RoofTop — City from Above

What RoofTop is

RoofTop is a guide to rooftops, terraces, restaurants with a view, viewpoints and towers you can climb. It comes from a simple habit: when you arrive somewhere new, look for the highest point.

From up there you understand a city sooner. You see where the centre ends, where the river runs, which way the sun goes down. Then you come down, and you know where to go.

Not the usual guide

We do not simply want to show you where to go. We want to help you understand where it is really worth going.

That is why RoofTop is not a list. In every city we choose a few places, and for each one we say why it is there. A famous venue with nothing to say stays out. A free and beautiful viewpoint sits next to the grand hotel.

We would rather have ten addresses we believe in than fifty added to make up the numbers.

• RoofTop selects

  A few places for each destination, chosen one by one.

• RoofTop observes

  Which way the terrace faces, at what hour, in which season.

• RoofTop discovers

  Outside the centre too, when a place is worth the trip.

• RoofTop tells

  In our own words, briefly, and without superlatives.

Seeing the city from another perspective

"From above" is first of all a way of looking. It means taking a step back, leaving the route everyone follows and asking what makes a place its own.

So the guide is not only roofs. There is an osteria inland from the Romagna coast, a vineyard on an island of the Venetian lagoon, a village bar above Taormina. They are not rooftops. They are places from which a city, or a region, makes more sense.

Authenticity, quality, attention to detail

Choosing with care also means saying things as they are. These are rules we set for ourselves:

Every place is checked

We verify the name, the address and the official website. If a venue is closed or we cannot confirm it, it does not go in.

No invented ratings

We do not publish scores or reviews without a source. Our judgement is the choice itself.

Photos say what they show

If we have no photo of the venue with a clear licence, we use one of the neighbourhood and say so.

Hours and prices at the source

They change often. So we point you to the venue's own site rather than promise what we cannot guarantee.

Avoiding the traps

Travellers have little time and too much information. We make a first selection for you, to help you avoid:

• places chosen only because they are famous;
• tourist venues with no personality;
• experiences that cost far more than they give;
• spots that look good in photos and disappoint in person;
• information that is copied, old or careless.

When a place is expensive, crowded or worth it only for the view, we say so. Then you choose.