Two national schemes certify Italy's small towns — I Borghi più belli d'Italia and the Touring Club's Bandiera Arancione (Orange Flag) — and between them they map the country's most rewarding detours. San Gimignano's towers, Civita di Bagnoregio on its crumbling tufa pedestal, Castelmezzano in the Lucanian Dolomites, Santo Stefano di Sessanio in Abruzzo, Locorotondo in the Itria Valley: none needs more than half a day, and together they are the real texture of the country.
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If you only do 5 things on this theme.
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San Gimignano Fourteen surviving medieval tower-houses on a Tuscan ridge -
Civita di Bagnoregio The dying town — a tufa island reached only by footbridge -
Castelmezzano & Pietrapertosa Two villages wedged into the Lucanian Dolomites, joined by a zip line -
Santo Stefano di Sessanio A Medici-era stone village restored as a scattered hotel -
Orvieto A tufa plateau, a striped cathedral and a city underneath it
Everywhere else on this theme
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Lucca Renaissance walls wide enough to cycle round the whole town -
Matera A city carved into a ravine and lived in for 9,000 years -
Noto The set-piece of Sicilian late baroque, rebuilt after the 1693 quake - Alghero A Catalan-speaking walled port on Sardinia's north-west coast
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Assisi St Francis's town, and Giotto's frescoes above his tomb -
Urbino The ideal Renaissance court, and Raphael's birthplace -
Ascoli Piceno A travertine city around one of Italy's handsomest piazzas -
Alberobello Fifteen hundred conical trulli, and a UNESCO site since 1996 -
Ostuni The white town on a hill above the olive groves -
Tropea A cliff-top old town above one of the Mediterranean's best beaches - Pienza The first planned Renaissance town, in the middle of the Val d'Orcia
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Portofino A fishing harbour that became the Riviera's most photographed address -
L'Aquila A rebuilt mountain capital at the foot of the Gran Sasso -
Sulmona Ovid's birthplace, sugared almonds, and the gateway to the Majella -
Campobasso Molise's hilltop capital, under a Monforte castle -
Termoli A walled old town on a promontory, and the ferry port for the Tremiti -
Maratea Basilicata's 30 km of Tyrrhenian coast, under a 21-metre marble Christ -
Procida Italy's Capital of Culture 2022 — and the least developed island in the bay -
Isola di San Pietro A Ligurian-speaking island off south-west Sardinia, founded by Genoese coral fishers -
Palmaria & Portovenere The UNESCO bookend to the Cinque Terre, with three islands offshore -
Sperlonga A whitewashed cliff village above the best beaches in Lazio - Chianti Wine Road The SR222 between Florence and Siena, through the Chianti Classico estates
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Volterra An Etruscan walled town that still works alabaster -
Val d'Orcia The cypress-lined hills that are the Tuscany of every photograph -
Montepulciano A ridge-top town of Renaissance palaces and Vino Nobile cellars -
Montalcino A fortress town above the Brunello vineyards -
Bagno Vignoni A village whose main square is a steaming Roman thermal pool -
Polignano a Mare A white town on a limestone cliff above a beach in a ravine -
Otranto Italy's easternmost town, with a cathedral floor mosaic of the whole world -
Gallipoli A walled island old town on the Salento's Ionian side -
Scilla & Chianalea Homer's monster, and a fishing quarter built straight into the rocks -
Gerace A Norman hill town with Calabria's largest cathedral -
Cefalù A Norman cathedral, a crag and a beach — all in one small town -
Orgosolo A Barbagia shepherd village covered in political murals since 1969 -
Bosa Coloured houses along a river under a Malaspina castle -
Brisighella Three chalk pinnacles, a raised covered street and very good olive oil -
Langhe, Barolo & Barbaresco UNESCO vineyard hills, the white truffle capital, and Italy's greatest reds -
Lake Orta & Orta San Giulio The smallest and quietest of the great lakes, with a monastery island -
Castelluccio & the Piano Grande A high plain that turns to sheets of wildflowers in late June -
Rocca Calascio A ruined castle at 1,460 m — the highest fortress in the Apennines -
Lake Scanno A heart-shaped mountain lake below one of Abruzzo's finest villages - Capracotta & the Alto Molise One of the snowiest places in Italy, with a giardino della flora appenninica
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Cividale del Friuli Julius Caesar's foundation, and the Lombards' first Italian capital -
Camogli Tall painted fishermen’s houses on a pebble bay, and the boat to San Fruttuoso -
Agnone & the Marinelli bell foundry The oldest family firm in Italy — casting church bells since around 1040 -
Venosa Horace’s birthplace, with an unfinished abbey built from Roman and Jewish stone -
Recanati Leopardi’s hill town — the “infinite” hedge and the view he wrote about
The regions that deliver on it
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Piedmont Barolo, white truffles, royal Turin and the Alps at the foot of the plain -
Liguria The Italian Riviera — Cinque Terre, Portofino and pesto's home port -
Friuli Venezia Giulia Habsburg Trieste, Roman Aquileia and Italy's finest white wines - Emilia-Romagna Parmigiano, prosciutto, Ferrari and Ravenna's mosaics
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Tuscany The Renaissance, the Chianti hills and the coast most visitors miss -
Umbria The green heart of Italy — Assisi, hill towns and no coastline -
Marche Renaissance Urbino, the Conero cliffs and the Sibillini mountains -
Lazio Rome and the Vatican — and Etruscan tombs, volcanic lakes and a coast - Abruzzo The wildest Apennines — bears, national parks and a trabocchi coast
- Molise The region Italians joke doesn't exist — mountains, tratturi and Samnite ruins
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Campania Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and the islands of the bay -
Puglia Trulli, baroque Lecce, whitewashed towns and two seas -
Basilicata Matera's cave city, the Lucanian Dolomites and a sliver of Tyrrhenian coast -
Calabria Tropea's cliffs, three national parks and the Riace Bronzes -
Sicily Greek temples, Arab-Norman Palermo, Etna and its own archipelagos -
Sardinia Caribbean-clear water, 7,000 nuraghi and a mountain interior
Other ways to travel Italy
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Art & culture More UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth -
Food & wine Regional to the point of parochial — and all the better for it - Coast & islands 7,900 km of coastline and around eighty inhabited islands
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Italian lakes Como, Garda, Maggiore — the Grand Tour's original destination -
Mountains & the Dolomites The Dolomites, the western Alps and the wild Apennines -
UNESCO Italy Sixty World Heritage sites — the largest tally of any country -
Nature & national parks 25 national parks, from alpine glaciers to volcanic islands -
Spirituality & pilgrimage Rome, Assisi, and the pilgrim roads that connect them - Thermal baths & wellness Volcanic Italy's other output — hot water, since the Romans
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Sport & the outdoors Dolomiti Superski, the Giro's climbs and Garda's windsurfing -
Shopping & markets Milan's Quadrilatero, Florence's leather and the weekly market habit -
Events & festivals The Palio, Carnevale, the Biennale and an opera season in a Roman arena -
Luxury Italy Portofino, the Costa Smeralda, Capri and the great lake villas