Train
10 towns where the Regionale still stops
Small comuni that kept their railway station, drawn from the Trenitalia station match. 10 towns shown, smallest first. Check the timetable before you build a day on it.
Table no. 12 · Ranked by residents · 10 towns
The Regionale is the train Italians actually ride: slow, cheap, stopping everywhere the Frecce ignore. These small comuni have kept their working station, which in rural Italy is a quiet form of survival.
The list favors the smallest. The ticket costs less than the espresso you drink while waiting, and the platform is usually a better introduction to a town than its parking lot.
- 1.Monteviasco12 residentsVarese · LombardyA near-abandoned mountain frazione of Curiglia con Monteviasco at 928 metres above the Veddasca valley — historically reached only by an aerial cable-car since 1989 (since suspended) or a 1,400-step stone staircase, with permanent population in the single digits.
- 2.Bard108 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta Valley
- 3.Mombaldone197 residentsAsti · Piedmont
- 4.Anversa degli Abruzzi312 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 604 meters above the Sagittario Gorges, a cliff village built around a Norman castle rebuilt by the Counts of Sangro.
- 5.Vallo di Nera345 residentsPerugia · Umbria
- 6.Belgirate473 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA small Lake Maggiore village at 199 meters whose Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria has held its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower for nine hundred years.
- 7.Goriano Sicoli511 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 720 meters in the Subequana valley, a medieval village drawn by M.C. Escher in 1929 keeps a May ritual folklorists trace to Demeter.
- 8.Verduno567 residentsCuneo · PiedmontA Langhe hilltop at 381 meters, the home village of the Pelaverga grape.
- 9.Framura577 residentsLa Spezia · LiguriaFive hamlets between sea level and 300 meters on the Riviera di Levante, with Byzantine watchtowers built against Saracen incursions.
- 10.Roccacasale597 residentsL'Aquila · Abruzzo
THREE OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN PIEDMONT
The slow-trip planner
Plan a slow trip across the towns travelers skip.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Every Sunday we send one letter. The week's town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
