Italy

Rome is where Chris and I first traveled together in Europe, and we still build in a long layover whenever we’re passing through Italy just to eat, drink, and walk a little more of the city. Hotel Vilon is easy to miss entirely — tucked on a quiet street near the Fendi store, an unassuming door that opens into something closer to a fairytale than a hotel lobby. On the Amalfi Coast, Casa Privata sits halfway down the cliff between town and the Mediterranean, surrounded by lemon groves — maybe the most romantic hotel we’ve stayed at in the whole country.

Ca’ Sagredo is a genuine 15th-century palace on the Grand Canal in Venice — we go back every so often and still find something new each time, especially once you get away from the main tourist crush. Don Alfonso 1890, in Sorrento, has food and service warm enough that you stop wanting to leave. And Bologna, which we only stopped in on a whim between Venice and Florence, turned out to be a detour we don’t regret — Corona D’Oro among the reasons why; the city gets talked about as a rival to Rome and Florence, and it doesn’t get the crowds to match.