Sample town and country in a region touched by three distinctive historical figures.

You wouldn't expect Thomas Jefferson, Stonewall Jackson, and William Shakespeare to have anything in common, but they do. All three men cast long shadows in a swath of Blue Ridge country bracketed by the towns of Charlottesville and Staunton. A three-hour drive southwest of Washington, D.C., this corner of Virginia offers a sampler of history and bucolic scenery, with Jefferson, Jackson, and Shakespeare front and center.

In Charlottesville, you'll naturally want to make the pilgrimage to Jefferson's Monticello estate and the grounds of the university he designed, but also be sure to check out at least one local eatery. "In a place with so much history," says local writer Brian Wimer, "start with Michie Tavern, which dates to 1784 and is popular for its lunchtime Southern buffet based on 18th-century recipes."

After lunch, head west across the Blue Ridge into the Shenandoah Valley, the apple blossom capital of the state and scene of numerous Civil War battles. Thirty-nine miles from Charlottesville is historic Staunton (pronounced Stanton), whose downtown is a parade of Victorian storefronts. Be sure to visit the Frontier Culture Museum. "Farms from Germany, Northern Ireland, and England have been moved here and restored, along with American farms of the same time period," says Frank Strassler of the Historic Staunton Foundation. In the evening, you can catch a performance at Blackfriars Playhouse, a meticulously re-created Elizabethan theater that's home to the American Shakespeare Center.