Wedged between Florence and Rome, rural Tuscany offers the quintessential Italian experience: sun-soaked hill towns, green and rolling screen-saver hills, romantically fortified farms, and cypress trees marching single file up lonely ridges. We go to Italy to experience the finesse of Florence, the splish-splash of Venice, and the grandeur of Rome, but it's in Tuscany that we find the rustic-yet-elegant essence of Italia.

Built on hilltops for defensive purposes in ancient and medieval times, the lofty perches of Tuscany's hill towns today seem to protect them only from the modern world. After the hustle and bustle of urban Italy, it can be a joy to downshift to a more peaceful pace. With a surprising diversity of scenic lanes, abbeys and wineries, the Tuscan countryside is a fine place to abandon your itinerary and just slow down.