On foot in the Matese: the Hermitage of Sant'Egidio and the drovers' roads of Bojano
Above Bojano, at a thousand metres in the Matese, the Hermitage of Sant'Egidio and the transhumance drovers' roads tell of a slow, silent Molise.
Almost desertedDestination calendar
Month by month, the least crowded destinations to visit. Choose when you travel and we'll tell you where to go.
May — top 12 of 1208 destinations
In Tuscania, the frescoed Judgement of Santa Maria Maggiore
In Tuscania, off the beaten track, a medieval church preserves a cycle of fourteenth-century frescoes that almost no one comes to see.
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Staffarda Abbey: 12th-Century Romanesque Amid Rice Fields
A 12th-century Cistercian abbey set amid the Piedmont rice fields, Staffarda is one of Italy's best-preserved monastic complexes — and rarely visited.
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Acciaroli: Hemingway's Port Full of Centenarians
A small Cilento port where Hemingway wrote, where centenarians outnumber tourists, and the sea still belongs to fishermen. Italy's oldest coast.
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Instead of Santorini: Folegandros, the Secret Cycladic Island Suspended Above the Sea
A Greek island with no airport, no resort hotels and no crowds. Chora is a medieval borgo perched on a clifftop that takes your breath away.
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Alicudi: the island without roads where the world stands still
No cars, no scooters, no tarmac: on Alicudi you get around on foot or by mule. It is the most isolated of the Aeolian Islands, and perhaps the most genuine.
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An alternative to Neuschwanstein: 13 fairy-tale castles in Italy and Europe
Looking for an alternative to Neuschwanstein? Here are 13 fairy-tale castles and fortresses in Italy and Europe, without the queues of 6,000 visitors a day.
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Amendolea: The Ghost Castle and the Lost Villages of Aspromonte
On Aspromonte's wildest slopes, Amendolea is an abandoned borgo ruled by a ruined Norman castle — a journey to Calabria's edge where nature reclaims what was once human.
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The Ring of the Greeks of Calabria in the Grecanic Area
On the Ionian slopes of the Aspromonte, at the very tip of Calabria, the Grecanic Area still endures: mountain villages where the Greek of Calabria is still spoken. A loop between Bova and Galliciano winds through half-abandoned villages overlooking a remote Ionian Sea, worlds away from the tourist circuits.
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The Monte Cucco loop among Umbrian caves and high plateaus
In the Monte Cucco Park, on the Umbrian-Marche Apennines, beech woods, sinkholes and one of the deepest caves in Italy await in a little-known corner: a slow, silent mountain loop, far from Umbria's more beaten destinations.
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The Petralie Loop and the Villages of the Madonie
In the mountainous heart of Sicily, between Petralia Soprana, Geraci Siculo and Gangi, a slow circuit through award-winning villages far from the coastal routes, set in an inland massif that most tourists drive straight past.
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Apecchio, the Marche Capital of Craft Beer Among Truffles and Forests
Apecchio is a small Apennine village in the Pesaro hinterland known for prized white truffle and a unique craft brewing tradition in the Marche.
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