If these pretty walls could talk, you’d hear whispers of sweet nothings, laughing, crying, knock-down drag-out fights. The drama! In these grand homes, often adorned with masterpieces, heroines or courtesans or foreigners who moved here, lived and left a lasting legacy.

You may find yourself in the 500-room Palazzo Ducale, where Isabella d’Este, the brilliant gutsy Renaissance woman, became a patron of the arts and ruled Mantua. Or in a humble apartment in Florence, where Elizabeth Barrett Browning spent the happiest years of her life.

My first thoughts as I wander through these places always veer to: Imagine the parties! A princess waltzing, a poet entertaining her writer friends, a courtesan playing a lute.

Then my mind wanders…. What about an ordinary day? A Savoy Queen waking up with that gigantic chandelier hanging over her bed. What would it have been like to have been Eleonora de’ Medici, flinging open the curtains to her Boboli Gardens’ view?

History comes alive in these places. Go, admire, and indulge in your own imaginings as you walk in these women’s footsteps.