It’s really not fair. Italy has way more than its rightful share of the world’s fabulous destinations. Its cities are bursting at the seams with charm, art, cobblestones, history, shops, restaurants, and cafes. Its countryside is rolling and picturesque. Its beaches are sandy, and its mountains majestic. There’s just too much to love.

So often tourists will only have time to hit the ‘big three’ (Rome, Florence, and Venice), or else they jam-pack their vacation with 10 cities in 14 days, trying to see as much as possible and in the process barely getting a feel for anything. Both of these approaches are understandable, but they end up missing out on the quintessential spirit of Italy, the Italy which takes time for a leisurely afternoon stroll every day; where aperitifs are sipped at outdoor cafes while one chats with friends and absorbs the scenery; where meals last for hours and hours, and no one’s in a hurry to get the bill.

So what’s an ambitious traveler to do? Divide and conquer. Don’t plan a vacation to “Italy”, but rather to “Tuscany”, “Central Italy”, or “Sicily”. Don’t feel like you have to see all of Italy’s most famous sites at one go just because you’re in the country. You wouldn’t feel guilty for missing out on the Grand Canyon during a trip to New York, would you? And think of how much time you gain by not traveling long distances from city to city. That’s a whole bunch of extra vacation hours for eating gelato and marveling over Renaissance art.

Take the Veneto, for example. This Italian region gets plenty of tourism to Venice, and even Verona often makes it onto travelers’ radars (especially the 10-cities-in-14-days type). But there’s so much charm hidden in the Veneto’s smaller cities and towns that one could easily spend an entire two-week vacation exploring nothing but this region. For example, you could…

• Soak up the lakeside beauty of Peschiera, a small town on Lake Garda.

• Get to know Padua (Padova in Italian), a medieval city bursting with life and charm, in part due to its large student population. Don’t miss the Giotto-frescoed Scrovegni Chapel or the ornate Basilica of St. Anthony.

• Spend a day exploring the narrow, winding streets of Vicenza.

• Relax at a luxury spa in Abano Terme, a town full of spas which specialize in thermal baths and mud wraps, using local materials

I myself just returned from a short vacation in the Veneto, and didn’t even make it to Venice this time around. You can read about some of my experiences at my personal blog, This non-American Life.