Italy Voted Best European Country 2008 - Sunday Times Travel Magazine

July 1st 2008

Italy was the runaway winner of the prize for “Best European Country” in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine Reader’s Awards.....

The Italian Tourist Board are pleased to announce that Italy was the runaway winner of the prize for “Best European Country” in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine Reader’s Awards, leaving popular countries like France and Spain behind in third and forth place. Second place was given to Greece and fifth to Switzerland. In fact, the French and Spanish suffered from a number of readers nominating them as least favourites – leaving the way clear for a runaway victory for la dolce vita.

Quoting from the magazine:

“ Three in 10 voters swear by Italy, adored for what one voter called its “food, flirting and phenomenal beauty”, but especially its food. Almost everybody cites the pasta, the pizza, the gelato, the Chianti: we have given up counting at the 200th mention of the nosh. You like the people, too - their passion, their fashion and their warm, genuine, cheek-pinching family-friendliness”.

In the Best European City category, Rome also took 5th place after London, Edinburgh, Paris and Barcelona.

Valerio Scoyni, Director of the Italian State Tourist Board commented;

"We are particularly proud of this first place given by the discerning travellers and readers of the Sunday Times Travel Magazine and pleased to see Italy as favourite European country among the British public. This encourages us to work even harder to improve Italy’s image abroad"