Lake Maggiore, straddling the border of northern Italy and southern Switzerland, is the second-largest lake in Italy and one of the most scenically diverse. Surrounded by Alpine peaks and dotted with elegant towns, the lake has attracted visitors for centuries, including literary figures like Stendhal and Ernest Hemingway. The western shore is home to the Borromean Islands, a group of three small islands known for palaces, terraced gardens, and white peacocks that roam freely across the lawns.

Set in a wide alpine valley beneath the north face of the Eiger, Grindelwald has long been a place where mountain life and mountaineering history intersect. The village grew from a farming settlement into one of Switzerland’s earliest alpine tourism hubs in the 19th century, when climbers, writers, and scientists arrived to study—and attempt—the surrounding peaks.

A major industrial area in the Loire Valley, it is an ancient city and was often visited in pilgrimages to pay homage to the tomb of St. Martin, a former bishop of Tours.

Bergamo, in northern Italy’s Lombardy region, is a city of striking contrasts, divided into the historic upper town and the modern lower town. The upper town, perched on a hill and encircled by Venetian walls, offers cobblestone streets, medieval architecture, and panoramic views over the surrounding plains and the distant Alps.

This 2,000-year-old city, where the Teutonic Order founded one of its first commanderies in the 13th century, lies on the convergence of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers. Hop on a cable car, one of the city's most popular attractions, for stunning city-wide views, or cruise down the Rhine to spot some of Koblenz's magnificent fortresses and castles, including the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress and Schloss Stolzenfels.