Europe's top 10 overlooked gems

Avoid the tourists and visit these cool places:

•  Venetian Islands, Italy. Venice can be one of Europe's most crowded cities if you just hang around the tourist sights, but just a water-bus ride away are several smaller islands in the Venetian lagoon where glass-blowing, fishing, and lace-making are still ways of life and the locals act as though you're the first stranger they've seen in weeks.
• Dingle Peninsula, Ireland. Dingle pennisula is one peninsula to the north of the Ring of Kerry and just as spectacular without the crowds.
• Spain. Spain spent much of this century under a dictatorship, so it stayed off most tourist itineraries. But this country's rich history and amalgamated heritage of Celtic, Roman, Moorish, and Castillian influences make it one of the most diverse and culturally dense nations in Europe. Madrid is stuffed with museums, and Barcelona's an eminently livable city, but if you have to pick one region to explore, make it the southlands of Andalusia, full of Moorish palaces, Christian cathedrals, bullfighting, whitewashed villages, sherry, and flamenco dancing.
• Ostia Antica, Italy. Why go all the way south of Naples to Pompeii when the abandoned ghost streets of Rome's ancient port lie just a metro ride outside the city and are much more romantically crumbling?
• Arena Chapel, Padova, Italy. Giotto was the father of modern art and the genius who kick-started the Renaissance back in the 14th century. Hordes visit his frescoes in Assisi each year, but only a trickle make it to this jewel of a chapel near Venice, almost every inch of which is covered with the master's vibrant painting.
• Medieval hamlets and hill towns. Europe is full of villages and small towns where the leisurely pace of life has helped keep the winding stone streets in a time capsule, places where only a few cars and telephone wires give the 20th century away. Most are just a short bus or train ride outside major cities.