4 Nights Europe, Mediterranean

Once called Constantinople, the former capital of the Byzantine Empire is the only city in the world to straddle two continents - Europe and Asia. Its old palaces, great mosques with soaring minarets, ancient churches, museums, bazaars, and the Istanbul Strait are all worth seeing. The Grand Bazaar, the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace are impressive, unforgettable sites.

Corfu was once ruled by Venetian doges, Turkish sultans and French invaders. Marvel at the 17th-century icons in St. George's Church, the medieval Palace of Phrourio and the 19th-century Achilleion Palace. The greenest of the Greek Isles, Corfu also boasts thriving vineyards and olive orchards among its rugged mountains.

The capital of Apulia (the heel of Italy's boot) prospered under the Greeks and served as an important Roman Municipium. Lying halfway along the Adriatic coast on the fringes of the fertile Terra di Bari, it consists of two distinct parts, the old city, a maze of twisting lanes, and the modern town.

Trieste is the capital city of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. A port city, it occupies a thin strip of land between the Adriatic coast and Slovenia's border on the limestone-dominated Karst Plateau. Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Slovenian influences are all evident in its layout, which encompasses a medieval old city and a neoclassical Austrian quarter