Magic items are more interesting when they serve to advance or drive a plot. This may be because
Only with that item can the characters succeed (and it is hard to get or keep the item). Example: wights that can only be hurt by +1 weapons, in an area where +1 weapons are extremely rare.
The item is complex; it only sometimes works, or requires mastery and exploration. Example: a Wand of the Moon which has greater effects at night than during the day, but the nature of the effects change with the phase of the moon (all of which the characters have to find out).
The item has a long and elaborate history, some of which is relevant to some grand plot or event. Example: a horcrux.
The item is unique, and even if not all that powerful, the characters become known as the ones with that unique capability, if only they can make it. Example: the characters have to create +1 swords for wight-slaying, and they learn from an old magician how to both enchant the swords and make them glow if wights are within 100m.
You cannot, in general, make people super-excited about items that are commonplace and easy to get, no matter how fantastic they are. For example, in a matter of seconds, I can talk to any person I choose on the planet, thanks to a cell phone. Do I spend much time thinking about the cell phone itself? Not really. (Apple does a good job at making its products seem extraordinary, so if I had an iPhone it might be a partial exception.)
Background and Legacies
Outside the dungeons, pits, castles and sewers there is the chance to explore what the characters are more than just damage dealing machines, what they want to be their legacies, who they know, what they want to be; encourage players to expand on their backstories - or examine their backgrounds and see what can come out of the woodwork, not even as a battle but as someone to talk to or stories that they can find out about.
Relationships
High level characters should have not a small amount of fame and NPCs should be clamouring to apprentice/advise/woo/get money/kill them depending on what they've become famous for. Think Wizard duels to determine "the greatest magi of the land", building sage towers to tutor a school of magic, creating new religious movements, creating a guild of adventurers to solve all the petty tasks that no longer are worth the time, etc.
The world
At Epic level politics becomes an important factor; characters who are powerful can solve important problems, defeat enemies or swing wars between countries and Kings/Nobles/Wizards will want the PCs on their side - or rid of them - for wider political motives
Think scheming political figures "Have this castle as my thank you for your service" (said castle is crawling with dangerous bandits) religious orders that are asking for help with crusades and so on.
Making it alive
And those the players know will have moved on as well; NPCs shouldn't stand still, give a little snippet to important figures in the characters lives to make things feel more "alive", Bob and Bobette have had a baby, Duke Von Bob has created a new trade route, Trader Bob has partnered with his former enemy anti-Bob.
A world of shops and taverns?
Another thing to help the players feel a place is more alive is to add things to the city that are more than rumour-generation taverns and item-trading shops. Don't scattergun these in, you can drip feed them schools, colleges, magical research centres, masons guilds, graveyards and religious institutes to the point that (hopefully) they'll ask "is there an X" in town and then you can sit back and stuff in some generic NPCs for X, give it a name and have them talk to a piece of the city that they've effectively generated for you. Now that's lazy GM'ing and I like that :)
PC: "Is there an alchemist in the city?"
Me: (Checks list of random npc names, rolls a dice for personality on a quick chart), writes 'Alchemist, gruff, slightly mad, level 15' "Yes there is, a few inquiries tells you about Old Bob the Alchemists shop of chemical wonders, it's down old goat street."
Best Answer
The real way to spice up anything in a game is to give it some more flavor. Instead of merely escorting the princess through the forest, she's injured and needs medical attention beyond what the players can provide, and there's a rival kingdom seeking to take her for ransom. Give it more than just a "Do this." feel, give it a "Do this, quickly, or else things might go wrong." Better yet, when you're doing this, don't have plans that are contingent on a certain outcome; the players are traveling with the princess because they have a mutual destination, nobody knows they're doing it and they'll be at worst under a little scrutiny when it turns out that she doesn't arrive.
Alternatively, play counter to their expectations; they see someone lurking in the forests and it turns out that they're refugees (bonus points if the players attack without positive identification). They think they're escorting a merchant, but they're stopped by Imperial guards who ask why they're traveling with a known smuggler and massive amounts of contraband. The merchant wanders off in the night. The merchant turns out to be capturing them for a bounty. The merchant is actually a greater demon who will eat their souls in the night. The merchant has actually been a cat all along, and can't sell anything at all. The merchant decides to turn around and go home, but the players want to go where he's going, forcing them to choose between getting paid or making progress. The bandits turn out to be former allies of the player, and the merchant turns out to be a scumbag. The bandits turn out to be scumbags, but the merchant is worse. There are no bandits, but instead spirits who are upset with the merchant in particular for desecrating a holy site (preferably one sacred to a player character). The merchant catches a disease. The players contract diseases. Disease kills the merchant en-route. The merchant turns out to be bankrupt, and this discovery is made mid-journey. The merchant is transporting slaves/contraband/other things the players morally object to. The merchant is a terrorist. Give the players a moral choice; the merchant or an injured person needing assistance. Don't make escort quests solely dependent on escorting-flexibility and dynamism are key.
Sometimes, however, stuff's just going to start to feel bland. It's the eightieth escort quest, the tenth world-threatening dungeon-dweller, and the seventeenth damsel in distress, and the players need a change of pace. Be on the lookout for alternate story hooks; defense missions, for instance, to steal a reviled video game method, actually make decent tabletop scenarios. Have them look for something out of the ordinary.
It's not really the journey that matters, it's how they get there.