Frances Mayes, author of the bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun...says that for a good adventure in Italy, just drive. "Avoid the main roads and turn on impulse. Once in the Tuscan countryside you might witness sausage-making, the braiding of garlic and onions, or olive picking."

(Text from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "With Frances Mayes in Tuscany," May 1999, National Geographic Traveler magazine)