Italy Quotes
Our selection of Italy quotes from a range of authorities paints a beautiful picture of the country.
Although small in geographic size – it’s about the same size as the state of Arizona – Italy looms large in history. Its influence on food, art, style, design, culture, church, government, and architecture is immense.
After reading through these inspirational Italy quotes, you’ll see why Giuseppe Verdi wrote, “You may have the universe if I may have Italy.”
Please continue scrolling down or use the jump menu to find the area which most interests you.
Best Italy Quotes
1.) The Creator made Italy by designs from Michelangelo.
Mark Twain
2.) You may have the universe if I may have Italy.
Giuseppe Verdi
3.) Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life.
Anna Akhmatova
4.) Open my heart, and you will see graved inside of it, “Italy.”
Robert Browning
You’ll also want to check out our 101 Funny Italy Captions.
5.) A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority.
Samuel Johnson
6.) Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building after seeing Italy.
Fanny Burney
Short Italy Quotes
7.) Italy and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.
Bertrand Russell
8.) In America, one must be something, but in Italy, one can simply be.
Pietros Maneos
9.) I gasp for air if I don’t get to breathe Italian air once a year.
Danny Meyer
10.) Italy offers one the most priceless of one’s possessions – One’s own soul.
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Good Italy Quotes
11.) When life gives you twists and turns, chique yourself up in Italy!
Barbara Conelli
12.) 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
13.) One of the great joys of traveling through Italy is discovering firsthand that it is, indeed, a dream destination.
Debra Levinson
14.) 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
15.) Even now, I miss Italy dearly; I dream about it every night.
Eila Hiltunen
16.) 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
Sayings About Italy
17.) 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
18.) 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
19.) Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity, or at least is reminiscent of childhood.
Alexander Herzen Nick Rhodes
20.) How beautiful is sunset when the glow Of Heaven descends upon a land like thee, Thou Paradise of exiles, Italy!
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Famous Italy Quotes
21.) Italian culture is so deeply soaked in an appreciation of the good things in life.
Mariska Hargitay
22.) 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
Inspirational Italy Quotes
The passion for the country is seen in these notable Italy quotes.
23.) 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
24.) The name of Italy has magic in its very syllables.
Mary Shelley
25.) 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
26.) In Italy, they add work and life on to food and wine.
Robin Leach
27.) 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
28.) 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
Rome Quotations
When searching for the best Italy quotes, you must look at its finest cities. We’ll start with Rome.
29.) A fool is one who admires other cities without visiting Rome.
Francesco Petrarca, Poet
30.) Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.
Anatole Broyard
31.) Oh, Rome! my country! City of the soul!
Lord Byron, Poet
32.) Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.
Giotto di Bondone, Renaissance painter
33.) Rome holds my psyche in balance. Whenever I’m there, it’s like a holiday.
Giambattista Valli
34.) Everyone soon or late comes round by Rome.
Robert Browning
35.) In Rome, one had simply to sit still and feel.
E.M. Forster
36.) In the Eternal City, time is elastic, and new discoveries live among the most ancient things.
Erica Firpo
37.) Italy has changed. But Rome is Rome.
Robert De Niro, Actor
38.) Rome lifts you up but won’t let you settle down – it turns you into a bird without a nest.
Glenn Haybittle
39) If we could be reborn wherever we chose, how crowded Rome would be, populated by souls who had spent their previous lives longing to inhabit a villa on the Janiculum Hill.
Francine Prose
40.) Rome has not seen a modern building in more than half a century. It is a city frozen in time.
Richard Meier
Inspirational Roman Quotations
41.) All roads indeed lead to Rome, but theirs also is a more mystical destination, some bourne of which no traveler knows the name, some city, they all seem to hint, even more eternal.
Richard Le Gallienne
42.) Rome is not like any other city. It’s a big museum, a living room that shall be crossed on one’s toes.
Alberto Sordi, Actor
43.) Rome – the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere see moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.
George Eliot
44.) To Rome, for everything.
Cervantes
45.) Rome is one enormous mausoleum. There, the past lies visibly stretched upon his bier. There is no today or tomorrow in Rome; it is perpetual yesterday.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
46.) From the dome of St. Peter’s, one can see every notable object in Rome. He can see a panorama that is varied, extensive, beautiful to the eye, and more illustrious in history than any other in Europe.
Mark Twain, Writer
47.) I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.
Augustus, Emporer of Rome
48.) The thing I love about Rome is that it has so many layers. In it, you can follow anything that interests you: town planning, architecture, churches, or culture. It’s a city rich in antiquity and early Christian treasures and just endlessly fascinating. There’s nowhere else like it.
Claire Tomalin
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
49.) If I’m in Rome for only 48 hours, I would consider it a sin against God to not eat cacio e pepe, the most uniquely Roman of pastas, in some crummy little joint where Romans eat. I’d much rather do that than go to the Vatican. That’s Rome to me.
Anthony Bourdain
50.) Rome will exist as long as the Colosseum does; when the Colosseum falls, so will Rome; when Rome falls, so will the world.
Saint Venerable Bede
51.) Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.
J.K Chesterton
52.) I found Rome built of bricks; I leave her clothed in marble.
Caesar Augustus
53.) You look at passers-by in Rome and think, ‘Do they know what they have here?
Frank McCourt
54.) Yes, I have finally arrived at this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life. Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
55.) Rome is a place almost worn out by being looked at, a city collapsing under the weight of reference.
Graham Joyce
56.) Oddly enough, I’m not religious, but I’m also very fond of St Peter’s in Rome. When I’m there, I always know there’s a good meal not far away.
Jonathan Pryce
All Roads Lead To Rome
57.) Rome has grown since its humble beginnings, that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.
Livy (aka Titus Livius), Roman Historian
Rome Proverbs
58.) All roads lead to Rome.
Proverb, First written in 1175 by Alain de Lille, French theologian
59.) When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
A proverb attributed to Saint Ambrose
60.) Rome was not built in a day.
Proverb. Introduced in English by playwright John Heywood in 1538.
61.) How is it possible to say an unkind or reverential word of Rome? The city of all time and of all the world!
Nathaniel Hawthorne
62.) To fiddle while Rome burns.
Proverb recalling the legend that Emperor Nero supposedly played his fiddle while half of Rome was suffering a catastrophic fire.
63.) Cross the Rubicon.
Proverb referencing Julius Caesar crossing the river in 49 BC starting a civil war.
64.) If you can’t live longer, live deeper.
Italian Proverb
Florence Quotes
65.) Everything about Florence seems to be colored with a mild violet, like diluted wine.
Henry James, writer, in a letter dated 1869
66.) Through these old streets, I wander dreamily; around me, Florence sweeps her busy tide of life.
William Leighton, composer
67.) You will begin to wonder that human daring ever achieved anything so magnificent.
John Ruskin, Mornings in Florence 1875
68.) And when I thought of Florence, it was like a miracle city embalmed and like a corolla because it was called the City of Lilies, and its cathedral, St. Mary of the Flowers.
Marcel Proust, writer
69.) In Paris, you learn wit; in London, you learn to crush your social rivals; and in Florence, you learn poise.
Virgil Thomas
Charles Dickens’ Quote on Ponte Vecchio
70.) Among the four old bridges that span the river, the Ponte Vecchio, that bridge which is covered with the shops of jewelers and goldsmiths, is a most enchanting feature in the scene.
The space of one house, in the center, being left open, the view beyond is shown as in a frame; and that precious glimpse of sky, and water, and rich buildings, shining so quietly among the huddled roofs and gables on the bridge, is exquisite.
Charles Dickens, writer
Mark Twain’s Quotation on Florence
71.) This is the fairest picture on our planet, the most enchanting to look upon, the most satisfying to the eye and the spirit.
To see the sun sink down, drowned on his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams is a sight to stir the coldest nature, and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.
Mark Twain
Naples Quotes
72.) Put a compass to paper and trace a circle. Then tell me which other country has such a concentration of places like Amalfi, Naples, Ischia, Procida, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii, and Capri.
Diego Della Valle
73.) Please go to this pizzeria. Order the Margherita pizza with double mozzarella. If you do not eat this pizza when you are in Naples, please lie to me and tell me that you did.
Elizabeth Gilbert, From the book, Eat, Pray, Love
Tuscany Quotes
74.) My idea of heaven still is to drive the gravel farm roads of Umbria and Tuscany, very pleasantly lost.
Frances Mayes
75.) I am a product of my native land, Tuscany, Italy.
Andrea Bocelli, Tenor
76.) Fairytales are made up of Tuscany at twilight.
Unknown
77.) Americans who visit Tuscany or Umbria love the landscape: the silvery olive groves, the fields of sunflowers, the vineyards, the stone houses, and the barns.
Anthony Lewis, Writer
78.) Tuscany is so full of history and beauty – you meet wonders of art and architecture on almost every corner. But I love the region’s homier aspects: the special sweetness of the tomatoes, the soft mozzarella, and the heady scents of basil and garlic everywhere.
Trudie Styler
Venice Quotes
79.) When I went to Venice, I discovered that my dream had become – incredibly, but quite simply – my address.
Marcel Proust
80.) If I were not King of France, I would choose to be a citizen of Venice.
Henry III of France
81.) Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.
Truman Capote
82.) Venice never quite seems real, but rather an ornate film set suspended on the water.
Frida Giannini
83.) Venice bewitches. Like many before me, I have been seduced by its art, architecture, poetry, and beauty.
Russell Norman
84.) When I seek another word for ‘music’, I never find any other word than ‘Venice’.
Friedrich Nietzsche
85.) It’s so easy for me to get caught up in the feeling of a city like Venice, where Everything is just beautiful color and gorgeous buildings that are so peaceful. You can roam around and get lost in the labyrinth.
Nanette Lepore
The Floating City Quotations
86.) There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world that you leave at, once all accustomed habits and everyday sights to enter an enchanted garden.
Mary Shelley
87.) This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.
Thomas Mann
88.) Venice is incredible. Although you may have seen it in pictures, you can’t grasp how beautiful it is until you visit.
Gino D’Acampo
89.) If I could live in one city and do every single thing I do there, I would choose Venice. You can’t turn your head without seeing something amazing.
Nile Rodgers
90.) A realist in Venice would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.
Arthur Symons
91.) Venice is eternity itself.
Joseph Brodsky
92.) Venice is the perfect place for a phase of art to die. No other city on earth embraces entropy quite like this magical floating mall.
Jerry Saltz
The City of Canals
93.) No one forgets the first glimpse of Venice. Whether arriving by plane, boat, train, or car, there is that startling moment when one looks across the waves and finds what should not be there – stone towers, rich churches, and packed buildings rising out of the sea. The extraordinary beauty of Venice only adds to its improbability. How does such a city exist?
Thomas F. Madden
94.) To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.
Alexander Herzen on Venice
95.) Venice, its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
96.) The surface of Venice is constantly metamorphosing, and painting Venice is almost like being a restorer, peeling off the layers to find the picture after picture underneath.
Arbit Blatas
97.) It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
Erica Jon on Venice
Italian Food Quotes
98.) Italy will always have the best food.
Diane von Furstenberg
99.) The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later, you’re hungry again.
George Miller
100.) As they say in Italy, Italians were eating with a knife and fork when the French were still eating each other. The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks up there so they could make something edible
Mario Batali
101.) I’m definitely looking forward to the day when I stop working – if I ever stop working. I like the idea of keeling over in my tomato veins in Sardinia or Northern Italy.
Anthony Bourdain
102.) If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?
Martin Scorsese
103.) I love the simplicity, the ingredients, the culture, the history, and the seasonality of Italian cuisine. In Italy, people do not travel. They cook the way grandma did, using fresh ingredients and what is available in season.
Anne Burrell
104.) 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
Gelato Quotes
105.) So the Italian gelato. Take the deliciousness of a regular ice-cream cone, times it by a million, then sprinkle it with crushed-up unicorn horns.
Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato
106.) I make gelato disappear. What’s your’s superpower?
Unknown
107.) The present was better. Much, much better. Humans had coffee now. And gelato.
Larissa Lone
108.) Why pay for therapy when you can just have gelato for a tiny fraction of the cost?
Unknown
109.) Without gelato, there would be darkness and chaos.
Unknown
110.) You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it’s for the same two things. Love and gelato.
Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato
See Best Ice Cream Quotes and Captions.
Pasta Quotes
111.) Life is a combination of magic and pasta.
Federico Fellini
112.) Everything you see I owe to pasta.
Sophia Loren
113.) Life is too short, and I’m Italian. I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0.
Sophia Bush
114.) Pasta doesn’t make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat.
Giada De Laurentiis
115.) I always have parmigiano-reggiano, olive oil, and pasta at home. When people get sick, they want chicken soup; I want spaghetti with parmesan cheese, olive oil, and a bit of lemon zest. It makes me feel better every time.
Isabella Rossellini
116.) In heaven, after antipasti, the first course will be pasta.
Steve Albini
Good Spaghetti Quotes
117.) When you really want to show some love, keep the flowers and say it with spaghetti.
Rachel Ray
118.) No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention.
Unknown
119.) Italians love sun, sin, and spaghetti.
Lady Randolph Churchill
120.) It’s fascinating to travel around Italy and realize just how many different ways they make spaghetti.
Mario Batali
121.) Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.
Sophia Loren
Pizza Quotes
122.) Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself.
Bill Murray
123.) You can’t make everyone happy. You’re not pizza.
Unknown
124.) I love pizza, meaning: even when I’m in the middle of eating pizza, I wish I were eating pizza.
Jandy Nelson
125.) The perfect lover is one who turns into a pizza at 4:00 A.M.
Charles Pierce
Final Thoughts
Italy gave us Michelangelo, Leonard da Vinci, and the Renaissance. Perhaps we all should be eating more pasta?
I hope you enjoyed this collection of Italy quotes. If you’ve never been, definitely put at least one visit on your bucket list. Every time you have pizza, pasta, or gelato, you’ll think of this wonderful country.
If you have any additional Italy quotes you’d like to see us include, please let us know via the Contact page.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is the founder and editor of Greeting Card Poet.
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