Golf Holidays in Italy

Italy’s championship pedigree runs deeper than most visiting golfers realise. The Italian Open dates back to 1925 and has rotated around the country ever since, so several of the courses below have staged it. Every course in this table is one we book, and every fact in it is verified.

Verdura deserves a closer look. The East course measures 7,321 yards, with the Mediterranean running the full length of the par-4 6th and the par-3 13th green sitting right on the water’s edge. Its sister West course is barely shorter at 7,314 yards, and a composite of the two staged the 2017 Rocco Forte Open, which Alvaro Quiros won in a play-off.

In the north, Bogogno opened in 1997 to a Robert von Hagge design in the foothills of the Monte Rosa Massif; his original course was later split into two 18s, Bonora and Del Conte, and Bonora now ranks 16th in Italy. Menaggio & Cadenabbia, founded by English businessmen in 1907, is the second oldest golf club in Italy and was completely redesigned by Commander John Harris in the 1960s. Do not let Villa d’Este’s card fool you either: 6,300 yards to a par of 69, cut through pine, ash and chestnut forest, and far harder than the numbers read.

Italy is really six golf destinations wearing one flag, and the right one depends on your dates, your budget and how much your group cares about what happens off the course.

Sardinia has enough depth for a trip of its own, from Pevero on the peninsula between the Bays of Cala di Volpe and Pevero down to Is Molas near Cagliari. Our separate guide to golf holidays in Sardinia covers the island in detail.

Northern Italy is a spring-to-autumn destination. Lake Garda averages 23.5C in May and 23.9C in September, rising to 27 to 29C through high summer when lake breezes soften the Po Valley heat; the sweet spots are mid-April to mid-June and September. Milan, the gateway for Le Robinie, Castelconturbia and Bogogno, manages only 7.4C in January, so the inland north is no place for winter golf.

Tuscany peaks in the shoulders. Florence averages 20C in April, 24.5C in May and 27.1C in September, but 32.6C in August, and inland Tuscany frequently reaches 36 to 38C in high summer. October is comfortable at 21.6C, though it brings around 105mm of rain; autumn, not summer, is Tuscany’s wet season. If your dates fall in August, stay coastal at Argentario rather than inland.

Sicily reverses the calendar entirely. Palermo’s daytime highs hold at 15.3 to 16.7C from December to February, its summer months see just 5 to 10mm of rain each, and the heat peaks at 30.3C in August. One independent reviewer of Verdura put the case for the low season plainly:

October through to March is the prime golf holiday season.

Golf Par Excellence, independent review of Verdura Resort, Sicily

The same review notes that some of Verdura’s restaurants open only sporadically between October and March, so expect a quieter resort in winter than in May. Puglia’s windows are mid-April to mid-May and mid-September to mid-October, and Bari is one of Italy’s driest cities at just 565mm of rain a year. Sardinia’s coast is mild all year: 14 to 15C at Alghero in midwinter, 24C in May, 31C at the July peak and still 24C in October, with July rainfall down around 5mm.

Flight times from London are short. Heathrow to Milan Malpensa averages 2 hours 5 minutes, with British Airways flying the route about 22 times a week, and Heathrow to Pisa takes 2 hours 15 minutes. Heading south, Gatwick to Palermo is roughly 3 hours, Gatwick to Catania 3 hours 10 minutes and Gatwick to Bari 3 hours, with Brindisi a similar time for the Salento. Sardinia is closer than many assume: Gatwick to Olbia takes from 2 hours 35 minutes and Gatwick to Cagliari 2 hours 45 minutes.

Transfers are short too. Stresa on Lake Maggiore sits about 50km from Malpensa, roughly an hour from plane to lakeside hotel, while the drive from Palermo airport to Verdura is around 130km and takes about 1 hour 30 minutes. Italy uses the euro and runs one hour ahead of the UK all year, since both countries change their clocks on the same dates.

Our Italy golf breaks are ground-only and built to order: accommodation, tee times and private transfers arranged around whichever flights suit you. We can add flights as an optional extra, ATOL-protected where flights are included, and every booking is backed by PTS protection and IATA accreditation.

On the Lakes, Stresa pairs the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees and the Grand Hotel Bristol with Iles Borromees Golf Club, a Marco Croze design from 1989 renovated in 2014. Albergo Terminus in Como puts Villa d’Este and Menaggio & Cadenabbia within easy reach, while on Lake Garda the Chervo Golf Spa & Resort sits on the San Vigilio course that staged the 2020 Italian Open. Le Robinie Golf Resort is the stay-and-play base for Italy’s only Nicklaus course, conveniently close to Malpensa.

In Tuscany, Argentario Golf Resort adjoins the PGA National course that hosted the 2025 Italian Open, the tournament’s return to the region after more than 40 years. La Bagnaia Golf & Spa Resort near Siena has Robert Trent Jones Jr’s Royal Golf La Bagnaia on site, and UNA Poggio dei Medici covers the Florence side of the region. Sicily’s two anchor golf resorts are Verdura Golf & Spa Resort on the south coast and Picciolo Etna Golf Resort & Spa, now part of Curio Collection by Hilton after a £15m refurbishment completed in 2025, 650 metres up Etna with dark lava stone from the 1916 eruption framing the fairways.

Puglia offers Acaya Golf Resort in the Salento, our current lead-in for the whole country, and Borgo Egnazia beside San Domenico Golf. In Sardinia, Is Molas Resort Hotel sits on the four-time Italian Open course south of Cagliari. Verdura and La Bagnaia are serious spa resorts as well as golf ones; if recovery days matter to your group, our guide to golf and spa breaks is worth a read.

Italy suits golfers who care about what happens between rounds. Couples split golf with lake days and long lunches, and small groups get championship courses and proper dinners in the same trip. It is also one of the easier countries to visit alone; our guide to solo golf holidays in Italy explains why.

The Ryder Cup changed the landscape here. The 2023 matches at Marco Simone, Italy’s first, generated a record €262 million in economic activity with 271,000 spectators from 100 countries, and the country’s wider Ryder Cup Project runs to 2027 with a projected impact of more than €700 million. Il Sole 24 Ore reported that green fees “doubled all over Italy” in the wake of the Rome event, and Marco Simone itself now welcomes more than 9,000 visiting golfers a year at €195 to €270 a round. For golf breaks in Italy in 2026 and 2027, it pays to book early; demand has not settled back.

Now the honest caveat: Italy is competitive rather than cheap at the top end. Verdura and its peers cost more than Turkey’s all-inclusive belt, and while even Marco Simone’s peak fee is under half Valderrama’s €550, Portugal’s headline courses such as Monte Rei top out around €150 to €190. You come to Italy for the combination of golf, food and setting, and you pay a fair price for it. From £295 (≈ €335) (≈ $395) (≈ CA$545) (≈ AU$555) (≈ NZ$665) (≈ CHF 315) (≈ kr 3,735) (≈ kr 3,805) (≈ kr 2,565) per person ground-only at Acaya, we think that trade still looks good.