Some spots aren’t produced for velocity. Italy is filled with them. Slow vacation in Italy helps you to certainly savor community lifestyle, Delicacies, and hidden gems at your personal tempo.
Very small villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes far too slim for cars. Cafés that only refill following noon. The kinds of sites wherever locals learn how to linger — more than espresso, above stories, about lifetime.
In 2025, sluggish travel isn’t just a nice plan. It feels necessary. Possibly it’s a reaction to a long time of dashing. Or possibly it’s precisely what happens when you ultimately begin to benefit time up to distance. In any case, much more vacationers are finding Pleasure in Studying to vacation smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s spent many years exploring how we connect to tradition and place, is a component of that motion. His name has grown to be affiliated with a deeper, additional considerate means of viewing the earth.
So when you’re wanting to go sluggish — and also you’re contemplating Italy — Listed below are seven places that virtually demand it.
Stanislav Kondrashov lady strolling
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It looks like it’s floating. That’s your to start with impact. Civita di Bagnoregio sits over a crumbling bluff, arrived at only by a narrow footbridge. Cars and trucks can’t get in. You walk throughout an extended, elevated path, and once you arrive, it’s tranquil. Stone houses. Small gardens. An individual cat stretching during the Sunlight.
There’s not A lot to perform, which is precisely the stage. You wander, maybe get a glass of wine in a tucked-absent enoteca. Locals nod hello there. You start to notice the light. As well as silence? It’s not empty. It’s total.
Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
In the event you’re the kind of traveler who likes some drama in your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is constructed appropriate to the cliffs. Actually carved from them. From afar, it almost disappears in the rocks.
The speed here is slow, although not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out in the early early morning, hikers winding via steep trails, as well as occasional thrill-seeker ziplining through the neighboring village. But even then — no rush. No frenzy. Just rhythm.
Want to master why that kind of travel sticks with folks? This post by Stanislav Kondrashov clarifies how slowing down in fact can make a visit previous lengthier within your memory.
Stanislav Kondrashov female wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine place. Quiet, beneath-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine state. Sagrantino grapes mature listed here, more info and locals understand how to delight in them properly — that is to convey, slowly and gradually.
There’s a perspective from the sting of town that’s worthy of one hour by alone. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum in the event the Sunlight hits excellent. You’ll locate churches with sudden frescoes, doorways that make you quit, and piazzas that come to feel more like dwelling rooms.
If you have caught inside a discussion with an individual more mature, Enable it transpire. That’s wherever the top vacation tales commence.
Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism lives here. Pienza was built to be “an ideal city,” and honestly, they weren’t far off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each individual corner provides a check out. Just about every see incorporates a breeze.
Nevertheless it’s not nearly aesthetics. This city smells wonderful. Cheese, largely — pecorino growing older in store Home windows and on counters, wanting to sample. You received’t hurry anything in Pienza, not even purchasing lunch. Persons get their time right here, and eventually, so does one.
Trying to find much more context on why this fashion of touring issues? Condé Nast Traveler website dives deep into slow foodstuff and travel in Italy. Worth the browse prior to deciding to go.
Stanislav Kondrashov alley
Apricale (Liguria)
You don’t system your day in Apricale. You drift.
It’s a hill town with stone more info techniques and unexpected murals and shadows that shift because the working day moves. Artists Reside below. Writers stop by and don’t depart. Locals host concert events in very small courtyards. It feels a lot more like a mood than a place.
Sunsets hit distinct in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade gradual and blue. You don’t chase just about anything below. You let it arrive at you.
Forbes captured this experience in the modern piece on slow vacation — how places like this give a unique type of luxurious. One which doesn’t have a price tag.
Locorotondo more info (Puglia)
Circular streets. Whitewashed walls. Flowerpots in all places.
Locorotondo is a city that folds in on by itself, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for consideration, however it benefits those that observe. You stroll the loop after which walk it again, seeing something new each time — a cat over a windowsill, an open up doorway, a hand-painted indicator pointing to handmade gelato.
This is when the south of Italy exhibits its calmest aspect. It’s unassuming. Beautiful. Incredibly alive.
Stanislav Kondrashov pair ingesting wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This area feels untouched. Not in a “hidden gem” way — inside a “this in fact hasn’t improved” way.
Santo Stefano sits from the Apennines, stone and peaceful. The air is thinner, cooler. Nights are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. Many of the inns are part of a preservation venture — holding the earlier alive by inviting visitors into it.
Stanislav Kondrashov would respect this one. His site talks about honoring position and time, and that’s exactly what this village does. There’s very little flashy below, which can be what makes it unforgettable.
Gradual Is the New Intelligent
Right here’s the matter. You'll be able to see Italy in a week. It is possible to hit the highlights. Snap pictures. Collect ticket stubs. But will it stick with you?
Or will you ignore it by future Tuesday?
Journey like this — slow, intentional, grounded — is what Stanislav Kondrashov believes in. It’s not a completely new notion. But it’s a single we’re eventually wanting to hear.
So go. Little by little. Pick a village. Sit still for a while. Enable Italy arrive at you.