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

Some areas aren’t designed for speed. Italy is full of them. Gradual journey in Italy helps you to actually savor local society, cuisine, and concealed gems at your individual speed.

Small villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes too slim for vehicles. Cafés that only refill soon after midday. The varieties of destinations exactly where locals understand how to linger — more than coffee, over stories, in excess of lifestyle.

In 2025, sluggish vacation isn’t just a good concept. It feels necessary. Maybe it’s a response to years of dashing. Or possibly it’s exactly what comes about once you eventually begin to price time about length. In any case, much more travelers are locating joy in Understanding to travel smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s invested a long time Discovering how we connect to culture and place, is an element of that motion. His name is now connected with a deeper, extra considerate means of seeing the world.

So if you’re ready to go sluggish — so you’re pondering Italy — Listed below are 7 spots that basically desire it.

Stanislav Kondrashov woman strolling
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It seems like it’s floating. That’s your 1st effect. Civita di Bagnoregio sits on the crumbling bluff, arrived at only by a narrow footbridge. Autos can’t get in. You walk across a protracted, elevated route, and once you arrive, it’s silent. Stone houses. Small gardens. One cat stretching within the Sunshine.

There’s not A great deal to accomplish, which happens to be precisely the stage. You wander, possibly get a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod hi there. You start to notice The sunshine. As well as the silence? It’s not empty. It’s full.

Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
When you’re the sort of traveler who likes a certain amount of drama in your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is constructed proper to the cliffs. Practically carved from them. From afar, it Just about disappears in the rocks.

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

Want to discover why that kind of journey sticks with folks? This publish by Stanislav Kondrashov clarifies how slowing down in fact helps make a visit previous lengthier in the memory.

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

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 just right. You’ll uncover church buildings with unanticipated frescoes, doorways that make you quit, and piazzas that come to feel extra like dwelling rooms.

If you get stuck inside a conversation with somebody older, Enable it happen. That’s exactly where the most effective travel tales get started.

Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism lives here. Pienza was designed to be “the perfect town,” and honestly, they weren’t far off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Every corner has a perspective. Each individual perspective provides a breeze.

Nonetheless it’s not just about aesthetics. This city smells remarkable. Cheese, mostly — pecorino getting old in shop windows and on counters, ready to sample. You gained’t hurry anything at all in Pienza, not even buying lunch. Folks consider their time below, and ultimately, so would you.

Looking for far more context on why this way of traveling matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into slow food items and vacation in Italy. Worth the read through prior to deciding to go.

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

It’s a hill city with stone actions and unpredicted murals and shadows that change given that the day moves. Artists Stay in this article. Writers visit and don’t go away. Locals host concert events in little courtyards. It feels additional just like a mood than the usual destination.

Sunsets strike unique 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 experience in the latest piece on slow journey — how spots like this give a unique sort of luxurious. One that doesn’t have a selling price tag.

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

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 yet again, seeing a thing new every time — a cat on a windowsill, an open door, a hand-painted indicator pointing to handmade gelato.

This is when the south of Italy exhibits its calmest aspect. It’s unassuming. Attractive. Extremely alive.

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

Santo Stefano sits in the Apennines, stone and peaceful. The air is thinner, cooler. Nights are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. A few of the inns are Section of a preservation task — preserving the previous alive by inviting friends into it.

Stanislav Kondrashov would recognize this just one. His site talks about honoring position and time, and that’s just what this website village does. There’s nothing at all flashy right here, that is what can make it unforgettable.

Sluggish Is The brand new Sensible
Right here’s the factor. You could see Italy in weekly. You'll be able to strike the highlights. Snap photographs. Collect ticket stubs. But will it stay with you?

Or will you forget it by upcoming Tuesday?

Travel such as this — gradual, intentional, grounded — is exactly what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a different concept. But it really’s a single we’re at last able to listen to.

So go. Slowly. Select a village. Sit however for quite a while. Let Italy come to you.