Haunted by its reputation as poor, rural, and beholden to the Mafia, Sicily insists that change has arrived. True, one Sicilian in five is out of work. And true, the island remains Italy's most agricultural region, where pastori still graze their flocks. But the torch of law has singed the Mafia's empire. … Sicily looks toward the resolution of a bitter drama generations in the making.
—From "Italy Apart—Sicily," August 1995, National Geographic magazine
Trapped in the myth of her beauty, Venice beguiles and remains elusive. See why this city has held such sway over artists and romantics for centuries in this gallery.
Welcome to Rome! Once the heart of an empire that spread across all of Europe, the legacy of this ancient city lives on in spectacular ruins and enduring works of art.
Suspended between heaven and earth, Toledo—Spain's spiritual heart—still retains the same classic charm that lured the famous painter El Greco to the area in the 1570s.
Like one of Cézzane's impressionist paintings stirred to life by summer winds, Provence is a place where even the simplest of landscapes can turn suddenly sublime.
