Best time
10 towns that peak in October light
Ten towns: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €690 in Trevi to €5,400 in Malcesine.
Comuni whose visiting calendar marks October as a best month. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions held.
Table no. 40 · Ranked by residents · 10 towns
October is harvest twice over: grapes in, olives next, the woods opening for truffles and chestnuts. The towns that peak now are the ones whose year is built around what the land does in autumn.
All marked best in October in our visiting calendar, ranked by recognitions. Book the first weekend; Italians know this month too.
- 1.Norcia4,457 residentsPerugia · UmbriaBest for walks in a national park. Part of the comune lies in a national park.1 h 33 min from TerniBirthplace of San Benedetto at 604 meters on a Sibillini plateau, leveled by the 2016 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone.
- 2.Matera59,628 residentsMatera · 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 centerCave 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 Bagni1,421 residentsSiena · TuscanyBest for a soak. The comune has thermal baths.1 h 6 min from Perugia · homes €740 to €1,050 a m² in the centerA hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
- 4.Montalcino5,569 residentsSiena · 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 centerA 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.
Trevi7,927 residentsPerugia · UmbriaBest for a long lunch. A food guide lists La Cucina di San Pietro a Pettine here.45 min from Perugia · homes €690 to €960 a m² in the centerA 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 Marittima8,186 residentsGrosseto · TuscanyBest for a wine weekend. It belongs to the national association of wine towns.1 h 35 min from Livorno · homes €900 to €1,300 a m² in the centerA medieval mining town at 380 meters, free commune from 1225 to 1337, whose cathedral holds the relics of San Cerbone.
- 7.Arquà Petrarca1,779 residentsPadova · 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 centerThe Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
- 8.Nemi1,861 residentsRoma · 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 centerThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
- 9.
Suvereto2,898 residentsLivorno · 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 centerA 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. - 10.Malcesine3,526 residentsVerona · VenetoBest for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.1 h 6 min from Trento · homes €3,600 to €5,400 a m² in the centerThe northernmost Veneto town on Lake Garda, where Goethe was nearly arrested for sketching the Castello Scaligero in September 1786.The catch: Homes in the center cost up to €5,400 a m².
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.
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