Region of Europe

The Mediterranean

Three peninsulas and a scatter of islands that have been trading, arguing and cooking with each other for three thousand years.

The 9 countries of The Mediterranean, filled, with the rest of Europe behind them. Borders and coastline from Natural Earth, public domain. The whole map →

Madrid

Spain

Several countries wearing one flag, with the second-highest average altitude in Europe.

7 regions · 27 cities · moderate cost

Lisbon

Portugal

Europe's western edge, facing an ocean it once mapped, with the oldest fixed borders on the continent.

3 regions · 6 cities · moderate cost

Rome

Italy

A country invented in 1861 out of places that still think of themselves first.

5 regions · 25 cities · moderate cost

Athens

Greece

Six thousand islands, of which two hundred and twenty-seven are inhabited, and a mainland almost nobody visits.

3 regions · 25 cities · moderate cost

Valletta

Malta

Three inhabited islands of limestone, holding temples older than the pyramids and a city built by knights.

2 regions · 4 cities · moderate cost

Nicosia

Cyprus

The last divided capital in Europe, on an island of Byzantine churches and mountain wine.

2 regions · 3 cities · moderate cost

Andorra la Vella

Andorra

A Pyrenean co-principality with two heads of state, no airport, and the highest capital in Europe.

1 region · 2 cities · moderate cost

City of San Marino

San Marino

The world's oldest surviving republic, on a limestone crag with three towers on the ridge.

1 region · 1 city · moderate cost

Vatican City

The smallest state in the world, at 0.49 square kilometres, and one of its largest art collections.

1 region · 1 city · moderate cost