Where can you find Ernest Hemingway's favorite wine? Where are 90% of all works of art from the Renaissance period? Where do love stories bloom like those in "A Room With A View?"

The answers to all of these questions lie in the heart of Italy:Tuscany

Rent a car in Florence. There are great deals for week-end and weekly rentals.

Head south on the highway that leads you to Siena. The sights and scenery you'll pass will be well worth the trip. During the months of May and June, the spectacular sight of vast wheat fields and cypress trees will give you the feeling of travelling inside one of Leonardo Da Vinci's frescoes.

Going east, there's Chianti (the region that gives its name to Hemingway's favorite wine) with the towns of Castellina, Greve, Radda, and Gaiole.Read more about Tuscan Wines in the DolceVita Wine Directory.

A short westward deviation will bring you to San Gimignano. This medieval city is known as the Manhattan of the Middle Ages, due to its 13 towers (during the middle ages there were 70!).

After visiting Siena (famous for the square of the Palio with its cafés, the sweet Panforte cake, and the characteristic Sienese frescoes), go even further south: you'll be in the Eldorado of wine, the hills of Montalcino.

Montalcino is the homeland of Brunello, which the Vinarius Magazine panel of experts selected Wine of the Year for 1995.

If you are a wine lover, you can't leave without having tasted Tignanello, produced by Antinori, and Sassicaia, both among the best European red wines.