Slow trip
12 slow days: Verona and Rimini
In October and November, the crowds thin from Verona's Roman amphitheater and the Renaissance frescoes of Pesaro's Ducal Palace, leaving the galleries and churches to their serious students. This itinerary moves between the Alpine foothills above Verona (Trento's prince-bishop castles, Malcesine's Venetian fortress) and the Adriatic slopes inland from Rimini (Gradara's medieval keep, Acqualagna's brick piazzas scarred by centuries of wagon wheels). The season turns the light sharp and low, turning stone walls the color of old coins.
12 days · October or November · art & history-first · no mobility limits
Verona
Verona, 7 days
Base yourself in Verona and make these your day trips.
7 towns · qualifying pool of 10 from 32 candidates
Mountain towns in the provinces of Trento and Verona. Borghi Più Belli d'Italia and wine territory.
Getting around
Rent a car for this corner. undefined, your base, has no station, so plan to arrive by car. Only 2 of the 7 towns have a railway station; the day trips assume driving.
While you're there
- Trento — Mercatini di Natale, NovemberMajor Alpine Christmas market in Piazza Fiera and Piazza Mostra running mid-November through Epiphany since 1993.
- Brentonico — Festa della Castagna di Castione, OctoberChestnut festival on Brentonico plateau with prized Monte Baldo marroni and Trentino dishes
- Bleggio Superiore — Festa della Noce del Bleggio, NovemberFestival of Slow Food walnut variety served in cakes, bread, liqueur and rare salami
- Borgo Valsugana — Mercatini di Natale di Borgo Valsugana, NovemberChristmas market with wooden stalls along the Brenta River arcades in historic center
More options in this corner
Trento
Province: Trento
The Alpine capital on the Adige at 194 metres, where the Council that reshaped the Catholic Church met in a castle still standing above the city.
Picked for: art and history · plain · Mercatini di Natale, November
Brentonico
Province: Trento
The Monte Baldo plateau town between Lake Garda and the Vallagarina, with chestnut groves, war trenches and a botanical garden.
Picked for: food and wine · mountain · Festa della Castagna di Cast…, October
Tenno
Province: Trento
A hillside commune above Lake Garda where a medieval stone hamlet, a turquoise lake and the northernmost olive groves in Europe sit within reach of each other.
Picked for: art and history · hill town
Malcesine
Province: Verona
The northernmost Veneto town on Lake Garda, where Goethe was nearly arrested for sketching the Castello Scaligero in September 1786.
Picked for: art and history · lakeside
Bleggio Superiore
Province: Trento
A scattered Giudicarie commune whose hilltop hamlet of Rango holds the Christmas markets, with a Slow Food walnut grown on the terraces below.
Picked for: art and history · mountain · Festa della Noce del Bleggio, November
Borgo Valsugana
Province: Trento
The valley town built on both banks of the Brenta in lower Valsugana, with a hilltop castle above and a contemporary art project in the side valley.
Picked for: art and history · hill town · Mercatini di Natale di Borgo…, November
Riva del Garda
Province: Trento
The north tip of the lake at 73 metres, where the Trentino mountains close in on the water and a Habsburg port town stayed bilingual into the twentieth century.
Picked for: food and wine · lakeside
Rimini
Rimini, 5 days
Base yourself in Rimini and make these your day trips.
7 towns · qualifying pool of 8 from 32 candidates
Hill towns in the provinces of Pesaro e Urbino, Forlì-Cesena, and Rimini. Borghi Più Belli d'Italia, olive oil country, and Bandiera Blu coast.
Getting around
undefined, your base, has no station, so plan to arrive by car. 3 of the 7 towns here have a station; the rest need wheels. A rental car makes this corner simple, a rail-plus-taxi version takes patience.
While you're there
- Acqualagna — Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco, October–NovemberNational white truffle fair where Acqualagna produces almost two-thirds of Italy's truffles annually.
More options in this corner
Pesaro
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
The Adriatic port at the mouth of the Foglia, founded as Roman Pisaurum in 184 BC and given to the world by Rossini in 1792.
Picked for: art and history · coastal
Gradara
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
The walled hill borgo at 142 meters above the Adriatic where Dante set the deaths of Paolo and Francesca, with one of Italy's best-preserved castles.
Picked for: art and history · coastal
Mondolfo
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A walled hill borgo at 144 meters above the Adriatic, with the frazione of Marotta and its beach below.
Picked for: art and history · coastal
Acqualagna
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
The Italian truffle capital at 204 meters in the Metauro valley, supplying two-thirds of the country's white truffle harvest from the surrounding limestone woods.
Picked for: food and wine · hill town · Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo …, October
Bertinoro
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A 254-meter Romagna-hill borgo above the Via Emilia, with a twelve-ring hospitality column from 1300 and the slopes that grow Albana DOCG.
Picked for: art and history · hill town
Montegridolfo
Province: Rimini
A walled borgo of fewer than a thousand residents on the Romagna-Marche border, held alternately by the Malatesta and the Montefeltro through the fifteenth century.
Picked for: art and history · hill town
Pergola
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A hill town at 265 meters in the upper Cesano valley, holding the only surviving group of Roman gilded bronze statues from antiquity.
Picked for: art and history · hill town
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About this plan
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