80+ Best Quotes About Italy

Are you looking for the best quotes about Italy to inspire you to travel — or maybe even move! — to this beautiful country?

Brimming with interesting attractions, it’s hardly surprising that Italy always makes it to the top 5 most visited countries in the world. People come this stunning Mediterranean country for its art, fashion, architecture, history, culture, and cuisine.

And did I mention its mountains, vineyards, and the stunning Mediterranean beaches?

Some people visit and decide to stay. I don’t blame them!

Below are 80+ best Italy quotes that will inspire you to travel — or move!

Best Quotes About Italy

Here are the best quotes about Italy for some inspiration.

1. “How beautiful is sunset, when the glow of Heaven descends upon a land like thee, Thou Paradise of exiles, Italy!” — Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet

2. “The name of Italy has magic in its very syllables.” — Mary Shelley, English novelist

3. “The most stylish country in the world is Italy.” — Nick Rhodes, English musician

4. “You may have the universe if I may have Italy.” — Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer

5. “I’m a pretty calm person. That came from living in Italy for a long time. Nothing works, nothing is on time. You have to learn to deal with it.” — Tom Ford, American fashion designer

6. “Open my heart and you will see
Graved inside of it, ‘Italy.'” — Robert Browning, English poet and playwright

7. “But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don’t. Don’t evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.” — Umberto Eco; Italian author, philosopher, and semiotician

8. “If the landscape of human emotion were to exist in a country, it would be in Italy.” — Lisa Fantino, American author

9. “I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor.” — Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist

10. “Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building after seeing Italy.” — Fanny Burney, English novelist and playwright

11. “The Creator made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo.” — Mark Twain, American author and humorist

12. “Italy is a hot country. Wherever you feel heat, your excitement and passion come out. We’re hot-blooded, and where there’s passion there’s love, but also anger, hunger, excitement.” — Gino D’Acampo, Italian celebrity chef and media personality

13. “What is the fatal charm of Italy? What do we find there that can be found nowhere else? I believe it is a certain permission to be human, which other places, other countries, lost long ago.” — Erica Jong, American novelist

14. “All my ego wants is to be sitting by a lake in Italy. It doesn’t want to be backstage, warming up.” — Chet Faker, Australian singer

15. “We are all pilgrims who seek Italy.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright and novelist

16. “Italy offers one the most priceless of all one’s possessions — one’s own soul.” — Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, American journalist

17. “Italy is my destiny; it calls to me to return home.” — Melissa Muldoon, American author and artist

18. “Even now I miss Italy dearly, I dream about it every night.” — Eila Hiltunen, Finnish sculptor

19. “For sure, in Italy, the sun always shines.” — Aleksandar Mitrović, Serbian soccer player

20. “When life gives you twists and turns, chique yourself up in Italy!” — Barbara Conelli, American author and travel writer specializing in Italy

21. “A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see.” — Samuel Johnson, English author

22. “Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.” — Bertrand Russell, British polymath

23. “One of the great joys of traveling through Italy is discovering firsthand that it is, indeed, a dream destination.” — Debra Levinson, American author

24. “… is there anywhere in the world as full of beauty as Italy?” — Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera, Spanish journalist and author

25. “Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity or at least is reminiscent of childhood.” — Alexander Herzen, Russian writer

26. “Italy — I love the late-night culture, hanging around the square at midnight with everyone, catching up, and having a drink.” — Gemma Chan, English actress

27. “Italian cities have long been held up as ideals, not least by New Yorkers and Londoners enthralled by the ways their architecture gives beauty and meaning to everyday acts.” — Rebecca Solnit, American writer

Italy Quotes

28. “In Italy, they add work and life on to food and wine.” — Robin Leach, British reporter and writer

29. “Italy will never be a normal country. Because Italy is Italy. If we were a normal country, we wouldn’t have Rome. We wouldn’t have Florence. We wouldn’t have the marvel that is Venice.” — Matteo Renzi, Italian politician

30. “Italy and London are the only places where I don’t feel to exist on sufferance.” — E. M. Forster, English writer

31. “Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don’t care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called Order Of Death, and they’ve really got it sussed. Nice cars. Sharp suits. Great food. Stroll into work at 10. Lunch from 12 till three. Leave work at five. That’s living!” — John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, English-born songwriter and lead singer of British punk band Sex Pistol

32. “For us to go to Italy and to penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery.” — D. H. Lawrence, English writer and poet

33. “No matter where I’ve been overseas, the greatest joy was moving into Italy. Italy has changed me, for the better.” — Efrat Cybulkiewicz, Italy-based multicultural painter and illustrator

34. “I find other countries have this or this, but Italy is the only one that has it all for me. The culture, the cuisine, the people, the landscape, the history. Just everything to me comes together there.” — Frances Mayes, American novelist

35. “I was in Italy on vacation, and I saw my reflection in a mirror. I saw how unique my skin was and why people stop me on the street to ask about it. I started falling in love with it.” — Khoudia Diop, Senegalese fashion model and actress

36. “I love places that have an incredible history. I love the Italian way of life. I love the food. I love the people. I love the attitudes of Italians.” — Elton John, English singer and composer

37. “If you deconstruct Italy, you will, in the end, see a grapevine, a tomato, and a small boy hammering a shard of marble.” — Pietros Maneos; American model, poet, and writer

38. “Italy has changed. But Rome is Rome.” — Robert De Niro, Italian-American actor

39. “And don’t, let me beg you, go with that awful tourist idea that Italy’s only a museum of antiquities and art. Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvelous than the land.” — E. M. Forster, English writer

40. “Totally contrary to my genetic makeup, contrary to my usual behavior and preferences, contrary to all logic, I fell madly in love with Italy, its people and its chaos.” — Nancy Yuktonis Solak, American author

More Italy Quotes…

41. “In America, one must be something, but in Italy, one can simply be.” — Pietros Maneos; American model, poet, and writer

42. “Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life.” — Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet

43. “I say to the young, be happy that you were born in Italy because of the beauty of the human capital, both masculine and feminine, of this country… No other country has such human capital.” — Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian Nobel laureate

44. “Italy is a geographical expression.” — Klemens von Metternich, Austrian statesman and diplomat

45. “There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy.” — E. M. Forster, English writer

46. “I was offered a free villa in Hollywood, but I said no thank you, I prefer to live in Italy.” — Ennio Morricone, Italian composer

47. “I love Italy and I say I am from Italy wherever I go.” — Lapo Elkann, Italian businessman

48. “It’s easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.” — Philip Dunne, British politician

49. “I lived in Italy for quite a while and married an Italian woman. While there, I immersed myself in the complete culture: the music, art, literature, film, food, and history. It’s easy to fall in love with. As a country, Italy does a good job of holding onto its rich traditions and culture. There’s a real lack of embracing history in America.” — Mike Patton, American singer

50. “Nothing except time is wasted in Italy.” — Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American writer

51. “I love Italy; in Italy, I grew up like a man and like a player. I felt Italy like a family.” — Patrice Evra, French soccer player

52. “Italy was where the soul went to find calm and love, and I wanted to hold the best of it in the palm of my hand.” — Lisa Brennan-Jobs, American writer

53. “The catechism says rich nations should welcome strangers within the limits of the possible. In Italy, we have reached the limits of the possible.” — Matteo Salvini, Italian politician

54. “I’m from Italy, the home of Vivaldi, Rossini, Puccini. When I stopped playing and became a manager, football became like a beautiful piece of music to me – and the players, an orchestra.” — Claudio Ranieri, Italian football manager and former football player

55. “If I spoke Italian, I’d be in Italy in a minute. I love the food, I love the way people live there. I mean, it really is my idea of paradise.” — Bonnie Bedelia, American actress

56. “I grew up in Italy, and our country is a country of great agriculture and food produce. It wasn’t like I was urban and only knew about high-heeled shoes and purses and never knew where my eggs came from.” — Isabella Rossellini, Italian-American actress

57. “It’s typical of Italian culture that we only start to feel emotional about something when we have the possibility to see it in front of us.” — Alberto Tomba, Italian ski racer

58. “Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted.” — Barbara Steele, English film actress and producer

59. “The Italians have long known what makes a livable town or city.” — Norman Foster, English architect and designer

60. “In Italy, the artist is a god.” — Josef Albers, German artist

61. “If I’m in Italy at a certain time of year, I’ll make sure to try fresh porcini mushrooms in risotto, or puntarelle, a sort of curled chicory leaf that’s only available for a few weeks in May.” — Antoni Porowski, Canadian actor and TV personality

62. “I do quite like sightseeing. I like churches, museums, galleries and all that stuff. I love the smell of a church in Italy or the smell of an old greasy spoon somewhere.” — Ashley Jensen, Scottish actress

63. “I think that lunch is one of the most enjoyable and important things in the day. But you need to create the space and the time to do just that. And in Italy, we do that.” — Lidia Bastianich, Italian-American celebrity chef

64. “If you stop for lunch elsewhere in the world, you tend to eat a sandwich, and a bad one. Italy is unique for the style of life. I think everyone envies it a bit.” — Lapo Elkann, Italian businessman

65. “Italy is famous for fashion, food, Ferrari, and furniture – furniture was a segment where the companies in the high end are all small.” — Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Italian businessman

66. “I’d rather not have an address in France but an address in Italy because I love the country.” — Gérard Depardieu, French actor and film maker

67. “I once went to Alba, Italy, during their white truffle festival, and I was like, ‘Just leave me here!'” — Amber Valletta, American model and actress

68. “I would love to take a road trip across Italy in an Aston Martin S Coupe.” — Esha Gupta, Indian film actress

69. “Life is too short. If we’re in Italy, have pizza and pasta.“ — Harley Pasternak, Canadian personal trainer and motivational speaker

70. “I think I feel automatically at home in Italy.” — Boyd Rice, American musician

Italy Quotes

71. “For a Spaniard, Italy is the best place to live. You’ve got all the beauty, history, art, good food, and fashion.” — Álvaro Morata, Spanish football player

72. “A man has not fully lived until he experiences that gentle balmy clime of ancient empires, the land of lemon trees and the genius of Michelangelo.” — E. A. Bucchianeri, American author

73. “I gasp for air if I don’t get to breathe Italian air once a year.” — Daniel Meyer, American restaurateur

74. “Italians know that what matters is style, not fashion. Italian style does not have social or age boundaries.” — Stefano Gabbana, Italian fashion designer

75. “I think people in Italy live their lives better than we do. It’s an older country, and they’ve learned to celebrate dinner and lunch, whereas we sort of eat as quickly as we can to get through it.” — George Clooney, American actor

76. “Italian culture is so deeply soaked in an appreciation of the good things in life.” — Mariska Hargitay, American actress

77. “In Italy, food is an expression of love. It is how you show those around you that you care for them. Having a love for food means you also have a love for those you are preparing it for and for yourself.” — Joe Bastianich, American restaurateur and TV personality

78. “Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” — Federico Fellini, Italian film director

79. “Italy will always have the best food.” — Diane von Furstenberg, Belgian fashion designer

80. “First of all, let’s get one thing straight. Your Italy and our Italia are not the same thing. Italy is a soft drug peddled in predictable packages, such as hills in the sunset, olive groves, lemon trees, white wine, and raven-haired girls. Italia, on the other hand, is a maze. It’s alluring, but complicated. It’s the kind of place that can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred meters, or in the course of ten minutes. Italy is the only workshop in the world that can turn out both Botticellis and Berlusconis.” — Beppe Severgnini, Italian journalist

81. “Italy is the last country where people savor the joy of living. It makes us believe it even when Italy herself has ceased to believe.” — Roger Peyrefitte, French diplomat and author

82. “In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” — Orson Welles; American writer, film actor, director, and producer

If you liked these Italy quotes, then you will love the 60 Useful Italian Sayings with English Translation and Meanings!