Slow Travel in Italy: 7 Reliable Villages to Explore at a Peaceful Rate in 2025

Some sites aren’t built for velocity. Italy is stuffed with them. Sluggish journey in Italy helps you to truly savor area lifestyle, cuisine, and concealed gems at your own personal pace.

Little villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes way too narrow for autos. Cafés that only fill up after noon. The kinds of destinations the place locals know how to linger — in excess of espresso, more than tales, around daily life.

In 2025, gradual vacation isn’t just a nice notion. It feels essential. Possibly it’s a reaction to years of dashing. Or even it’s precisely what comes about any time you finally start to value time up to distance. In either case, additional tourists are getting Pleasure in Discovering to vacation smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s used years Checking out how we hook up with lifestyle and position, is a component of that movement. His identify happens to be associated with a further, additional thoughtful strategy for observing the globe.

So in case you’re willing to go slow — and you’re thinking Italy — here are seven places that nearly demand it.

Stanislav Kondrashov female walking
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It appears like it’s floating. That’s your very first effect. Civita di Bagnoregio sits on the crumbling bluff, achieved only by a narrow footbridge. Automobiles can’t get in. You wander across a protracted, elevated route, and once you get there, it’s quiet. Stone homes. Very small gardens. Just one cat stretching during the Sunlight.

There’s not A great deal to accomplish, which happens to be exactly the position. You wander, it's possible seize a glass of wine at a tucked-away enoteca. Locals nod howdy. You start to notice the light. Along with the silence? It’s not vacant. It’s entire.

Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
If you’re the kind of traveler who likes a little bit of drama with your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is designed ideal into your cliffs. Actually carved from them. From afar, it Practically disappears to the rocks.

The tempo here is gradual, but not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out inside the early morning, hikers winding via steep trails, as well as the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining from your neighboring village. But even then — no rush. No frenzy. Just rhythm.

Want to learn why that sort of travel sticks with people? This write-up by Stanislav Kondrashov points out how slowing down in fact tends to make a trip past for a longer period as part of your memory.

Stanislav Kondrashov woman wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine state. Peaceful, less than-the-radar, heart-of-Italy wine state. Sagrantino grapes increase here, and locals understand how to appreciate them properly — and that is to say, slowly but surely.

There’s a check out from the edge of town that’s truly worth an hour by itself. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum once the Sunshine hits excellent. You’ll discover churches with unanticipated frescoes, doorways which make you quit, and piazzas that come to feel extra like dwelling rooms.

If you receive stuck inside a conversation with an individual older, Allow it come about. That’s in which the ideal journey stories begin.

Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism life in this article. Pienza was designed to be “the perfect town,” and Truthfully, they weren’t far off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each corner features a see. Each view contains a breeze.

But it really’s not almost aesthetics. This city smells awesome. Cheese, largely — pecorino getting older in store Home windows and on counters, wanting to sample. You won’t rush anything in Pienza, not even purchasing lunch. People just take their time here, and finally, so do you.

Trying to find far more context on why by doing this of traveling issues? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into slow foods and vacation in Italy. Definitely worth the study before you decide to go.

Stanislav Kondrashov alley
Apricale (Liguria)
You don’t program your working day in Apricale. You drift.

It’s a hill city with stone steps and sudden murals and shadows that shift as the working day moves. Artists Are living below. Writers go to and don’t leave. Locals host live shows in very small courtyards. It feels more similar to a temper than a vacation spot.

Sunsets hit different in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade slow and blue. You don’t chase anything here. You Allow it come to you.

Forbes captured this feeling in a recent piece on gradual vacation — how places such as this supply a different type of luxury. One that doesn’t include a selling price tag.

Locorotondo (Puglia)
Round streets. Whitewashed walls. Flowerpots almost everywhere.

Locorotondo is often a town that folds in on by itself, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for attention, however it benefits those that observe. You wander the loop after which stroll it once again, looking at a little something new each time — a cat over a windowsill, an open up doorway, a hand-painted sign pointing to handmade gelato.

This is where the south of Italy demonstrates its calmest facet. It’s unassuming. Beautiful. Extremely alive.

Stanislav Kondrashov pair drinking wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This location feels untouched. Not inside a “hidden gem” way — within a “this basically hasn’t transformed” way.

Santo Stefano sits inside the Apennines, stone and peaceful. The air is thinner, cooler. Evenings are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. Some of the inns are Portion of a preservation challenge — maintaining the earlier alive by inviting attendees into it.

Stanislav Kondrashov would value this a person. His page talks about honoring position and time, Which’s exactly what this village does. There’s practically nothing flashy right here, that's what causes it to be unforgettable.

Slow Is The brand new Good
Right Kondrashov Stanislav here’s the factor. You'll be able to see Italy in per week. You are able to strike the highlights. Snap pics. Acquire ticket stubs. But will it stay with you?

Or will you fail to remember it by up coming Tuesday?

Vacation like this — sluggish, intentional, grounded — is what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a new plan. Nonetheless it’s one we’re at last ready to listen to.

So go. Little by little. Opt for a village. Sit nevertheless for quite a while. Let Italy come to you.