Virginia was one of the original 13 states which banded together to form the new nation of the United States. Later, its capitol city of Richmond served as the capital of yet another new nation: the Confederacy. In keeping with its glorious past, Virginia is filled with sites of interest to anyone with a love of American history.
Four of the first five presidents were born and raised in Virginia. Stately homes such as Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation, and Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's mansion, can take tourists back to an earlier era when slavery was legal and the Declaration of Independence was a document signed within living memory. Virginia is also home to important battle sites such as Yorktown, where our first president, then the general in charge of the Continental Army, defeated the British and thus ended the Revolutionary War. Later, Civil War battles raged across the state; these are commemorated in memorial sites and national historic battlefields in several locations including Arlington National Cemetery, which is just a few minutes' drive from Washington, D.C.
However, Virginia is about a great deal more than our history; the motto of the tourism council for the state is "Virginia is for Lovers, a slogan which calls to mind sultry Southern nights and the romantic getaways that characterize small rural towns and beach cities alike. Since Virginia vacation homes are widely available both on the Atlantic seaboard and further inland at the Shenandoah Mountains, a better slogan might perhaps be, "Virginia is for everyone."