Italy is divided into 20 administrative regions. The smallest is named Val d’Aosta. Have you ever heard a non-Italian yearn with desire to visit Val d’Aosta? Unlikely. They pine—instead—for strolling through Tuscan villages or hunting Piedmont truffles or cruising Campania coastlines on a Vespa or sipping Nero d’Avola wine in Sicily. Val d’Aosta? Few non-Italians will recognize that name.

Which is marvelous, yet inexplicable. Marvelous because international droves of backpackers and floppy hatted trekkers clutching guide books are—as yet—not visibly rampant. Inexplicable because this region—with only 1% of Italy’s surface area and about the same size as the U.S. state of Rhode Island or twice as large as U.K.’s County Surrey—is saturated with superlatives.