Borghi medievali nascosti in Italia: la guida completa

Peccioli: the Tuscan village that bet on contemporary art

A medieval village in the Pisan countryside transformed into an open-air museum: installations, cultural foundations and a community that reinvented itself.

Jul 12, 2026

Visby

Hidden Europe

Visby: the Medieval City Suspended Between the Baltic and Memory

On the island of Gotland, Visby preserves its 13th-century Hanseatic walls intact: wild roses among the ruins and a silence that astounds.

Bragança

Hidden Europe

Bragança: the medieval citadel in the forgotten far northeast

In Portugal's remotest corner, Bragança preserves an intact medieval citadel with 15 towers, a 33-metre keep, and a Romanesque church within the walls.

Sortelha

Hidden Europe

Sortelha: the granite fortress where the Middle Ages never ended

At 760 metres on a granite massif in the Beira Interior, Sortelha is a perfectly preserved medieval castle where people still live as in the 13th century.

Santo Stefano di Sessanio

Santo Stefano di Sessanio in Winter: The Gran Sasso Village Under Snow

When the white swallows the medieval stones of this Abruzzese village at 1,251 metres, Santo Stefano di Sessanio becomes something else: quieter, truer.

Castelsardo

Castelsardo: The Doria Fortress Looking Toward Corsica from Northern Sardinia

A Genoese castle on a cliff plunging into the Tyrrhenian, with houses spiraling down to the port and fishing nets hung out to dry like flags.

Candelo

Candelo and Its Ricetto: The Medieval Grain Fortress

The Ricetto of Candelo is the best-preserved medieval ricetto in Europe: a fourteenth-century fortress-village where peasants stored grain and wine in times of danger.

Montemonaco

Montemonaco, the Sibillini Village That Looks Toward Legend

Montemonaco is the closest village to Monte Sibilla, the mountain of the legendary sorceress. Cobbled streets, post-earthquake silence, and a boundless panorama.

Elcito

Elcito, the Ghost Village That Endures Among the Sibillini Mountains

Elcito is nearly a ghost town: thirty inhabitants, abandoned houses amid the woods, and a breathtaking view of the Sibillini Mountains. A place suspended in time.

Corinaldo

Corinaldo: The Walls on the Cliff and the Hometown of Santa Maria Goretti

Corinaldo has the most spectacular medieval walls in the Marche: they walk along the edge of a ravine. The birthplace of a saint, forgotten by tourist circuits.

Torre di Palme

Torre di Palme: The Adriatic Village That Tourism Has Not Yet Found

Perched above the Adriatic Sea, among centuries-old olive trees and a hidden Romanesque church, Torre di Palme is the secret the Fermo coast guards jealously.

Moresco

Moresco: The Solitary Tower Watching Over the Forgotten Piceno

One of Italy's smallest villages, an intact medieval tower, and no tourists: Moresco is the Marche that does not reveal itself.

Arnad

Arnad and Its DOP Lard: A Medieval Village That Smells of Rosemary

In a village with an almost-unknown Romanesque castle, they produce Arnad DOP lard, cured in wooden containers with alpine herbs according to a centuries-old recipe.

Castles, palaces and monuments

Bard

Fort Bard: The Fortress That Stopped Napoleon and That Everyone Overlooks

The massive nineteenth-century fort that slowed Napoleon's advance stands above an almost-intact medieval village, together among the least-visited in the region.

Borgo Valsugana

Borgo Valsugana: The Green Amphitheater That the Valsugana Kept to Itself

Between Trento and Bassano del Grappa, this riverside village with its castle and nearby Lake Caldonazzo is the gateway to a nearly untouched valley.

Castles, palaces and monuments

Castello di Avio

Castello di Avio: The Medieval Fortress with Trentino's Finest Battle Frescoes

Hidden in the greenery of the Vallagarina, Castello di Avio preserves fourteenth-century fresco cycles that no art textbook highlights enough.

Castles, palaces and monuments

Castel Beseno

Castel Beseno: The Largest Fortress in Trentino That Nobody Visits

Dominating the Vallagarina from a solitary hill, Castel Beseno is Trentino's best-preserved medieval castle — yet it remains almost deserted.

Riccia

Riccia: Norman Tower, Truffle, and Molisan Amaro in the Fortore

Riccia, in the Molisan Fortore, hides a Norman tower of the Di Capua family, truffle-rich forests, and the secret recipe of Amaro Molisano: an authentic village that smells of the forest floor.

Fornelli

Fornelli: The City of Oil and Seven Towers Among the Mountains of Isernia

Fornelli, in inland Molise, preserves nearly intact medieval walls, seven Angevin towers, and an outstanding olive-growing tradition: the 'City of Oil' that few people know.

Civitacampomarano

City corners

Civitacampomarano: The Medieval Village Painted by Street Art

In the medieval alleys of Civitacampomarano, in Molise, over 90 murals by international artists dialogue with ancient stones: the CVTà Street Fest has turned a depopulating village into an open-air museum.

Castel del Giudice

Castel del Giudice: The Village That Saved Itself by Planting Heritage Apple Trees

At 800 metres, Castel del Giudice was on the brink of depopulation. Today it has 40 hectares of organic orchards, 60 varieties of forgotten apples, and a scattered hotel with Michelin-recognised cuisine.

Frosolone

Frosolone: The Village Where Blades Rival Sheffield and Toledo

Frosolone, in the Molisan mountains, is the Italian capital of knives and scissors: a centuries-old craft tradition that Benedetto Croce compared to Europe's great blade cities.

Scheggino

Scheggino: The Vertical Village Where Water Flows Between the Houses

The women of Scheggino repelled a siege in 1522 armed with stones and cooking pots. Today the village smells of black truffle and the Nera flows just metres from the doorsteps.

Preci

Preci: The Village of Surgeons Who Operated on Kings and Popes

In the upper Valnerina, a stone village hides the story of the Precian School of Surgery, which between the tenth and sixteenth centuries sent doctors all over Europe.

Lugnano in Teverina

Lugnano in Teverina: The Village of the Vampire and the Roman Children

On a hill overlooking the Tiber, Lugnano holds the earliest known evidence of malaria and the burial of a girl with a stone in her mouth.

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Venzone: The Medieval Borgo That Rose from the Rubble

Destroyed by the 1976 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone, Venzone is a testament to Friuli's unbreakable spirit — and one of Italy's least-known medieval gems.

Calabria

Civita, the Arbëreshë Borgo Suspended Over the Raganello Canyon

In the heart of the Pollino, Civita is a village of Albanian origin where the houses seem to have eyes and the dialect breathes the Balkans — a timeless place above one of Italy's most spectacular canyons.

Cetara, Campania

Responsible travel

Skip Amalfi: Cetara, a Fishermen's Borgo on the Authentic Coast

Cetara is the most authentic fishing village on the Amalfi Coast: colatura di alici, free beaches and none of the tourist queues.

Castelmola, Sicily

Responsible travel

Skip Taormina: Castelmola, the Secret Perch Above Sicily

Perched 529m above Taormina, Castelmola offers sweeping views of Etna, medieval alleys, and almond wine — with none of the crowds below.

Certaldo, Tuscany

Responsible travel

Instead of San Gimignano: Certaldo, Boccaccio's Town of Towers and Medieval Lanes

Certaldo Alto is an intact medieval borgo with the same towers as San Gimignano but without the tourist hordes. The birthplace and final home of Boccaccio.