Picturesque

Portmeirion is a colorful Gwynedd village, as seen on TV. It is, of course The Village featured in Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. Its Mediterranean flourishes and children's book elan made it both quaint and otherworldly. Later on, Doctor Who would also film there, in a serial called "The Masque of Mandragora" and actually set in Renaissance Italy.

But while these pieces of iconic British telly probably made Portmeirion more famous than it otherwise would have been, it always would have had a reputation. It looks like nowhere else. 

Its big moment in the sun came when it was only a few decades old. The village was the passion project of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, a very accomplished Welsh architect. The whole thing must have been a peak experience for him.