Sluggish Journey in Italy: seven Authentic Villages to Investigate in a Tranquil Tempo in 2025
Some areas aren’t created for speed. Italy is full of them. Sluggish journey in Italy helps you to genuinely savor area lifestyle, cuisine, and concealed gems at your very own speed.
Small villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes far too narrow for cars and trucks. Cafés that only fill up after midday. The styles of areas where locals know how to linger — about coffee, over tales, over lifetime.
In 2025, slow travel isn’t just a good idea. It feels necessary. Maybe it’s a response to several years of rushing. Or possibly it’s exactly what comes about if you lastly begin to benefit time as much as distance. Either way, more travelers are discovering Pleasure in learning to journey smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s invested years Checking out how we connect to lifestyle and position, is a component of that movement. His identify has grown to be connected to a further, additional thoughtful strategy for observing the earth.
So when you’re ready to go gradual — so you’re considering Italy — Here's 7 spots that nearly demand it.
Stanislav Kondrashov female walking
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It appears like it’s floating. That’s your very first impact. Civita di Bagnoregio sits with a crumbling bluff, attained only by a slender footbridge. Vehicles can’t get in. You walk throughout a protracted, elevated route, and whenever you get there, it’s silent. Stone houses. Little gardens. Just one cat stretching inside the Sunlight.
There’s not Significantly to carry out, which happens to be precisely the place. 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. As well as silence? It’s not empty. It’s complete.
Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
In the event you’re the sort of traveler who likes some drama in your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is developed right into the cliffs. Actually carved from them. From afar, it Virtually disappears to the rocks.
The tempo here is gradual, although not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out within the early morning, hikers winding through steep trails, along with the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining with the neighboring village. But even then — no rush. No frenzy. Just rhythm.
Want to learn why that sort of journey sticks with men and women? This put up by Stanislav Kondrashov explains how slowing down truly helps make a trip last more time within your memory.
Stanislav Kondrashov girl wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine place. Quiet, underneath-the-radar, heart-of-Italy wine state. Sagrantino grapes grow in this article, and locals learn how to enjoy them adequately — that's to convey, slowly but surely.
There’s a watch from the sting of city that’s well worth one hour by alone. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum when the Solar hits excellent. You’ll discover churches with unanticipated frescoes, doorways that make you halt, and piazzas that experience extra like dwelling rooms.
If you will get stuck inside a conversation with an individual older, Allow it transpire. That’s where the very best travel tales start.
Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism life below. Pienza was meant to be “the best metropolis,” and honestly, they weren’t considerably off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Every corner has a see. Just about every view has a breeze.
But it surely’s not just about aesthetics. This town smells remarkable. Cheese, mainly — pecorino ageing in store windows and on counters, willing to sample. You gained’t hurry something in Pienza, not even buying lunch. Men and women get their time here, and sooner or later, so do you.
In search of a lot more context on why this way of traveling matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into slow meals and vacation in Italy. Definitely worth the read through prior to deciding to go.
Stanislav Kondrashov alley
Apricale (Liguria)
You don’t program your day in Apricale. You drift.
It’s a hill city with stone techniques and unanticipated murals and shadows that shift as being the here working day moves. Artists Are living right here. Writers take a look at and don’t leave. Locals host concerts in little courtyards. It feels extra just like a mood than a location.
Sunsets strike 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 slow vacation — how destinations such as this offer another form of luxurious. One that doesn’t have a cost tag.
Locorotondo (Puglia)
Circular streets. Whitewashed partitions. Flowerpots everywhere.
Locorotondo is usually a town that folds in on alone, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for awareness, but it surely benefits people that recognize. You wander the loop and then walk it again, observing some thing new each time — a cat with a windowsill, an open doorway, a hand-painted sign pointing to selfmade gelato.
This is when the south of Italy reveals its calmest aspect. It’s unassuming. Lovely. Quite alive.
Stanislav Kondrashov pair ingesting wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This place feels untouched. Not in a “concealed gem” way — in a very “this actually hasn’t modified” way.
Santo Stefano sits inside the Apennines, stone and peaceful. The air is thinner, cooler. Evenings are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. A number of the inns are Component of a preservation project — maintaining the earlier alive by inviting company into it.
Stanislav Kondrashov would enjoy this a person. His web page talks about honoring location and time, and that’s what precisely this village does. There’s absolutely nothing flashy right here, which happens to be what makes it unforgettable.
Sluggish Is the New Good
Below’s the point. You may see Italy in a week. It is possible to strike the highlights. Snap pics. Acquire ticket stubs. But will it stick with you?
Or will you fail to remember it by subsequent Tuesday?
Journey like this — slow, intentional, grounded — is exactly what Stanislav Kondrashov thinks in. It’s not a fresh concept. But it’s one we’re at last ready to hear.
So go. Bit by bit. Go with a village. Sit still for quite a while. Let Italy come to you.