Didja know Iowa has a Panama, a Toronto, a Rome, a Jamaica — even a Persia?

And they say its citizens aren’t worldly. Pfft.

Exotic city nomenclature aside, Cornlandia tragically gets a bad rap. Or rather, no rap at all, which only serves to make Iowa the butt of jokes among the misguided and ill-informed.

But the joke’s on them when, as it did last year, Iowa hosts its presidential caucuses (the first in the country) and, boom, it’s the one state every muckety-muck suddenly forgets to snub.

Chip meet shoulder.

But when the votes are cast and it’s all over, presidential candidates love it and leave it so fast and callously, it’s deserving of its own Adele song.

To crib from a certain prolific tweeter’s parlance: sad.

This whamming, bamming, ma’am-thanking approach to Iowa only does said whammers a disservice — in the missing out.

And while the state has never been accused of being overly complicated, especially in its geography (hence the summer-held Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, which runs west flank to east in nearly a straight line), its petite, pastoral figure (yet don’t ever call it flat, it’s far from it) makes a good chunk of the entire state seeable in a day. Albeit a full day.

Perfect, because it has some of the best, if not the best, college towns in the Midwest (sorry not sorry, Michigan). And they’re all just aching for your drop-by. (Though, if you want hokum, you can find it in spades, too: Elwood, the world’s largest concrete gnome, anyone?)

After all, when you only get 15 minutes of fame every four years, you have a lot left to say to the world in-between.

So Iowa, the floor is officially yours.

Scrounge up a rental car at the airport and do a whirlwind tour of those magnificent Iowan college towns and the pretty schools that make them so.

If you fly into Des Moines International, you can start with private Drake University, right in town. Then it’s just a quick 40-minute drive due north to Ames, home to Iowa State and its all-too-fittingly named Cyclones. Drive a little over 90 minutes northeast and you’ll bump into the lair of the University of Northern Iowa Panthers in Cedar Falls. Finally, 90 miles southeast, wrap things up in Iowa City, where the latest Outback Bowl murder victims, the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, nest. Then it’s just a straight, 90-minute drive west back to Des Moines — the circuit’s one big trapezoid.

To stay in the scholastic spirit, head over to the Herbert Hoover Library & Museum in West Branch, the domed Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden and/or the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, which doubles as a shrine to Grant Wood, the “American Gothic” painter — they’re all plenty interactive, educational and kid-friendly.

It’s easier said than done to come home from vacation smarter than when you left for it, but it is possible. Trust us.

For whatever reason, there’s an unholy union between pizza and gas stations in Iowa, most famously perfected at Casey’s General Stores, a region-wide chain. It is best-known for its venerated breakfast pizza, which isn’t last night’s pizza served cold in the a.m., but this morning’s pizza served hot and topped with eggs and sausage, which mingle all too well with the mozzarella.

You’re welcome, Pepto-Bismol shareholders.

When that — in theory — fully digests, head to Big Grove Brewery in Solon for Korean BBQ wings and its Russian Imperial Stout. (Another shot of Pepto, please, barkeep … just leave the bottle!)

Cool things down with a lactose safari to Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City.

Yes, they do speak chic and sleek in Iowa — check into the Hotel at Kirkwood Center in Cedar Rapids, a glassy and elegant surprise, if you have your doubts (from $192).

Almost too much. Turns out, in Iowa City — a UNESCO City of Literature and home to the famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop — scribes like to imbibe (you don’t say?) and they’ll have a new spot to do so at the opening of the second Big Grove Brewery locale, coming soon. Also in town was the October reopening of the Hawkeyes’ concert and theater space, Hancher Auditorium, which was destroyed by floods in 2008.

In Des Moines, there will be a new AC Hotel by Marriott in its East Village next month while the historic Renaissance Savery Hotel — closed all winter for renovations — reopens early spring.

Goldfinch is a locally sourcing newborn restaurant along Court Avenue opened last October. Airy and oversized chair-filled Magnolia Wine Kitchen came to life late last summer.

And finally, don’t be bamboozled by its self-effacing moniker: Bubba likewise opened last summer as an upscale eatery for southern comfort food and signature mint juleps.