Le Cinque Terre

Set amid some of the most spectacular coastal landscapes on the planet, these five ingeniously constructed fishing villages can bolster the most jaded of spirits.
 Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997, the Cinque Terre is not the undiscovered Eden it once was but, frankly, who cares? Sinuous paths traverse seemingly impregnable cliffs, while a 19th-century railway line cuts through a series of coastal tunnels, ferries the foot from one village to another. Thankfully, cars were banned over a decade ago.