Would you like to visit the largest church on Earth and a Wonder of the World in the same day?

What about hiking in the Alps in the morning and watching a fashion show in the afternoon? Or relaxing in thermal baths after breakfast and going for a gondola ride along a picturesque canal before dinner? There is only one country where you can experience these things so accessibly.

This country is Italy.

Located in Southern Europe, Italy is one of the most visited countries in the entire world. With thousands of miles of coastlines on the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Tyrrhenian Seas, Italy’s beaches are among the best in Europe. While its beaches are top notch, Italy also houses stretches of the Alps, several large lakes, and rolling hills all throughout its countryside. On top of all of that, Italy contains two of the three city-states left in the world, being the Vatican City and San Marino.

Italy’s capital city, Rome, contains its own city-state, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World located in Europe, and was the seat of one of the most dominant empires in human history. Other iconic cities include Naples in the south, Milan and Turin in the northwest, Venice in the northeast, and Florence, Siena and Bologna in the center. Most visitors follow a traditional circuit of Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, but most of Italy’s greatest treasure lay further off the traditional tourist path, including the hills of Tuscany, the white cities of Apulia, the gastronomic cities of Emilia Romagna, and the Italian Alps of the north.

While Italy’s cities are incredible, it is also filled with countless charming towns and villages. From the idyllic mountain town of Urbino, to the Lake Como gem of Nesso, to our family’s ancestral home of Sant’Arsenio, Italy’s countryside can offer just as much as its tourist hotspots.