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
223 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
193 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
Cicala
Province: Catanzaro
A village of 887 people at 829 meters, founded in 1616 by farmers asking for land.
Fossombrone
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
An inland Marchigiano town on the Metauro river, layered over a Roman colony with a Renaissance ducal court rising above it.
Bagnoli del Trigno
Province: Isernia
The 'Pearl of Molise', a 637-resident borgo built into and around a massive limestone outcrop above the Trigno valley, with a medieval castle rebuilt on its summit.
Varenna
Province: Lecco
A fishing village founded in 769 on the Lecco arm of Lake Como, with a steep grid of streets falling into the water.
Rocca di Botte
Province: L'Aquila
At 750 meters on the Carseolani slopes between Abruzzo and Lazio, the birthplace of an eleventh-century hermit and a fief of the Colonna.