By geography
What kind of place is it
Every town in the catalogue sits in one of these. The line between a hill town and a mountain town is a real one: hill towns run around 400 metres, mountain towns around 800 and inside a named range. A cliff town above the sea counts as coastal, because the sea is why you would go.
375 towns
Hill towns
The ridge and hilltop borghi, sitting around 400 metres. Vineyards below, one road up, walkable once you are there. Good in almost any season.
Pictured: Montalcino
220 towns
Mountain towns
Towns inside a named range: the Alps, the Dolomites, the Apennines, the Pollino, the Aspromonte. Around 800 metres and up, where the season decides the trip.
Pictured: Calascio
195 towns
Coastal towns
Towns on the sea. A cliff town high above the water counts here rather than under mountains, because the sea is why you would go.
Pictured: Maratea
54 towns
Lake towns
Towns on the northern lakes and the quieter volcanic ones further south. Water without the coast road.
Pictured: Varenna
18 towns
Islands
Towns you reach by ferry. Small catalogue, and the getting there is most of the point.
Pictured: Procida
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.
From across Italy
Five towns to begin with
Fonni
Province: Nuoro
The highest village in Sardinia at 1,000 meters on the Gennargentu, with ski lifts climbing above the town and the Madonna dei Martiri sanctuary at its edge.
Lerici
Province: La Spezia
A fishing harbour under a Pisan-Genoese castle, with the frazione of Tellaro hanging over the rocks at the commune's southern edge.
Posada
Province: Nuoro
The capital of the Baronia, a 3,000-person village on a 71-meter rock with a 13th-century tower over the valley.
Sadali
Province: Sud Sardegna
A Barbagia di Seulo borgo at 750 meters with the only waterfall in Sardegna that drops through the inhabited centre.
Cassano delle Murge
Province: Bari
A Murge foothills town at 341 meters at the gate of the Alta Murgia park, with the 1,300-hectare Foresta Mercadante mostly inside its territory.