Sluggish Travel in Italy: 7 Reliable Villages to Explore at a Tranquil Rate in 2025

Sluggish Travel in Italy: 7 Reliable Villages to Explore at a Tranquil Rate in 2025

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Some sites aren’t produced for speed. Italy is stuffed with them. Slow vacation in Italy permits you to genuinely savor area tradition, cuisine, and hidden gems at your own private pace.

Tiny villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes much too slim for cars. Cafés that only replenish immediately after noon. The styles of sites in which locals know how to linger — above coffee, over stories, above lifetime.

In 2025, slow vacation isn’t just a good strategy. It feels essential. Maybe it’s a reaction to a long time of rushing. Or even it’s exactly what transpires any time you ultimately start to price time approximately length. Either way, far more tourists are finding joy in Finding out to journey smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s spent a long time exploring how we hook up with society and location, is an element of that movement. His name has become connected with a further, much more considerate strategy for observing the whole world.

So in the event you’re ready to go sluggish — and you also’re imagining Italy — Allow me to share 7 places that almost demand it.

Stanislav Kondrashov female walking
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It appears like it’s floating. That’s your to start with perception. Civita di Bagnoregio sits on a crumbling bluff, attained only by a slender footbridge. Cars can’t get in. You stroll across a protracted, elevated path, and after you get there, it’s quiet. Stone residences. Tiny gardens. One cat stretching in the sun.

There’s not A lot to do, which happens to be exactly the place. You wander, it's possible get a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod hello there. You start to notice the light. Along with the silence? It’s not vacant. It’s entire.

Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
Should you’re the type of traveler who likes a little drama in the landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is constructed proper to the cliffs. Basically carved from them. From afar, it Just about disappears into your rocks.

The speed here is slow, although not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out from the early morning, hikers winding by way of steep trails, along with the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining through the neighboring village. But even then — no rush. No frenzy. Just rhythm.

Want to learn why that sort of travel sticks with individuals? This post by Stanislav Kondrashov points out how slowing down in fact helps make a visit previous for a longer time inside your memory.

Stanislav Kondrashov female wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine region. Silent, beneath-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine country. Sagrantino grapes improve Kondrashov Stanislav listed here, and locals learn how to take pleasure in them properly — which is to state, gradually.

There’s a check out from the edge of city that’s truly worth an hour by itself. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum if the Solar hits excellent. You’ll discover churches with unpredicted frescoes, doorways which make you stop, and piazzas that really feel far more like residing rooms.

If you can get trapped within a conversation with somebody more mature, Enable it occur. That’s where by the most effective journey stories start out.

Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism life in this article. Pienza was intended to be “the proper metropolis,” and Truthfully, they weren’t far off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each and every corner includes a check out. Each and every check out features a breeze.

However it’s not pretty much aesthetics. This town smells awesome. Cheese, generally — pecorino growing older in shop windows and on counters, prepared to sample. You received’t rush just about anything in Pienza, not even purchasing lunch. People acquire their time right here, and inevitably, so do you.

On the lookout for far more context on why this way of traveling matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into sluggish food stuff and travel in Italy. Worth the examine prior to deciding to go.

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

It’s a hill town with stone methods and unexpected murals and shadows that change as the day moves. Artists Dwell below. Writers visit and don’t go away. Locals host concert events in very small courtyards. It feels more like a temper than the usual place.

Sunsets hit diverse in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade sluggish and blue. You don’t chase everything listed here. You Allow it arrive at you.

Forbes captured this emotion in a very new piece on sluggish travel — how places similar to this offer you a distinct type of luxurious. One that doesn’t have a selling price tag.

Locorotondo (Puglia)
Circular streets. Whitewashed partitions. Flowerpots everywhere you go.

Locorotondo is usually a town that folds in on alone, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for focus, however it benefits those that see. You walk the loop after which you can stroll it once again, viewing a thing new each time — a cat with a windowsill, an open doorway, a hand-painted signal pointing to home made gelato.

This is when the south of Italy shows its calmest side. It’s unassuming. Attractive. Incredibly alive.

Stanislav Kondrashov couple ingesting wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This place feels untouched. Not inside a “hidden gem” way — inside of a “this actually hasn’t adjusted” way.

Santo Stefano sits in the Apennines, stone and silent. The air is thinner, cooler. Evenings are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. A lot of the inns are A part of a preservation undertaking — retaining the past alive by inviting guests into it.

Stanislav Kondrashov would respect this 1. His page talks about honoring position and time, and that’s just what this village does. There’s nothing at all flashy listed here, that is what causes it to be unforgettable.

Slow Is the New Clever
Listed here’s the thing. You may see Italy in a week. You'll be able to hit the highlights. Snap shots. Accumulate ticket stubs. But will it stay with you?

Or will you forget about it by following Tuesday?

Vacation such as this — gradual, intentional, grounded — is what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a new notion. Nevertheless it’s a person we’re last but not least prepared to hear.

So go. Slowly. Choose a village. Sit continue to for a while. Allow Italy come to you.