Lazio

5 provinces · 378 towns · Population: 5,502,886

Everything converges on Rome, understandably: three thousand layered years of history, the country's most visited centre, the Vatican. But the Lazio around it rewards detours: Tivoli with Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este, both UNESCO sites; the Castelli Romani hills of wine taverns; Civita di Bagnoregio suspended on its tuff pinnacle; the Etruscan necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia; the beaches of Sperlonga and the Circeo.

The trick is to use Rome as a base and allow yourself at least one escape — even Romans know their own region less than they should.