Tuscany and the Italian Riviera

A cypress-dotted vision of Italian beauty, Tuscany charms like a Medici prince, from the serrated marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and Val d’Orcia’s rolling vineyards to Florence’s epic Duomo and the handsome stone streets of Siena, with a scattering of Michelin-starred kitchens wedged between medieval abbeys. There’s truffle hunting, cheese making, wine tasting and fresco painting, while the region’s storybook hilltop towns and undulating green landscapes look seldom more glorious than from a morning’s flight in a hot-air balloon.  

Portovenere is a rustic fishing village on the Ligurian coast. An off-the-beaten-track alternative to the colorful corners of Cinque Terre, it has far fewer visitors but just as much to explore. Its pretty harbor gives way to the Gothic-style San Pietro church that looks out over the Golfo Dei Poeti, so named for its role as muse to literature legends like Byron, Shelley and Lawrence, and Grotta di Byron is a beautiful swimming spot. 

Where coral-pink villas run down to meet a sheltered bay, Santa Margherita Ligure could be the posterchild of the Italian Riviera, the green-and-turquoise ribbon of land whose beauty has bewitched countless poets and painters. Gutsy Genoa sits at its heart, a grand old port of gilded piazzas and narrow carrugi (alleys), while rugged, pine-scented peninsulas hide beautiful seaside towns like Rapallo and Sestri Levante; Portofino is the star, a glamorous, yacht-filled harbor posing at the end of the land like a supermodel on a catwalk.