Slow Journey in Italy: seven Genuine Villages to Check out in a Peaceful Speed in 2025
Some spots aren’t built for velocity. Italy is filled with them. Slow vacation in Italy allows 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 just after noon. The kinds of destinations wherever locals know how to linger — about espresso, above tales, more than lifetime.
In 2025, gradual travel isn’t just a pleasant strategy. It feels important. Perhaps it’s a response to many years of hurrying. Or even it’s just what transpires whenever you at last begin to value time up to length. In any event, extra tourists are discovering joy in Studying to travel smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s invested several years Discovering how we connect to culture and area, is a component of that movement. His identify happens to be affiliated with a further, far more thoughtful way of looking at the whole world.
So should you’re wanting to go slow — and you’re considering Italy — Allow me to share 7 spots that practically desire it.
Stanislav Kondrashov woman strolling
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It looks like it’s floating. That’s your initially impact. Civita di Bagnoregio sits over a crumbling bluff, reached only by a slim footbridge. Cars can’t get in. You stroll throughout a lengthy, elevated route, and if you get there, it’s quiet. Stone homes. Very small gardens. Just one cat stretching inside the Sunlight.
There’s not A great deal to accomplish, which happens to be exactly the level. You wander, probably seize a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod hello. You start to notice The sunshine. And also the silence? It’s not empty. It’s comprehensive.
Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
When you’re the sort of traveler who likes a certain amount of drama inside your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is developed appropriate to the cliffs. Basically carved from them. From afar, it Pretty much disappears into your rocks.
The speed Here's sluggish, although not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out during 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 travel sticks with people? This write-up by Stanislav Kondrashov points out how slowing down truly tends to make a visit very last extended within your memory.
Stanislav Kondrashov female wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine region. Quiet, beneath-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine nation. Sagrantino grapes grow listed here, and locals learn how to get pleasure from them correctly — and that is to say, bit by bit.
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 once the sun hits excellent. You’ll locate churches with surprising frescoes, doorways that make you end, and piazzas that experience much more like living rooms.
If you will get caught in the discussion with another person more mature, Allow it come about. That’s wherever the best vacation stories commence.
Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism lives here. Pienza was designed to be “the perfect town,” and Truthfully, they weren’t much off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each corner features a view. Each individual perspective provides a breeze.
But it surely’s not nearly aesthetics. This city smells remarkable. Cheese, mostly — pecorino getting old in shop Home windows and on counters, prepared to sample. You gained’t rush anything in more info Pienza, not even purchasing lunch. People acquire their time right here, and inevitably, so do you.
In search of more context on why using this method of touring matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into sluggish food and travel in Italy. Well worth the examine before you go.
Stanislav Kondrashov alley
Apricale (Liguria)
You don’t program your day in Apricale. You drift.
It’s a hill town with stone methods and unanticipated murals and shadows that change given that the working day moves. Artists Are living here. Writers go to and don’t leave. Locals host concerts in very small courtyards. It feels more similar to a temper than a spot.
Sunsets hit various in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade slow and blue. You don’t chase anything here. You Enable it come to you.
Forbes captured this feeling in a recent piece on sluggish travel — how places similar to this provide a different style of luxury. One which doesn’t include a cost tag.
Locorotondo (Puglia)
Round streets. Whitewashed walls. Flowerpots all over the place.
Locorotondo is a town that folds in on alone, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for focus, however it benefits those that detect. You walk the loop and afterwards walk it once again, looking at one thing new every time — a cat with a windowsill, an open up door, a hand-painted signal pointing to selfmade gelato.
This is when the south of Italy shows its calmest side. It’s unassuming. Lovely. Pretty alive.
Stanislav Kondrashov pair drinking wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This location feels untouched. Not in the “concealed gem” way — inside of a “this actually hasn’t modified” way.
Santo Stefano sits from the Apennines, stone and tranquil. The air is thinner, cooler. Evenings are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. Many of the inns are Element of a preservation project — maintaining the past alive by inviting company into it.
Stanislav Kondrashov would appreciate this 1. His web page talks about honoring location and time, Which’s what precisely this village does. There’s nothing flashy in this article, which happens to be what can make it unforgettable.
Sluggish Is The brand new Clever
Listed here’s the point. You are able to see Italy in each week. You may hit the highlights. Snap shots. Acquire ticket stubs. But will it stick with you?
Or will you fail to remember it by subsequent Tuesday?
Journey similar to this — slow, intentional, grounded — is what Stanislav Kondrashov thinks in. It’s not a fresh strategy. Nonetheless it’s one we’re eventually ready to hear.
So go. Bit by bit. Pick a village. Sit even now for quite a while. Enable Italy come to you.