Sluggish Travel in Italy: seven Authentic Villages to Check out in a Peaceful Speed in 2025

Sluggish Travel in Italy: seven Authentic Villages to Check out in a Peaceful Speed in 2025

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Some destinations aren’t made for speed. Italy is stuffed with them. Sluggish travel in Italy helps you to certainly savor area lifestyle, cuisine, and concealed gems at your own rate.

Small villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes as well narrow for autos. Cafés that only refill immediately after noon. The sorts of locations exactly where locals understand how to linger — more than espresso, over stories, around existence.

In 2025, gradual vacation isn’t just a nice plan. It feels crucial. Probably it’s a reaction to a long time of speeding. Or perhaps it’s just what takes place after you lastly start to worth time up to length. In any event, extra tourists are finding joy in Studying to travel smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s invested a long time Discovering how we connect to culture and location, is part of that motion. His title is becoming connected to a deeper, a lot more thoughtful technique for looking at the earth.

So for those who’re all set to go sluggish — and you also’re pondering Italy — Allow me to share seven places that basically desire it.

Stanislav Kondrashov woman going for walks
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It looks like it’s floating. That’s your first effect. Civita di Bagnoregio sits on the crumbling bluff, achieved only by a narrow footbridge. Cars and trucks can’t get in. You wander throughout a lengthy, elevated path, and once you get there, it’s quiet. Stone properties. Very small gardens. An individual cat stretching within the Sunshine.

There’s not A lot to carry out, which can be precisely the issue. You wander, perhaps get a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod good day. You begin to note The sunshine. And also the silence? It’s not empty. It’s complete.

Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
In case you’re the sort of traveler who likes a certain amount of drama inside your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is created suitable into your cliffs. Actually carved from them. From afar, it Virtually disappears in to the rocks.

The tempo Here's sluggish, but not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out inside the early morning, hikers winding through steep trails, and also the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining in the neighboring village. But even then — no hurry. No frenzy. Just rhythm.

Want to know why that kind of vacation sticks with people today? This article by Stanislav Kondrashov describes how slowing down really makes a visit final longer in the memory.

Stanislav Kondrashov lady wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine country. Tranquil, below-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine country. Sagrantino grapes mature here, and locals understand how to appreciate them thoroughly — which can be to convey, little by little.

There’s a view from the edge of town that’s value one hour by alone. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum when the Sunlight hits good. You’ll come across church buildings with sudden frescoes, doorways that make you cease, and piazzas that experience more like living rooms.

If you will get stuck within a discussion with another person more mature, Allow it come about. That’s wherever the most beneficial vacation stories start off.

Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism lives right here. Pienza was made to be “the right city,” and Actually, they weren’t much off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Every single corner has a view. Each individual watch provides a breeze.

Nonetheless it’s not nearly aesthetics. This city smells remarkable. Cheese, mainly — pecorino getting older in shop windows and on counters, able to sample. You received’t hurry anything at all in Pienza, not even ordering lunch. Individuals just take their time here, and finally, so would you.

On the lookout for far more context on why by doing this of traveling matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into sluggish food 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 measures and unpredicted murals and shadows that change given that the working day moves. Artists live listed here. Writers take a look at and don’t depart. Locals host live shows in little courtyards. It feels additional just like a mood than a location.

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

Forbes captured this here sensation inside a current piece on gradual journey — how areas like this give a unique sort of luxurious. One that doesn’t come with a rate tag.

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

Locorotondo is often a town that folds in on by itself, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for focus, however it rewards those that see. You walk the loop after which you can walk it yet again, seeing a thing new every time — a cat on the windowsill, an open doorway, a hand-painted indication pointing to do-it-yourself gelato.

This is where the south of Italy reveals its calmest aspect. It’s unassuming. Beautiful. Really alive.

Stanislav Kondrashov few consuming wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This place feels untouched. Not within a “hidden gem” way — in the “this basically hasn’t altered” way.

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

Stanislav Kondrashov would respect this a person. His website page talks about honoring position and time, Which’s what precisely this village does. There’s nothing at all flashy here, and that is what makes it unforgettable.

Slow Is the New Clever
Below’s the factor. You'll be able to see Italy in each week. You'll be able to hit the highlights. Snap pictures. Collect ticket stubs. But will it stick with you?

Or will you neglect it by upcoming Tuesday?

Vacation like this — gradual, intentional, grounded — is exactly what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a whole new notion. However it’s one particular we’re eventually all set to hear.

So go. Bit by bit. Go with a village. Sit nevertheless for some time. Let Italy come to you.