My first book, now in its fourth edition, and still my favorite. This is central It aly at its finest, from medieval hilltowns to the art-stuffed churches and museums of Florence, vineyards where you can tour the cellars and tipple the wares, to farmhouses where you can spend the night.

There are accommodations from family-run, B&B-type pensioni to lavishly frescoed Renaissance palaces or echoy 800-year-old castles. The dining spots range from top-rated restaurants nestled in the Chianti countryside to hole-in-the-wall fiaschetterie, where for $3 you get a glass of red wine and a panino to devour while you stand on the paving stones of one of Florence's back alleys.

Whether you want to shop for hand-painted ceramics and aged pecorino cheeses or the lastest fashions at the Ferragamo and Gucci flagship stores, whether you want to get inside the worlds of little-known Gothic and famous Renaissance painters or are looking to enjoy the rhythms of life in a tiny hilltown, whether you want to take a day-long cooking class or simply a day at the beach, whether you want to join in a local festival or sit on your hotel balcony overlooking a Tuscan countryside straight out of a Leonardo da Vinci background... this is the Tuscany guide for you.

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