Books to Discover the Italy of Villages and Hidden Places

Before you pack a map or an app, it is worth reading those who have crossed Italy's villages on foot, by train, or notebook in hand. The best books on Italy's villages and hidden places are not travel guides: they are reportage and storytelling that explain why a bell tower perched on a crag, an empty square, or a landslide that cut off a village are worth a journey. Here is a selection of real titles, with authors, to prepare your gaze before setting off. (No purchase links: you'll find these volumes at the library or bookshop.)

The classics

The starting point remains "Viaggio in Italia" by Guido Piovene (Mondadori, 1957), over eight hundred pages born from a radio reportage for RAI. Region by region, Piovene crosses post-war Italy in search of what he called "the hidden Italy, multiform, unpredictable": an inventory that even today helps us look at smaller towns without prejudice. If you're looking for a concrete reference point to set off from, start with our overview of the medieval villages not to be missed.

For the Italy of mountains and valleys, there are the two classics by Paolo Rumiz. "La leggenda dei monti naviganti" (Feltrinelli, 2007) climbs the backbone of the Alps and Apennines, telling the story of the depopulated high country; "L'Italia in seconda classe" (Feltrinelli, 2009) instead travels the country on local trains, stopping at the stations no fast itinerary bothers with. These books are perfect if you have in mind a slow journey, like the one among the empty villages of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.

The rural heartland

On the rural inland South, the reference is Franco Arminio, inventor of "paesologia" (the study of villages). "Terracarne" (Mondadori, 2011) and "Geografia commossa dell'Italia interna" (Bruno Mondadori, 2013) portray the villages of the southern Apennine ridge with a gaze that alternates tenderness and denunciation of depopulation. After reading him, villages like Gangi in the Madonie mountains or the murals of Civitacampomarano in Molise take on a whole new depth.

Anyone wanting to understand abandoned villages must go through Vito Teti, an anthropologist at the University of Calabria. "Il senso dei luoghi. Memoria e storia dei paesi abbandonati" (Donzelli, 2004) and "La restanza" (Einaudi, 2022) investigate abandonment and, at the same time, the choice of those who stay. It's the right key for visiting places like Poggioreale Antica in the Belice valley or Buonanotte in Abruzzo, villages halted by earthquakes and landslides.

Staying in the South, two essential titles. "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli" by Carlo Levi (Einaudi, 1945) grew out of the author's internal exile in Lucania and is the book that made Aliano and its badlands famous, today a literary destination. "Il paese dei coppoloni" by Vinicio Capossela (Feltrinelli, 2015), a Strega Prize finalist, is a novel-poem set in the Irpinia of Calitri: reading it is the best way to approach inland Campania beyond Naples and the coast.

Journeys of taste

There is also a lesser-known Italy that tells its story through the table. "Vino al vino" by Mario Soldati (Mondadori, 1969) is the journey of a gluttonous reporter among cellars and hill towns, region by region: an invitation to plan your stops around local festivals and wines, like those that enliven the autumn festivals across Piedmont, Tuscany, and Umbria. In the same vein, Garessio and the Val Tanaro tell of a Piedmont of thermal waters and chestnut groves that Soldati would have appreciated.

For those who prefer a practical yet well-crafted companion, we recommend the print guide "I Borghi più belli d'Italia" published by the Touring Club Italiano in partnership with the association of the same name: reliable entries, maps, and up-to-date information, useful to pair with your reading to build a real itinerary toward villages like Sutera and the Arab quarter of Rabato or Tuscany's Anghiari in the Valtiberina.

How to combine them

A word on method: alternate a classic (Piovene, Levi) with a contemporary author (Arminio, Teti, Rumiz) and a practical guide. The first gives you the history, the second a snapshot of the present and of depopulation, the third the logistical details. It's the combination that turns a simple visit into a mindful journey among Italy's villages, without reducing them to postcards. And once you've finished reading, the suitcase packs itself.

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