[Times photo: Robert N. Jenkins]

If city streets aren't your thing, the Empire State offers more: countryside byways with hamlets and villages and a charming dose of Americana. Story

Falling for the Finger Lakes region
Nature entices visitors to northern New York with 25 state parks. And, with Cornell University at its heart, it's a breeding ground for fine inns, hotels and restaurants.

Awash in wine
A score of western New York's wineries welcome visitors with free tours that are similar in nature. But it's the tastings that define them.

Company town reborn
Corning, N.Y., reinvents itself as a prosperous marketplace, with nods to its architectural past and its ties to Corning glassware and Mark Twain.

If you go
Beyond all the longer articles today about western New York, there are still more places worth visiting, and they run the gamut from geologic wonders to a museum of the history of aviation and its place in warfare.