Wild nature
Lake Mergozzo: Italy's Only Motor-Free Lake
Lago di Mergozzo is the only Italian lake where motorboats are banned by law: crystal-clear waters and unspoiled shores ten minutes from Lake Maggiore.
Jul 9, 2026Travel where others don't
Little-known destinations, forgotten villages and whole regions to discover before everyone else does. The antidote to overtourism, one guide at a time.
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Wild nature
Toce Waterfall in Val Formazza: Italy's Tallest in Alpine Silence
The Toce Waterfall in Val Formazza plunges 143 metres of granite in a nearly uninhabited valley on the Swiss border: an Italian record that few have heard of.
Jul 9, 2026
Abbeys, hermitages and sanctuaries
Oropa: The Marian Sanctuary on the Edge of the Snows
At 1,159 metres in the Biella Alps, the Sanctuary of Oropa is one of the largest Baroque complexes in Italy and a place of genuine peace among the mountains.
Jul 9, 2026
Abbeys, hermitages and sanctuaries
Varallo and the Sacro Monte: The Stone Jerusalem in the Mountains
The Sacro Monte of Varallo, the first and most monumental in Italy, tells the life of Christ in 44 chapels with 800 life-size statues: a theatre of faith in the forest.
Jul 9, 2026
Italian villages
Cella Monte: Monferrato's Hidden Tufa Wine Cellars
Near Casale Monferrato, Cella Monte hides underground infernot carved into tufa rock, amid rolling vineyard hills inscribed as World Heritage.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Lakes of Avigliana: Silent Mirrors of Water at Turin's Doorstep
Just 25 kilometres from Turin, the two lakes of Avigliana offer natural shores, biodiversity and unexpected peace in a regional park almost no one knows about.
Jul 9, 2026
Abbeys, hermitages and sanctuaries
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.
Jul 9, 2026
Italian villages
Saluzzo: The Marquisate Capital That Turin Overshadowed
Saluzzo boasts an intact medieval old town, fifteenth-century palaces and a view of the Alps that no brochure has yet managed to spoil.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Val Maira: The Occitan Valley That Time Forgot
Among chestnut groves and Provençal speech, Val Maira guards stone villages and authentic silence, far from the circuits of Alpine tourism.
Jul 9, 2026