I am also midwesterner/upper-south person, so express no opinion on college towns on east or west coasts. From my own experience and the words of people I know, here are some top choices:
Lawrence, KS (KU)
Oxford, MS (Ole Miss)
Fayetteville, AR (UA)
As to cities, I will attest from personal experience that New Orleans is a great place to go to school in, and some liked Dallas for all it offers. Austin is also a “huge small town” and a neat place, though I lack much personal experience.
Ithaca, NY for Cornell and Ithaca College. Lots of restaurants within walking distance of both campuses. A perfectly sized college town (not to small like Hanover, NH or too big). Didn’t try any Italian restaurants while I was in Ithaca, however. On the larger side, St. Louis offers amazing Italian restaurants in it “Hill” neighborhood, though the Hill is not really walking distance to any of the colleges in St. Louis. I agree with post above that Boston is awesome for Italian food.
Nashville TN (Vanderbilt, Belmont, etc,) is an amazing, vibrant, historic,city with a fantastic food scene.
Ann Arbor Michgan
Burlington, VT gets my vote. I have seen a lot of colleges towns now, and Burlington has it all.
Seems like there’s a difference between “Best College Town” and “Best Town to go to College.” To me a college town is one where its economy centers around its college(s). That’s why I wouldn’t really consider Montreal, Boston and Nashville (where my daughter lives) to be college towns.
@collegecurious49 To answer your question about Arthur Avenue, it is a The Little Italy neighborhood in the Bronx, filled with authentic Italian markets, bakeries and restaurants. People come from Manhattan, NJ, Westchester and beyond to shop and eat there. It is a safe neighborhood and while the Bronx as a whole may not be charming, Arthur Avenue has its charms.
Madison WI. Theater showing mostly classic films is on campus.
https://union.wisc.edu/visit/union-south/the-marquee/
Union features Italian design and back faces large lake
http://juis.global.wisc.edu/images/memorialUnion.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2o2HdwwgGhQ/TI7JtA9BnbI/AAAAAAAAAls/9Cc7UmaXEiY/s1600/homescene.jpg
Downtown is an urban mall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa91KzLp_ss
Gotta agree with @Lindagaf as Burlington feels like the next Boulder!
Burlington is incredible, right on Lake Champlain with Adirondacks on the western side for beautiful sunsets. Church Street downtown is a pedestrian mall lined with restaurants and bars. University of Vermont students can walk right downtown in 10 minutes or so. St. Michael’s College (in Winooski/Colchester) is more like 3.5 miles from downtown Burlington.
Burlington, Asheville, and Flagstaff are just great towns. Again, Northampton terrific too. Maybe Fort Collins (Colorado State) too. I don’t remember about the Italian restaurants.
I don’t know about the Italian aspect, but my two favorite college towns are Bloomington, IN and Athens, GA
Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The Varsity Theatre on Franklin Street has been a Chapel Hill landmark for over half a century. The town has numerous Italian eateries.
Northampton https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-small-towns-in-america
Now picture the Burlington, Middlebury as well, when the drinking age was 18 in VT. Canada was still 21 in those days, so the town was also filled with Canadian kids out for a good time. Mix in the Midd fraternity boyz and…
One thing I will say, we never drank to the extent the kids do today. And I don’t know of a single person who got a DUI or in an accident due to impaired driving.
The Somerville Theatre in Davis Square (half a mile from Tufts) is really cool.
It is over 100 years old and it still runs original silent movies with a live organist providing the soundtrack (the way they were originally viewed). It still has both live performances and movies (both modern and film festivals) It also has the Museum of Bad Art in the basement. Ice Cream/Frappes and Beer available at the concession stand
http://somervilletheatre.com/about/history/
Davis Square also has flatbread pizza in a candlepin bowling alley built in the 1930’s and an original streetcar diner (Rosebuds) from 1941. Lots of ethic restaurants (including Italian), cafes and shops.
Harvard Square in Cambridge (two miles/two subway stops away) offers another array of theatres, restaurants and shops.
Boston and the North End is across the Charles River from Cambridge.
For an authentic Italian feel, you really have to go to Italy.
There are many very nice college towns in the US (the ones with asterisks next to them are my favorite):
Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University)
Amherst *, Massachusetts (Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts)
Ann Arbor *, Michigan (University of Michigan)
Annapolis, Maryland (United States Naval Academy, St John’s College)
Asheville, North Carolina (University of North Carolina)
Athens *, Georgia (University of Georgia)
Austin, Texas (University of Texas)
Berkeley, California (University of California)
Blacksburg, Virginia (Virginia Polytechnic and State University)
Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University)
Boulder *, Colorado (University of Colorado)
Bozeman, Montana (Montana State University)
Burlington *, Vermont (University of Vermont)
Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Charlottesville *, Virginia (University of Virginia)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina (University of North Carolina)
College Station, Texas (Texas A&M University)
Colorado Springs (Colorado College)
Columbia, Missouri (University of Missouri)
Corvallis, Oregon (Oregon State University)
Davis, California (University of California)
Eugene, Oregon (University of Oregon)
Fort Collins, Colorado (Colorado State University)
Gainesville *, Florida (University of Florida)
Iowa City, Iowa (University of Iowa)
Irvine, California (University of California)
Ithaca, New York (Cornell University
Lawrence, Kansas (University of Kansas)
Madison, Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin)
Manhattan, Kansas (Kansas State University)
Oxford, Mississippi (University of Mississippi)
Salt Lake City, Utah (University of Utah)
San Luis Obispo *, California (California Polytechnic State University)
Santa Barbara, California (University of California)
Santa Cruz *, California (University of California)
Saratoga Springs (Skidmore College)
State College, Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State University)
Tempe, Arizona (Arizona State University)
Northampton MA, Ithaca NY, and Saratoga Springs NY get my vote.
@alexander - You are dating yourself 
The Red Line was extended to Davis Square (half a mile from the Somerville side of Tufts campus) in the early 1980’s.
Cambridge eliminated rent control in the 1990’s
Young people and artists have been migrating from Cambridge to Somerville for over three decades now.
Several years ago Somerville eclipsed Cambridge to become the city with the second highest density of young people and artists in the country (Cambridge is third).
A few years ago Davis Square eclipsed Harvard Square as the most popular hangout.
For those who like “college towns” that tend toward the urban/artsy/hipster/high tech side, the four-mile corridor along the Red Line between Tufts (Davis Square Station) and MIT (Kendall Square Station) is about as good as it gets (without even taking into account that all of Boston is just across the river).
The planned Green Line extension (completion scheduled for 2022, which is at least 6 years behind the original schedule 
) will terminate on the Medford side of the Tufts Campus and connect Medford with Somerville and Cambridge as well as provide easier access to the North End and other sections of Boston.
Medford has an Italian section, but the Tufts community tends to head in the Somerville/Cambridge/Boston direction for entertainment.
http://archive.boston.com/yourtown/specials/square_face_off/
