Italy is Europe’s greatest cultural overachiever. It has almost too much to offer tourists—between its food, alta moda, Roman and Palladian architecture, picturesque landscapes, and overwhelmingly beautiful art (Stendhal barely made it out of Florence’s Santa Croce basilica), its neighbors to the north can’t compete.

Then, as if it needed more to offer, there are the iconic beaches; being that the country is a boot-shaped peninsula that touches the Adriatic, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and Mediterranean Seas and has thousands of miles of coastline, there is no dearth of them.