A walled hill town above Georgia's wine valley
Sighnaghi is a pretty hilltop town wrapped in 18th-century walls and towers, with views across the Alazani Valley to the snow-capped Greater Caucasus. It is the most attractive base in Kakheti, where most of Georgia's wine is made, often still in qvevri, clay vessels buried in the ground. Days are spent visiting family wineries and monasteries such as Bodbe, burial place of St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia, and Alaverdi, whose monks also make wine.