Press
Anywhere Italy: the 1,000 hidden towns, for journalists
A catalogue of one thousand small Italian towns, built as a database and written as a magazine. Everything on this page is the current live figure, computed from the same data the site runs on. Town descriptions are in English.
Facts and figures
- Towns in the catalogue
- 1,000
- Regions covered
- 20
- Towns visited in person
- 59
- Pieces written from those visits
- 32
- Published articles and lists
- 725
- Verified designations tracked
- 34
- Recurring festivals verified
- 363
- Photographs in the library
- 6,461
- Towns site launched
- May 2026
- Based in
- Pietrasanta, Tuscany
- Site language
- English
- Model
- Free site, free Sunday letter, paid Substack tiers. No advertising.
Figures as of 2026-08-16.
The mission
Italy has nearly eight thousand comuni. Foreign travellers hear about fifty, visit six, and queue there. A few valleys from every famous piazza there is a town where the school closed a generation ago, the young left for the city, and the bar decides each spring whether to turn the lights back on.
These are the same problem. The famous places carry more visitors than they can hold, and the small ones empty out for lack of anyone. Nearly all of the money lands on one side of that line.
Anywhere Italy is a catalogue of one thousand of the towns that get skipped, each with its own page: population, altitude, how to get there without a car, what it is recognised for, when to go, and what we found when we went. A hundred euros spent in Florence disappears into Florence. The same hundred in a town of four hundred people is visible in the till. We think of it as pointing money at the places that notice it.
It is written by Peter Benei and photographed by Sophia, who moved to Italy from Hungary in 2022 and live in Pietrasanta, Tuscany. One town every Sunday, in their own voice, until the count runs out.
Press kit
Boilerplate, founder biography, logos, photographs and usage terms. Everything here may be used in editorial coverage of Anywhere Italy without asking.
Boilerplate, short
Anywhere Italy is a catalogue of 1,000 small Italian towns most travellers skip, each with its own data-rich page, written by Peter Benei and photographed by Sophia from Pietrasanta, Tuscany.
Boilerplate, long
Anywhere Italy is a catalogue of one thousand small Italian towns that most travellers skip. Every town has its own page: population and altitude from ISTAT, whether it can be reached by train, the designations it holds (Borghi più belli d'Italia, Bandiera Arancione, Bandiera Blu, UNESCO, Cittaslow, national parks and others), when to go, what it is known for, and, for the towns the founders have visited, their own dispatch and photographs. The site publishes computed lists across the catalogue (lake towns near Milan, hill towns you can reach by train, the towns under a hundred people) and a free Sunday letter about one town each week. It is written by Peter Benei and photographed by Sophia, Hungarians who moved to Italy in 2022 and live in Pietrasanta, Tuscany. The project's stated purpose is to move visitors and their money from the six overcrowded places to the towns that notice.
The founders
Peter Benei writes Anywhere Italy. Sophia takes the photographs. They moved from Hungary to Italy in 2022 and live in Pietrasanta on the Tuscan coast. Being immigrants, they write about local life and custom as much as views, because that is what they had to learn. They visit one town at a time and write about a place only once one of them has stood in it.
Logos
PNG, transparent. Use the horizontal mark where width allows and the cube where it does not. Do not recolour; the gold is the brand's own.
Photographs
The founders' portrait may be used in coverage with the credit "Anywhere Italy". Town photographs on the site are individually credited on each town page; the ones marked as our own may be used with the credit "Sophia / Anywhere Italy".
Fact sheet
The Top 100 as a spreadsheet. CSV: town, region, province, residents, altitude, designations, our description, link. Computed from the same data as the page.
The figures above, the mission and the boilerplate, in one file to keep.
Usage
Text on this page, the figures, the boilerplate and the logos may be reproduced in editorial coverage. Please link to anywhereitaly.com. Data in the database is compiled from public sources listed on each town page and on the About the data page; cite the town page when quoting a figure.
The Top 100: a selection, not a ranking
One hundred towns picked from the thousand by a rule that can be written down. It is not a league table and the page prints no position: two towns a few points apart are not better and worse, they are both here.
The rule weighs the outside recognition each town holds. A place on the Borghi più belli d'Italia list, a Touring Club Bandiera Arancione, a UNESCO listing or a Borgo dei Borghi final counts for a great deal; membership of a wine, oil or bread club counts a little and is capped as a group, because being in a valley that grows three things is one fact, not three. A guide-listed restaurant adds a little. Having been there ourselves adds a little. Provincial capitals lose points; towns under three thousand people gain a few. Every region is guaranteed two seats and no region may take more than ten.
Method: weighted designations, capped food clubs, per-region floor of 2 and cap of 10, towns under 20,000 residents with at least one photograph. Recomputed at every build. Full weights in the source.
Grouped by region, north to south. Each entry carries the current ISTAT resident count, altitude, the designations that earned its place, and our one-line editorial description. Editorial descriptions are in English.
Aosta Valley2
Etroubles
Aosta Valley · 478 residents · 1,280 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Via Francigena
A 478-person Alpine village at 1,280 metres, with an open-air contemporary art museum and the region's first dairy.
Fontainemore
Aosta Valley · 418 residents · 760 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Riserva Naturale
A 418-person Walser-influenced village at 760 metres in the Lys Valley, marked by its stone bridge and a five-yearly pilgrimage to Oropa.
Piedmont7
Orta San Giulio
Novara · 1,047 residents · 294 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Riserva Naturale · 4 guide-listed
A promontory facing an islet basilica, with a UNESCO complex of Francis-of-Assisi chapels on the hill above.
Monforte d'Alba
Cuneo · 1,951 residents · 480 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Spighe Verdi · 11 guide-listed
A Barolo cru village at 480 meters where the Cathars were burned in 1028 and where the summer jazz festival fills the old piazza.
Guarene
Cuneo · 3,551 residents · 360 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Spighe Verdi · Città del Vino · 4 guide-listed
A Roero hilltop village at 360 meters above the Tanaro, whose Roero family baroque castle is now a luxury hotel and contemporary art destination.
Barolo
Cuneo · 638 residents · 301 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Vino · 3 guide-listed
A Langhe borgo at 301 meters whose Castello Falletti gave its name to the wine the Marchesi turned dry in the 1830s with Cavour's help.
Usseaux
Torino · 175 residents · 1,416 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale
A Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
Vogogna
Verbano-Cusio-Ossola · 1,680 residents · 226 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale
An Ossola medieval capital at 226 meters on the Toce, with a castle of 1348 and five centuries as seat of the lower valley's jurisdiction.
Cocconato
Asti · 1,422 residents · 491 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Vino · 1 guide-listed
A Monferrato ridge town at 491 meters with a microclimate mild enough to grow palms and olives this far north.
Lombardy6
Monzambano
Mantova · 4,816 residents · 88 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Città del Vino
A Mincio commune at 88 meters in the moraine hills west of Mantova, whose frazione Castellaro Lagusello sits on a heart-shaped lake inside fortified walls.
Gardone Riviera
Brescia · 2,626 residents · 71 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Blu · Bandiera Lilla · Parco Regionale · 7 guide-listed
A western Garda lakeshore town whose hillside holds an estate turned into a monument to one man's self-image.
Sabbioneta
Mantova · 4,096 residents · 25 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione
A Renaissance ideal city on the Po, built in thirty years by Vespasiano I Gonzaga and laid out as a six-pointed star.
Gromo
Bergamo · 1,141 residents · 676 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Ski Area
A medieval iron-forging town at 676 meters on a rock spur above the Serio, once called the little Toledo for its sword smiths.
Bellano
Lecco · 3,420 residents · 202 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow
An eastern shore town where the Pioverna cut a gorge through fifteen million years of rock before reaching the water.
Tremezzina
Como · 4,993 residents · 209 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · 2 guide-listed
The 2014 merger of four Lake Como villages that holds Villa Carlotta, Isola Comacina and the UNESCO Sacro Monte di Ossuccio.
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol2
Tenno
Trento · 2,002 residents · 428 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Blu · Città dell'Olio
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.
Sterzing
Bolzano · 6,915 residents · 948 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Ski Area · 1 guide-listed
A bilingual mining town at 948 metres on the Brenner road, where a 46-metre tower built in 1472 still divides the old town from the new.
Veneto8
Follina
Treviso · 3,535 residents · 191 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Città del Vino · 3 guide-listed
A Prosecco-hills borgo at 191 meters around the Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria, with a cloister finished in 1268.
Cison di Valmarino
Treviso · 2,463 residents · 261 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Vino · 1 guide-listed
A Prosecco hills borgo at 261 meters under the dolomite rock of CastelBrando, the largest inhabited castle complex in Europe.
Asolo
Treviso · 8,916 residents · 205 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Città del Miele · Città del Vino · 4 guide-listed
A walled hill town at 205 meters that Caterina Cornaro ran as her court after trading Cyprus to Venice in 1489.
Arquà Petrarca
Padova · 1,810 residents · 56 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Terme · Parco Regionale · Città del Vino
The Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
Malcesine
Verona · 3,603 residents · 89 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Lilla · Ski Area · Riserva Naturale · 1 guide-listed
The northernmost Veneto town on Lake Garda, where Goethe was nearly arrested for sketching the Castello Scaligero in September 1786.
Rocca Pietore
Belluno · 1,149 residents · 1,143 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Ski Area
An Agordino borgo at 1,143 meters under the Marmolada, where the Pettorina cuts a two-kilometer gorge through 100-meter rock walls.
Valeggio sul Mincio
Verona · 15,943 residents · 88 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Lilla · 2 guide-listed
A moraine-hills town at 88 meters between Garda and Mantua, with a 1393 Visconti bridge-dam over the Mincio and a tortellino called the love knot.
Soave
Verona · 7,152 residents · 40 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Vino
A walled wine town twenty kilometers east of Verona, where Garganega vineyards climb to a Scaligeri castle above the rooftops.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia5
Cividale del Friuli
Udine · 10,815 residents · 138 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Vino · 1 guide-listed
The Lombard capital on the Natisone, founded as Forum Iulii by Julius Caesar, where an eighth-century chapel still holds six stucco saints.
Venzone
Udine · 1,939 residents · 230 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale
A 230-meter walled medieval town in the Tagliamento valley, leveled by the 1976 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone, winner of Borgo dei Borghi 2017.
Sappada
Udine · 1,314 residents · 1,250 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Ski Area · 2 guide-listed
A German-speaking alpine village at 1,250 meters near the source of the Piave, settled from East Tyrol in the eleventh century and Italian since 1852.
Spilimbergo
Pordenone · 11,833 residents · 132 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · 2 guide-listed
A 132-meter Friulian town on the Tagliamento, home since 1922 to the Scuola Mosaicisti.
Frisanco
Pordenone · 572 residents · 415 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · 1 guide-listed
A 572-resident commune in the Val Colvera whose frazione Poffabro, at 525 meters, became a model of Prealpine stone-and-wood vernacular architecture.
Liguria6
Vernazzawe have been
La Spezia · 729 residents · 3 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Nazionale
The middle village of the coast, the only one with a natural harbor, buried under four meters of mud in October 2011.
Brugnatowe have been
La Spezia · 1,283 residents · 115 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Infioritalia
The medieval ecclesiastical capital of an inland Ligurian valley, seat of a diocese from 1133 to 1820, with a co-cathedral built over a Columban monastery.
Triora
Imperia · 373 residents · 776 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Ski Area · Città del Pane
The witches' village at 776 meters in the upper Valle Argentina, where the Inquisition put around 200 women on trial between 1587 and 1589.
Badalucco
Imperia · 1,072 residents · 179 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio · 2 guide-listed
A medieval village wrapped in a bend of the Argentina torrent, with murals on its caruggi and a Slow Food bean on its terraces.
Apricale
Imperia · 626 residents · 273 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
A medieval hill village in the Nervia Valley, named for the Latin apricus, sunny, with a tenth-century castle shaped like a lizard on the rock.
Perinaldo
Imperia · 829 residents · 572 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
A ridge village at 572 meters, birthplace of Giovanni Domenico Cassini and home to a working astronomical observatory in his name.
Emilia-Romagna7
Bobbio
Piacenza · 3,408 residents · 272 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Terme · Ski Area · 2 guide-listed
A 272-meter Trebbia-valley town built around an abbey founded in 614, named Borgo dei Borghi by RAI in 2019.
Brisighella
Ravenna · 7,186 residents · 115 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Parco Regionale · Città dell'Olio
A Lamone-valley borgo at 115 meters under three selenite hills crowned by a fortress, a clock tower, and a sanctuary.
Bagno di Romagna
Forlì-Cesena · 5,592 residents · 491 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale · Riserva Naturale · 4 guide-listed
A 491-meter thermal town at the head of the Savio valley, drawing on springs that have run at 47 degrees since Roman times.
Fiumalbo
Modena · 1,175 residents · 935 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Ski Area
A 935-meter stone village in the Modenese Apennines on the Tuscan border, at the confluence of two rivers under Monte Cimone.
Castell'Arquato
Piacenza · 4,617 residents · 224 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Riserva Naturale · Città del Vino · 1 guide-listed
A 224-meter hilltop borgo in the Val d'Arda, kept intact since the tenth century and crowned by Luchino Visconti's 1342 fortress.
Vernasca
Piacenza · 2,004 residents · 457 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Riserva Naturale
A Val d'Arda commune in the Piacenza Apennines, holding the walled village of Vigoleno and one of the most compact castled borghi in Emilia.
Castelvetro di Modena
Modena · 11,101 residents · 152 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Città del Vino · 2 guide-listed
A 152-meter hill borgo south of Modena whose checkerboard piazza sits above the slopes that grow Lambrusco Grasparossa.
Tuscany10
Lucignano
Arezzo · 3,383 residents · 400 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
A walled elliptical hill town at 400 meters between Siena and Arezzo, planned in medieval concentric rings around the goldsmith's reliquary called the Tree of Life.
Suveretowe have been
Livorno · 2,955 residents · 127 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Parco Regionale · Città del Vino · 1 guide-listed
A stone borgo at 127 meters above the Val di Cornia, named for the cork oaks of its forests and ruled from the Rocca Aldobrandesca since 973.
San Casciano dei Bagni
Siena · 1,500 residents · 582 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Terme · Via Francigena · Riserva Naturale · 3 guide-listed
A hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
Mancianowe have been
Grosseto · 7,052 residents · 444 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Terme · Riserva Naturale · Città del Vino · 5 guide-listed
A market town at 444 meters in the southern Maremma, with a Sienese fortress of 1424 and the thermal frazione of Saturnia in its territory.
Montalcinowe have been
Siena · 5,611 residents · 564 m
UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Via Francigena · Città del Miele · Città del Vino · 21 guide-listed
A 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.
Pienzawe have been
Siena · 1,976 residents · 491 m
UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Riserva Naturale · Città dell'Olio · 5 guide-listed
The first Renaissance ideal city, built from 1459 on the Val d'Orcia ridge.
San Gimignanowe have been
Siena · 7,480 residents · 334 m
UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Via Francigena · Città del Vino · Città dell'Olio · 4 guide-listed
A walled hill town at 334 meters with 14 surviving medieval towers, UNESCO listed since 1990 and the home of Vernaccia.
Anghiari
Arezzo · 5,384 residents · 430 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Riserva Naturale · 2 guide-listed
A walled medieval town at 430 meters over the upper Tiber valley, where Florence beat Milan in 1440 and Leonardo started the fresco he never finished.
Bargawe have been
Lucca · 9,415 residents · 410 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow
A medieval hilltop town at 410 meters in the Serchio valley, where Giovanni Pascoli wrote his last poems and the August festival serves fish and chips.
Radicofaniwe have been
Siena · 1,060 residents · 814 m
UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione · Via Francigena
The Val d'Orcia's basalt watchtower: a 1,060-resident UNESCO-inscribed borgo at 814m on a volcanic outcrop visible across half of southern Tuscany, crowned by an outlaw's fortress that Dante and Boccaccio both wrote into their pages.
Umbria10
Norcia
Perugia · 4,544 residents · 604 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Parco Nazionale · Ski Area · 4 guide-listed
Birthplace of San Benedetto at 604 meters on a Sibillini plateau, leveled by the 2016 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone.
Montefalco
Perugia · 5,357 residents · 472 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Spighe Verdi · Città del Vino · 5 guide-listed
The hilltop wine capital of Umbria at 472 meters, where Sagrantino is grown almost nowhere else.
Passignano sul Trasimenowe have been
Perugia · 5,714 residents · 289 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale · 2 guide-listed
A near-peninsula on the northern shore of Lake Trasimeno, on the road Hannibal closed when he ambushed the Romans in 217 BC.
Trevi
Perugia · 8,063 residents · 412 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Spighe Verdi · Cammino di San Francesco · 1 guide-listed
A walled town at 412 meters above the Spoleto valley, ringed by 200,000 olive trees that make it the Umbrian capital of olive oil.
Nocera Umbra
Perugia · 5,511 residents · 520 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Terme · Parco Regionale · Comuni Termali
A hill town at 520 meters on the Apennine slope, leveled by the 1997 earthquake and rebuilt, with mineral springs flowing since the sixteenth century.
Spello
Perugia · 8,264 residents · 280 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Cammino di San Francesco · Città dell'Olio · 1 guide-listed
Augustan Hispellum sits at 280 meters on Monte Subasio, its Roman gates still standing over streets that Pinturicchio once painted a chapel for.
Vallo di Nera
Perugia · 345 residents · 467 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Comuni Virtuosi · Città del Tartufo · Città dell'Olio
Castle village of 345 people at 467 meters in the upper Valnerina, granted by Spoleto in 1217 and barely changed since.
Panicale
Perugia · 5,281 residents · 431 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · 3 guide-listed
A walled hill town at 431 meters on Monte Petrarvella, where a 1505 Perugino fresco covers the back wall of San Sebastiano.
Montone
Perugia · 1,580 residents · 482 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · 4 guide-listed
A walled medieval hill town at 482 meters above the upper Tiber, birthplace of the condottiero Braccio Fortebracci.
Bevagna
Perugia · 4,797 residents · 225 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città del Miele · Città del Vino · Città dell'Olio · 2 guide-listed
Roman Mevania on the Umbrian plain at 225 meters, four medieval quarters that compete every June in a reconstructed market of the 13th century.
Marche6
Cingoli
Macerata · 9,584 residents · 631 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
The Balcone delle Marche at 631 meters, a hilltop borgo where on clear days the view runs from the Sibillini to the Croatian coast.
Gradara
Pesaro e Urbino · 4,889 residents · 142 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
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.
Visso
Macerata · 961 residents · 607 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale
The northern Sibillini gate at 607 meters where the Nera meets the Ussita, holding one of two surviving manuscripts of Leopardi's L'Infinito.
Mercatello sul Metauro
Pesaro e Urbino · 1,326 residents · 429 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Lilla
A walled borgo at 429 meters in the upper Metauro, autonomous since 1235, with a pieve exempt from any bishop.
San Ginesio
Macerata · 3,089 residents · 680 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale
The Balcony of the Sibillini at 680 meters, where a 1295 pilgrim hospital and the only flowery gothic collegiate church in the Marche stand within the same walls.
Montelupone
Macerata · 3,359 residents · 272 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Spighe Verdi · Città del Miele
A walled hill borgo at 272 meters above the lower Potenza valley, with a fourteenth-century civic loggia and a 1889 horseshoe theatre.
Lazio4
Nemi
Roma · 1,877 residents · 521 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Via Francigena
The smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
Ronciglionewe have been
Viterbo · 8,447 residents · 441 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Lilla · Riserva Naturale · Città della Nocciola · 1 guide-listed
A tufa-brick borgo above Lake Vico, fortified by the Prefects of Vico and crowned Borgo dei Borghi in 2023.
Subiaco
Roma · 8,466 residents · 408 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Ski Area · Cammino di San Benedetto · 1 guide-listed
The Aniene valley town where Benedict spent three years in a cliff cave, and where Italy's first printed book appeared in 1465.
Sutri
Viterbo · 6,663 residents · 291 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Via Francigena · Città della Nocciola · 1 guide-listed
An Etruscan and Roman town on a tuff spur, with a rock-cut amphitheater carved straight from the volcanic stone of the Cimini.
Abruzzo2
Scanno
L'Aquila · 1,697 residents · 1,057 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Bandiera Blu · Parco Nazionale · Ski Area · 1 guide-listed
A 1,057-meter Sagittario valley village where women in black still walk the alleys photographed by Cartier-Bresson and Giacomelli.
Villalago
L'Aquila · 511 residents · 930 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Blu
A 930-meter village above three lakes, named for the nine that once filled the valley, with a hermit's cave on the water's edge.
Molise2
Frosolone
Isernia · 2,811 residents · 894 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione
A 900-meter blade-making town in the Matese foothills, called Italy's Toledo for the knives and scissors forged here since the 1800s.
Roccamandolfi
Isernia · 841 residents · 850 m
Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale · Ski Area · Riserva Naturale
At 850 meters at the foot of Monte Miletto, a Matese village of brigand legends, Lombard ruins, and a Tibetan bridge over the Callora canyon.
Campania6
Zungoli
Avellino · 942 residents · 657 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Città dell'Olio
An Irpinia ridge between the Ufita valley and the Daunian hills, with walls above and tuff caves below the houses.
Furore
Salerno · 688 residents · 300 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Regionale · Città del Vino · 3 guide-listed
The Amalfi Coast village with no piazza and no center, scattered on rock walls 300 meters above the only fjord in southern Italy.
Conca dei Marini
Salerno · 664 residents · 138 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Regionale · 3 guide-listed
A coastal hamlet of 664 people on the Amalfi Coast, home to a monastery pastry and a sea cave that glows green.
Atrani
Salerno · 797 residents · 21 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Regionale · 1 guide-listed
The smallest commune in Italy by area, twelve hectares of stacked houses where the Amalfi Coast pinches shut around a single piazza.
Positano
Salerno · 3,747 residents · 30 m
UNESCO · Bandiera Blu · Cittaslow · Parco Regionale · Spighe Verdi · 17 guide-listed
The vertical village of the Amalfi Coast, terraced houses climbing four hundred meters to the Lattari ridge under a tiled Byzantine dome.
Vietri sul Mare
Salerno · 7,180 residents · 80 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Regionale · Città della Ceramica · 2 guide-listed
The eastern end of the Amalfi Coast at 80 meters, the ceramics town since the fifteenth century, the gateway between Salerno and the cliff road.
Apulia2
Monte Sant'Angelo
Foggia · 11,353 residents · 843 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Parco Nazionale · Via Francigena · Città del Pane · 3 guide-listed
The Gargano peak at 843 meters, the oldest western shrine to an archangel, UNESCO since 2011.
Cisternino
Brindisi · 11,139 residents · 394 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · 1 guide-listed
An Itria valley borgo on the southern Murgia at 394 meters, whitewashed and looking down over drystone walls and trulli.
Basilicata2
Castelmezzano
Potenza · 710 residents · 750 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · 1 guide-listed
A medieval village wedged into sandstone teeth at 750 meters, linked to Pietrapertosa by a 1,452-meter zipline since 2007.
Guardia Perticara
Potenza · 517 residents · 678 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione
The stone village at 678 meters above the Sauro valley, rebuilt block by block in Gorgoglione sandstone after the 1980 earthquake.
Calabria5
San Nicola Arcella
Cosenza · 1,957 residents · 110 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Blu · 1 guide-listed
A cliff village above the Tyrrhenian Riviera dei Cedri, where a sea arch fronts a cove only reachable on foot or by boat.
Tropea
Vibo Valentia · 5,833 residents · 50 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Blu · 1 guide-listed
Cliff town on a tufa headland over the Tyrrhenian Coast of the Gods, with a Norman monastery on a sea rock.
Bova
Reggio di Calabria · 416 residents · 820 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale
The capital of the Bovesìa, a 416-resident Aspromonte hilltop borgo at 820m and the cultural centre of the Grecanic minority, where the Calabrian-Greek dialect descended from Byzantine-era Greek is still spoken by elders.
Gerace
Reggio di Calabria · 2,353 residents · 470 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale · Città dell'Olio
A 470-meter conglomerate rock above the Locride, holding Calabria's largest cathedral.
Morano Calabro
Cosenza · 3,882 residents · 694 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale
A conical hill of stone houses stacked under a Norman-Swabian castle at the southern gate of the Pollino, called Italy's nativity village.
Sicily6
Petralia Soprana
Palermo · 2,968 residents · 1,147 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Geoparco UNESCO · Parco Regionale
The highest village in the Madonie at 1,147 meters, RAI Borgo dei Borghi 2018 winner, sitting above 80 kilometers of salt tunnels.
Cefalù
Palermo · 13,881 residents · 16 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Geoparco UNESCO · Parco Regionale · 5 guide-listed
A Norman cathedral at the foot of a 270-meter rock on the Tyrrhenian coast, founded in 1131.
Sambuca di Sicilia
Agrigento · 5,341 residents · 350 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale · Riserva Naturale · Città del Tartufo
An Arab-founded hill town in the Belice valley, still called Zabut in living memory before 1923.
Montalbano Elicona
Messina · 2,038 residents · 907 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Riserva Naturale · Città della Nocciola
A Nebrodi castle town at 907 meters, Frederick III of Aragon's summer residence and gateway to the Argimusco megalithic plateau.
Palazzolo Acreide
Siracusa · 8,101 residents · 670 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · UNESCO · Riserva Naturale · Città del Tartufo · 4 guide-listed
An 8,000-resident hilltop town on the Iblei plateau at 670m, rebuilt entirely in late Baroque after the 1693 earthquake and founded over the Greek Akrai colony in 664 BC, with a Greek theatre and a cluster of rock carvings unlike anything else nearby.
Gangi
Palermo · 6,110 residents · 1,011 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia · Città del Tartufo
A Madonie hill town stacked in concentric rings at 1,011 meters, RAI's Borgo dei Borghi 2014 and the launching pad for the one-euro-house programme.
Sardinia2
Sadali
Sud Sardegna · 837 residents · 750 m
Borgo dei Borghi · Borghi più belli d'Italia
A Barbagia di Seulo borgo at 750 meters with the only waterfall in Sardegna that drops through the inhabited centre.
La Maddalena
Sassari · 10,592 residents · 19 m
Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Blu · Parco Nazionale · Bandiera Lilla
The only inhabited town of a sixty-island granite archipelago between Sardinia and Corsica, and the place Giuseppe Garibaldi chose to die.
The database: all 1,000 towns, searchable
Every town in the catalogue. Type a name, a province, a region or a designation. Each row opens the town's full page, which carries the sources for every figure.
| Town | Province | Region | Residents | Altitude | Setting | Designations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abano Terme | Padova | Veneto | 20,231 | 14 m | plain | Comuni Termali · Parco Regionale · Terme | Open → |
| Abetone Cutigliano● | Pistoia | Tuscany | 1,825 | 1,388 m | mountain | Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow · Ski Area | Open → |
| Accettura | Matera | Basilicata | 1,622 | 770 m | mountain | Borghi Autentici · Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Acerenza | Potenza | Basilicata | 2,090 | 833 m | mountain | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Aci Castello | Catania | Sicily | 17,852 | 15 m | coastal | Open → | |
| Acqualagna | Pesaro e Urbino | Marche | 4,151 | 204 m | hill town | Cittaslow | Open → |
| Acquapendente | Viterbo | Lazio | 5,266 | 420 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Cittaslow | Open → |
| Acquasanta Terme | Ascoli Piceno | Marche | 2,494 | 392 m | hill town | Parco Nazionale · Terme | Open → |
| Acquasparta | Terni | Umbria | 4,407 | 350 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Acquaviva delle Fonti | Bari | Apulia | 19,938 | 300 m | hill town | Borghi Autentici | Open → |
| Acquaviva Picena | Ascoli Piceno | Marche | 3,654 | 359 m | hill town | Bandiera Arancione | Open → |
| Acqui Terme | Alessandria | Piedmont | 18,967 | 156 m | plain | Spighe Verdi · Comuni Termali · Terme | Open → |
| Aggius | Sassari | Sardinia | 1,403 | 514 m | hill town | Bandiera Arancione · Borghi Autentici | Open → |
| Agira | Enna | Sicily | 7,671 | 650 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Agliè | Torino | Piedmont | 2,558 | 330 m | hill town | UNESCO · Bandiera Arancione | Open → |
| Agnone | Isernia | Molise | 4,665 | 840 m | mountain | Bandiera Arancione | Open → |
| Agropoli | Salerno | Campania | 21,262 | 24 m | coastal | Bandiera Blu · Spighe Verdi · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Aiello Calabro | Cosenza | Calabria | 1,406 | 502 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Aieta | Cosenza | Calabria | 753 | 524 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Alagna Valsesia | Vercelli | Piedmont | 712 | 1,191 m | mountain | Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Ski Area | Open → |
| Alba | Cuneo | Piedmont | 31,210 | 172 m | plain | Spighe Verdi | Open → |
| Alba Adriatica | Teramo | Abruzzo | 12,760 | 5 m | coastal | Bandiera Blu · Bandiera Lilla | Open → |
| Alberobello | Bari | Apulia | 10,248 | 402 m | hill town | UNESCO | Open → |
| Albidona | Cosenza | Calabria | 1,142 | 810 m | mountain | Borghi Autentici | Open → |
| Alessandria del Carretto | Cosenza | Calabria | 357 | 1,043 m | mountain | Borghi Autentici · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Alfedena | L'Aquila | Abruzzo | 944 | 914 m | mountain | Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Alghero | Sassari | Sardinia | 42,380 | 7 m | coastal | Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Aliano | Matera | Basilicata | 880 | 555 m | hill town | Bandiera Arancione · Borghi Autentici | Open → |
| Alife | Caserta | Campania | 7,376 | 110 m | plain | Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Alleghe | Belluno | Veneto | 1,100 | 979 m | mountain | Ski Area | Open → |
| Allerona | Terni | Umbria | 1,688 | 472 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Altomonte | Cosenza | Calabria | 4,019 | 455 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Cittaslow | Open → |
| Amalfi | Salerno | Campania | 4,729 | 6 m | coastal | UNESCO · Cittaslow · Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Amandola | Fermo | Marche | 3,266 | 550 m | hill town | Bandiera Arancione · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Amatrice | Rieti | Lazio | 2,251 | 955 m | mountain | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Ameglia● | La Spezia | Liguria | 4,293 | 89 m | coastal | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Amelia | Terni | Umbria | 11,547 | 406 m | hill town | Cittaslow | Open → |
| Anacapri | Napoli | Campania | 6,835 | 275 m | island | Bandiera Blu | Open → |
| Anagni | Frosinone | Lazio | 20,734 | 424 m | hill town | Open → | |
| Andalo | Trento | Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol | 1,147 | 1,042 m | mountain | Ski Area | Open → |
| Andora | Savona | Liguria | 7,267 | 10 m | coastal | Spighe Verdi | Open → |
| Andria | Barletta-Andria-Trani | Apulia | 97,146 | 151 m | plain | UNESCO · Spighe Verdi · Parco Nazionale · Geoparco UNESCO | Open → |
| Angera | Varese | Lombardy | 5,391 | 205 m | lake | Open → | |
| Anghiari | Arezzo | Tuscany | 5,384 | 430 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Cittaslow | Open → |
| Anguillara Sabazia | Roma | Lazio | 19,091 | 195 m | lake | Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Anversa degli Abruzzi | L'Aquila | Abruzzo | 312 | 604 m | mountain | Borghi più belli d'Italia | Open → |
| Apricale | Imperia | Liguria | 626 | 273 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione | Open → |
| Aquileia | Udine | Friuli-Venezia Giulia | 3,128 | 5 m | coastal | UNESCO | Open → |
| Arcevia | Ancona | Marche | 4,231 | 535 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Archi | Chieti | Abruzzo | 1,999 | 492 m | hill town | Borghi Autentici | Open → |
| Arenzano | Genova | Liguria | 11,074 | 12 m | coastal | Borgo dei Borghi · Parco Regionale · Geoparco UNESCO | Open → |
| Arezzo● | Arezzo | Tuscany | 96,260 | 296 m | hill town | Open → | |
| Ariano Irpino | Avellino | Campania | 21,023 | 788 m | mountain | Open → | |
| Ariccia | Roma | Lazio | 17,987 | 412 m | hill town | Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Aritzo | Nuoro | Sardinia | 1,187 | 800 m | mountain | Borghi Autentici · Parco Nazionale | Open → |
| Arona | Novara | Piedmont | 13,694 | 212 m | lake | Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale | Open → |
| Arpino | Frosinone | Lazio | 6,684 | 450 m | hill town | Bandiera Arancione | Open → |
| Arquà Petrarca | Padova | Veneto | 1,810 | 56 m | plain | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Bandiera Arancione · Parco Regionale · Terme | Open → |
| Arquata del Tronto | Ascoli Piceno | Marche | 973 | 777 m | mountain | Parco Nazionale · Ski Area | Open → |
| Arrone | Terni | Umbria | 2,555 | 243 m | hill town | Borghi più belli d'Italia · Parco Regionale | Open → |
Questions, interviews, data requests
Write to Peter directly. He answers press requests himself, usually within a day, in English, Italian or Hungarian. Interviews in person in Tuscany or by video; data extracts on request.
Contact →ciao@anywhereitaly.com
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