Mediterranean from Livorno

Purpose-built as a Medici utopia in the late sixteenth century, Livorno was conceived from the outset as a city without discrimination — its founding Leggi Livornine granted equal rights to Jews, Christians, Muslims, and merchants of every nation, making it one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Renaissance Europe. Today, the Venetian-style canals of the Venezia Nuova quarter reflect colourful palazzi with a distinctly faded glamour, while the Mercato Centrale's fish counters display the cacciucco ingredients — a robust Livornese brodetto of five sea creatures — that make this port city a pilgrimage for serious eaters. Day trips to Pisa and Lucca are effortless from here. The season runs April through October.

Cannes, transformed from a sleepy Provençal fishing village into the Riviera's most glamorous resort by an English lord's chance quarantine in 1834, and immortalized by the Film Festival since 1946, remains the French Riviera's most theatrical stage — where La Croisette's curved promenade of Art Deco palaces, private beach clubs, and Palme d'Or dreams meets the quiet authenticity of the Suquet hilltop quarter above the old port. For shopping, the Marché Forville bursts with Provençal produce, truffle vendors, and cut flowers each morning; for dining, the restaurants of the old port district offer bouillabaisse and socca that need no red-carpet backdrop. Visit in spring or September; Nice is twenty minutes by rail and Monaco thirty.

Barcelona is the city where Roman history, Gothic grandeur, and Gaudí's delirious Modernisme collide in a Mediterranean coastal capital of astonishing energy and beauty. The Sagrada Família — still under construction after 140 years — continues its audacious ascent toward completion, while the Gothic Quarter's Roman-era foundations and the Passeig de Gràcia's extraordinary concentration of Modernisme masterpieces reward days of exploration. For a complete sensory experience, lose an afternoon in the covered labyrinth of La Boqueria market before descending to the waterfront for Catalan seafood at its finest. May through June and September through October offer the most pleasant weather; the city connects directly to Paris by overnight train.

Beneath Ibiza's sun-drenched reputation as the world's clubbing capital lies a layered history stretching back to Phoenician traders who settled this Balearic island in 654 BC. The UNESCO-listed Dalt Vila — the walled hilltop citadel above Eivissa town — rewards exploration with Carthaginian burial grounds, Renaissance ramparts, and sweeping Mediterranean panoramas. For quieter pleasures, the crystalline coves of the island's north, such as Cala d'en Serra and Es Portitxol, rival any beach in Europe. The Phoenician necropolis of Puig des Molins is unmissable for history devotees. The season runs May through October, with June and September offering ideal weather without peak-summer crowds.

Cagliari, Sardinia's sun-drenched capital overlooking the Gulf of Angels, has absorbed three thousand years of Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Pisan, and Spanish ambitions into a layered and deeply compelling Mediterranean city — where the flamingo-fringed salt lagoons stretching to the city's western edge create one of Europe's most surreal urban vistas. The Castello quarter's medieval ramparts enclose a cathedral, Pisan towers, and panoramic terraces that survey the entire city and coastline, while the Marina district below offers some of the finest bottarga pasta and fresh tuna in Italy. Visit May through September for beach perfection; the prehistoric Nuraghe Su Nuraxi at Barumini, a UNESCO Wonder, is an hour's drive north.

Rome's ancient maritime gateway since the Emperor Trajan commissioned its harbour in 106 AD, Civitavecchia is the natural prologue to the Eternal City — just seventy minutes southeast by express rail. The port's Renaissance fortress, designed in part by Michelangelo, anchors a working waterfront that has welcomed travellers for millennia. Beyond Rome's unmissable monuments, consider an afternoon in the Civitavecchia thermal baths, drawing on mineral waters prized since antiquity. Spring and autumn offer the ideal balance of mild weather and manageable crowds for exploring the capital's layered history.

Purpose-built as a Medici utopia in the late sixteenth century, Livorno was conceived from the outset as a city without discrimination — its founding Leggi Livornine granted equal rights to Jews, Christians, Muslims, and merchants of every nation, making it one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Renaissance Europe. Today, the Venetian-style canals of the Venezia Nuova quarter reflect colourful palazzi with a distinctly faded glamour, while the Mercato Centrale's fish counters display the cacciucco ingredients — a robust Livornese brodetto of five sea creatures — that make this port city a pilgrimage for serious eaters. Day trips to Pisa and Lucca are effortless from here. The season runs April through October.