Tuscany, Italy

From Piemonte to Sicilia, each of Italy’s regions has its own magic, but hill-town-studded Tuscany (Toscana)—like the timeless location you’ve seen in Merchant-Ivory films—takes the prize. The showcase city of Florence is its zenith, but look just beyond the city walls to a painting-perfect campagna of rolling hills blanketed with Chianti vineyards and olive groves, ancient Etruscan sites and history-rich towns like Lucca, Siena and San Gimignano." Along its less-visited coast, the added surprise of sandy beaches and a sprinkling of islands is a welcome sight (Napoleon spent years of exile on Elba).