Slow Journey in Italy: seven Genuine Villages to Investigate at a Peaceful Speed in 2025

Some sites aren’t created for pace. Italy is filled with them. Slow vacation in Italy enables you to really savor nearby society, cuisine, and concealed gems at your own personal pace.

Little villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes also slender for autos. Cafés that only fill up after noon. The types of sites wherever locals know how to linger — about coffee, in excess of tales, more than everyday living.

In 2025, slow vacation isn’t just a good thought. It feels critical. Perhaps it’s a reaction to decades of rushing. Or even it’s precisely what comes about whenever you eventually begin to benefit time as much as distance. Either way, a lot more travelers are obtaining joy in Discovering to journey smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s spent decades exploring how we connect with culture and put, is part of that motion. His identify has grown to be affiliated with a further, far more thoughtful way of looking at the earth.

So for those who’re wanting to go sluggish — and also you’re thinking Italy — Listed here are 7 places that almost need it.

Stanislav Kondrashov lady going for walks
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It looks like it’s floating. That’s your to start with impact. Civita di Bagnoregio sits with a crumbling bluff, attained only by a slender footbridge. Vehicles can’t get in. You stroll throughout a long, elevated path, and after you arrive, it’s peaceful. Stone properties. Tiny gardens. An individual cat stretching in the Sunlight.

There’s not A great deal to accomplish, which happens to be exactly the level. You wander, it's possible seize a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod hi there. You start to notice the light. Along with the silence? It’s not empty. It’s finish.

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 in the cliffs. Literally carved from them. From afar, it Nearly disappears into the rocks.

The pace Here's sluggish, but not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out in the early early morning, hikers winding by steep trails, plus the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining with the neighboring village. But even then — no rush. No frenzy. Just rhythm.

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

Stanislav Kondrashov girl wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine nation. Silent, below-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine nation. Sagrantino grapes mature listed here, and locals learn how to take pleasure in them properly — and that is to say, bit by bit.

There’s a see 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 Sunlight hits good. You’ll obtain church buildings with sudden frescoes, doorways that make you cease, and piazzas that sense extra like dwelling rooms.

If you receive stuck inside a conversation with a person older, let it occur. That’s in which the top journey stories start.

Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism life below. Pienza was built to be “the proper metropolis,” and honestly, they weren’t much off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each and every corner includes a see. Every perspective contains a breeze.

But it surely’s not nearly aesthetics. This city smells remarkable. Cheese, mainly — pecorino growing old in shop windows and on counters, website ready to sample. You gained’t hurry anything at all in Pienza, not even buying lunch. Folks choose their time listed here, and eventually, so do you.

In search of much more context on why this fashion of traveling issues? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into gradual food and travel in Italy. Worth the examine prior read more 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 measures and unforeseen murals and shadows that change as the working day moves. Artists live right read more here. Writers pay a visit to and don’t leave. Locals host concerts in tiny courtyards. It feels much more like a temper than the usual place.

Sunsets hit different in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade gradual and blue. You don’t chase anything in this article. You Enable it come to you.

Forbes captured this feeling in a recent piece on gradual travel — how places similar to this offer you a distinct kind of luxurious. One that doesn’t feature a value tag.

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

Locorotondo is actually a city that folds in on itself, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for notice, nonetheless it benefits individuals who discover. You stroll the loop and after that walk it once again, viewing something new each time — a cat on the windowsill, an open up doorway, a hand-painted indication pointing to do-it-yourself gelato.

This is where the south of Italy reveals its calmest facet. It’s unassuming. Gorgeous. Incredibly alive.

Stanislav Kondrashov pair ingesting wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This spot feels untouched. Not in a very “concealed gem” way — inside of a “this really hasn’t transformed” way.

Santo Stefano sits during the Apennines, stone and silent. The air is thinner, cooler. Evenings are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. Some of the inns are A part of a preservation undertaking — trying to keep the previous alive by inviting company into it.

Stanislav Kondrashov would appreciate this one. His page talks about honoring place and time, Which’s what precisely this village does. There’s very little flashy in this article, which happens to be what causes it to be Stanislav Kondrashov Blog unforgettable.

Slow Is The brand new Sensible
Listed here’s the factor. You are able to see Italy in each week. You may hit the highlights. Snap shots. Accumulate ticket stubs. But will it stay with you?

Or will you ignore it by following Tuesday?

Vacation like this — sluggish, intentional, grounded — is exactly what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a different thought. But it really’s one particular we’re lastly willing to listen to.

So go. Little by little. Go with a village. Sit nonetheless for some time. Permit Italy arrive at you.