Milan offers perhaps the most enjoyable look at modern, urban Italy. Its Duomo Museum, which gives meaning to Milan's richly ornamented cathedral, is scheduled to reopen sometime this year after a long restoration (duomomilano.it).
Northeastern Italy's rugged yet accessible slice of the Alps, called the Dolomites, just got easier to experience. A new, faster cable car dangles above the gateway city of Bolzano to take you to scenic Oberbozen and its Bryce Canyon-like pinnacles.
A free shuttle bus links my favorite home base in the Dolomites, Castelrotto, with the high Alpine meadowland called Alpi di Siusi, which has its own cable car that lifts hikers even higher. To keep cars from marring the landscape, Castelrotto has two new underground parking lots; one is in front of the bus station.
Italy's Riviera — at least the five remote villages of the Cinque Terre that are now protected as a national park — is more welcoming than ever. While hoteliers in this popular region near Genoa are notorious for artificially bumping up prices, travelers have more negotiating power now due to the economic downturn. Shop around before you commit to a room. The Cinque Terre Card, which covers a day of hiking in the region's national park, now also includes a free three-hour bike rental; bikes are available through tourist offices in the towns of Riomaggiore and Vernazza. For many years there was no place to check your luggage, but now you can store bags at the national park's kiosk at Riomaggiore's train station. A new hostel is open in Corniglia's former schoolhouse, offering bright and clean rooms in the least touristy and most remote of the five towns.
Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, is notoriously congested with cars and tour buses, but it just got easier to park your car at the edge of town. The Parking Mojano lot, while below the old town, now comes with an escalator that transports you nearly to the Basilica of St. Clare. It's a blessing.
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