Iknow I’ll regret saying this, but it could rain every weekend for the rest of the summer and I wouldn’t feel as if I’d been short-changed by the season. Over the past four days in Italy, I’ve done pretty much everything required for a complete summer – a couple of endless days on the sea on vessels faster and faster, new culinary experiences, many bottles of Italian white and a few architectural discoveries. If you want 72 to 96 hours of sun, scents and faultless food but don’t want the long-distance travel (I’m pretending you’re reading this in Europe), then sampling even half this list should leave you satisfied.

1. It begins and ends in Italy
Spain, France, Greece, Turkey and Lebanon are all perfectly nice countries on the Med but they have nothing on Italy. If Rome got its house in order, it could easily take the world’s number one tourism ranking and ease many of its economic woes in the process.