Tuscany & the Amalfi Coast

It could be said that no other province has had more impact on Italian—and European— culture than Tuscany. With its wine-soaked villages, art-rich cities, swathes of olive groves and truffle fields, and modern-fashion powerhouses (Gucci and Ferragamo, to name a few), Tuscany epitomizes la vera Italia.

Amalfi Coast: When it’s time for a break from Italy’s art museums, Roman ruins, and churches filled with Old Masters paintings, sunseekers flock to the Amalfi Coast to hobnob with the glitterati in Positano, drink in the maritime memories of the proud old republic of Amalfi, and get lost in the fragrant hilltop gardens of Ravello. These pastel fishing villages cling to hillsides or lie in deep green valleys, strung along a dramatic coastline of plunging cliffs connected by the breathtaking Amalfi Drive: a gravity-defying thrill ride of a road stretching from the Bay of Naples to the Gulf of Salerno.