Some of Italy’s best-known destinations lie beyond its fabled mainland, with islands like Capri and Ischia drawing millions to their photogenic coasts each year. But when you want to escape the throngs and help deal with over-tourism (even two years ago Capri’s mayor told The Telegraph he worried about his island “exploding” from all the visitors), besides traveling shoulder season to popular off-shore spots, you can check out other getaways among Italy's hundreds of islands and various archipelagoes.

Here, Domenic Petrino, director of business development for Select Italy, a boutique travel company specializing in custom itineraries, and Joyce Falcone, owner of Italian Concierge, specialists in custom itineraries in Italy, who has been on Travel + Leisure’s A-List of the World’s Top Travel Advisers since 2009, talk about splendid island havens you may not know much about.