things to see" in a small Italian town and you often get lists with no description, no opening hours and unhelpful links. We try to do the opposite: for each place we show, where available, a description from Wikipedia, photos credited to their authors, the official website, opening hours and accessibility recorded on OpenStreetMap, the nearest station, directions and nearby places.
What you will find
Each type of place is a "line" with its own colour. Start from a line, then pick a region:
- Castles 4,767
- Fortresses and towers 4,300
- Abbeys and monasteries 2,273
- Historic villages 378
- Archaeological sites 8,644
- Historic theatres 1,126
- Lighthouses 270
- Museums 8,966
- Villas and palaces 10,375
- 392 places linked to UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 321 state sites free on the first Sunday of the month;
- trip tools: map, search, near me and an itinerary planner;
- practical guides with checked sources.
How we work
The site is generated automatically from open data, combining several sources: Wikidata for each place's identity, category and timeline, OpenStreetMap for location, opening hours, accessibility and transport, Wikipedia for descriptions and sections, Wikimedia Commons for photos, Wikivoyage for town pages, the UNESCO list and the Italian Ministry of Culture for free-entry schemes. Details are on our Sources and licences page.
A few rules we follow:
- We never make up data. If opening hours, prices or dates are not in our sources, we do not show them and we tell you where to check. Sections with no data do not appear.
- Official website means official website. We never replace it with a link to a database or an aggregator.
- We credit authors of texts and photos, as their licences require.
- No profiling: the site does not use profiling cookies (see Privacy).
Limits
Open data is rich but not perfect: a place may have inaccurate coordinates, out-of-date opening hours or a debatable category, and not every place has practical information. Distances are as the crow flies. Where an English description is missing, we say so and link to the Italian source rather than show untranslated text. Before you travel, always check the place's official website.
Help us improve
If you spot a mistake, you can fix it at the source (Wikidata, OpenStreetMap or Wikipedia) and the correction will appear here at the next update. See how to report an error.
To report a problem, suggest a correction or get in touch, write to [email protected].