When author Francis Mays recommends small towns to visit in Italy, she wants you to find places where old world traditions are still part of everyday life.

Discover some of the ways that people still live that have gotten kind of run over in contemporary life.

Francis Mays tells us about dozens of small towns she's fallen in love with all across Italy.

Elsewhere in Europe, a hard shift to the right has been

challenging how some citizens feel about their government. A lot of people in

Turkey have the sense that the government is taking advantage of the coup attempt to oppress the opposition.

On the other hand, many people believe that they have every right to do so.

While in Hungary, there was no new political program. There was only one word.

refugees, we will protect you.

We'll look at political populism in Hungary, Poland and Turkey,

plus the backroad charms of Italy in the hour ahead.

It's Travel with Rick Steeves.

Special guest Francis Mays tells us what's new under the Tuscan Sun as she explores the

delights of Off the Beaton track Italy in her latest book.

That's in just a minute on today's travel with Rick Steves.

And we'll get a personal look at what's behind the political dramas in Poland, Hungary, and Turkey,

where tensions over populist sentiments have been making headlines in the last few years.

Ever since Francis Mays got an impulse to buy a house in Tuscany and wrote about her experience

in the bestseller under the Tuscan Sun, she's been introducing the world to the delights of living in Italy.

Lately, she's been wandering off the beaten path

to discover the charms of dozens of small towns and cities all across Italy.

In her latest book, See You in the Piazza.

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