When Tolstoy visited Bucharest, he commented that Romanians had a "sad destiny," based no doubt on a strong sense of their troubled past -- Romania's soul is tormented by history, its loveliness overshadowed by the reputations of malevolent personalities like Vlad the Impaler and Nicolae Ceausescu. But while bloodthirsty men have worked their ugly politics here (and left their ruinous marks on the land), it remains a country of great beauty; one that (unlike its biggest cultural export, Count Dracula) has shed its curse and pulses with life and fascinating diversity.

While Bucharest buzzes with the energy of a world capital, somewhere in a field, a lone farmer wields a scythe, harvesting the grass his livestock will eat during the cold winters. In the context of the Europe Union (Romania becomes a full-fledged member in 2007) the contrast between urban and rural life is staggering. It is a country coated in forest and defined by the curved backbone of Carpathian peaks. Its natural treasures include the Alpine splendor of snowcapped mountains like Moldoveanu and the vast frontier wetlands of the Danube Delta, mildly comparable to the Okavango in Africa. And along with the rolling hills and soaring Alps, swathes of forest and vast tracts of preindustrial landscape, there are enchanting castles and richly decorated churches reflecting the varied histories of a people who, for centuries, have struggled to create and hold onto a single, united state.

Part of what makes Romania special has to do with the apparent newness of it all. During its isolation under Communism, many of Romania's great treasures were unknown to the world, and were considered unimportant by a leadership hellbent on fulfilling its sociopolitical master plan. To the outside world, this was a dark and foreboding place, haunted by Dracula's eternal ghost, and tormented by Ceausescu's living one. But while Ceausescu's program of systemization tried to squash the past, many lovely centuries-old towns and cities have maintained their historic grandeur, albeit faded and crumbling. Retaining their historic core, often centered on dramatic fortresses and fleshed out by rambling cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways or ancient gateways leading to secret courtyards, Romania's baroque, Gothic, and Secessionist cities are a delight to explore, and while much work is needed to improve tourism infrastructure, the time to visit Romania is now. For Romania is on the verge of yet another revolution, this time one that will not only launch it into the European Union, bolstering the economy and signaling new opportunities for the younger generation, but a revolution that will in all probability finally take its toll on the medieval lifestyle of many of its backwater communities. Romania, once a country weighed down by its troubled past, is poised for a formidable future.