Recognitions
10 towns holding the most recognitions at once
Ten towns: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €690 in Trevi to €2,900 in Matera.
Comuni carrying the most simultaneous designations in the catalogue, from Borghi più belli to Cittaslow to Bandiera Blu. 10 towns shown, most recognized first.
Table no. 27 · Ranked by recognitions · 10 towns
Italian town certifications form an ecosystem: beauty lists, slow-living charters, product designations, environmental flags. Most towns hold none. These hold the most in the catalogue, several at once.
Stacked recognitions usually mean a town that works at being itself: the wine consortium, the intact centro, the clean beach, all maintained by the same few thousand people.
- 1.Norcia8 recognitionsPerugia · UmbriaBest for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.1 h 33 min from Terni · 4,457 peopleBirthplace of San Benedetto at 604 meters on a Sibillini plateau, leveled by the 2016 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone.
- 2.Matera8 recognitionsMatera · BasilicataBest for a trip without a car. The train stops in the commune.1 h from Bari · homes €1,650 to €2,900 a m² in the center · 59,628 peopleCave dwellings carved into limestone since the Paleolithic, called the shame of Italy in the 1950s and made European Capital of Culture in 2019.
- 3.San Casciano dei Bagni7 recognitionsSiena · TuscanyBest for a small town. 1,421 people live here.1 h 6 min from Perugia · homes €740 to €1,050 a m² in the center · 1,421 peopleA hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
- 4.Montalcino7 recognitionsSiena · TuscanyBest for everyday life on foot. Eight of the ten everyday services we look for are mapped within 500 meters of the center.1 h 42 min from Perugia · homes €1,600 to €2,200 a m² in the center · 5,569 peopleA walled hill town at 564 meters above the Val d'Orcia, the last fortress to hold out for the Sienese Republic and the birthplace of Brunello.
- 5.
Trevi7 recognitionsPerugia · UmbriaBest for a wine weekend. It belongs to the national association of wine towns.45 min from Perugia · homes €690 to €960 a m² in the center · 7,927 peopleA walled town at 412 meters above the Spoleto valley, ringed by 200,000 olive trees that make it the Umbrian capital of olive oil. - 6.Massa Marittima7 recognitionsGrosseto · TuscanyBest for olive oil. It belongs to the national association of olive oil towns.1 h 35 min from Livorno · homes €900 to €1,300 a m² in the center · 8,186 people
- 7.Scanno6 recognitionsL'Aquila · AbruzzoBest for a swim. The comune's beach holds a Blue Flag.1 h 20 min from Pescara · homes €800 to €1,200 a m² in the center · 1,681 peopleA 1,057-meter Sagittario valley village where women in black still walk the alleys photographed by Cartier-Bresson and Giacomelli.
- 8.Arquà Petrarca6 recognitionsPadova · VenetoBest for a day out from Padua. It is 28 min by car.28 min from Padua · homes €1,100 to €1,500 a m² in the center · 1,779 people
- 9.Nemi6 recognitionsRoma · LazioBest for a stage of a long walk. The Via Francigena passes through.52 min from Rome · homes €1,150 to €1,650 a m² in the center · 1,861 peopleThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
- 10.
Suvereto6 recognitionsLivorno · TuscanyBest for a walk through the old town. It is on the list of Italy's most beautiful villages.1 h 24 min from Livorno · homes €1,400 to €2,000 a m² in the center · 2,898 peopleA stone borgo at 127 meters above the Val di Cornia, named for the cork oaks of its forests and first recorded in 973, under a twelfth-century Aldobrandeschi fortress.
FOUR OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN TUSCANY
We write letters from the Italian towns we visit: the town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
Keep browsing