Where to go in Europe

Italy is a country that is gloriously, unashamedly itself. Church bells and clinking espresso cups; striped umbrellas on the beach and snow on the mountains; Vespas zipping past Roman ruins and grandmothers arguing over whose tortellini are best. One minute you’re standing beneath an impossibly beautiful Renaissance ceiling, the next you’re elbow-deep in pasta flour and plotting which flavour of gelato to have for round two. And then there’s the sheer variety of it all: the cool, glassy lakes of the north, Tuscany’s iconic vine-covered hills, cities that hit you round the head with their sheer beauty and astonishing architecture, and coastlines that can be polished, glitzy and sparkling – or a little rough around the edges. Come hungry, wear good shoes, and don’t expect to fit it all into one trip.

Impossibly varied for its size and insatiably passionate about its own history (steam engines, the railway, the telephone, the television, the World Wide Web and penicillin to name a few), the United Kingdom packs more into a relatively small island than almost anywhere on earth. More than 800 languages are spoken in London, making it the most linguistically diverse city on earth, Scotland has 790 islands, and there are 47,000 pubs serving possibly even more ales. Quite impressive! And somewhere in all of this is one of the world's great travel experiences: extraordinarily green landscapes and heather-strewn highlands; misty, mysterious lakes, lochs and fells; world-class cities and tiny, honey-hued villages; glorious architecture and universities that have been teaching since before the Aztec Empire; a food scene several decades past its tired reputation; and a nation of incredibly friendly people, albeit one a little obsessed with discussing the weather (and queuing).