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10 comuni for January, when Italy belongs to Italians

Comuni whose visiting calendar marks January as a best month. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions held.

In January Italy belongs to Italians, and these towns wear the month well: thermal pools steaming against the cold, mountain kitchens in full season, city crowds a rumor from elsewhere.

Each is marked best in January in our calendar. The light is short and the tables are yours.

  1. 1.San Casciano dei Bagni1,500 residentsSiena · TuscanyA hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
  2. 2.Scanno1,697 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 1,057-meter Sagittario valley village photographed by Cartier-Bresson and Giacomelli, where women in black still walk the same alleys as the 1957 series.
  3. 3.Sardara3,801 residentsSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.
  4. 4.Caramanico Terme1,779 residentsPescara · AbruzzoA 650-meter Majella spa village at the confluence of the Orfento and Orta, with sulphurous springs whose properties were documented in 1576.
  5. 5.Levico Terme8,167 residentsTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA Habsburg spa town in the Valsugana at 520 metres, with arsenic-iron thermal waters, an English park and a Blue Flag lake at the edge of the centre.

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  1. 6.Viterbo65,949 residentsViterbo · LazioThe medieval capital of the Tuscia, papal seat for five popes between 1257 and 1281 and home to the longest conclave in Church history.
  2. 7.Barrea710 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 1,066-meter spur above an artificial lake at the heart of the Abruzzo National Park, with a Samnite necropolis and an 11th-century di Sangro castle.
  3. 8.Pescocostanzo1,081 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA planned Renaissance town at 1,395 meters on the Quarto Grande plateau, with bobbin lace, wrought iron, and the wood ceilings of a five-nave church.
  4. 9.Geraci Siculo1,702 residentsPalermo · SicilyA Madonie ridge village at 1,077 meters, capital of the Ventimiglia marquisate from 1258 and the first marquisate granted in Sicily.
  5. 10.Abetone CutiglianoAbetone Cutigliano1,825 residentsPistoia · TuscanyThe Apennine ski pass at 1,388 meters where the Granduca's two stone pyramids of 1778 mark the old Tuscan-Modenese border.

We write about towns like these every Sunday, one town a week, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, from Pietrasanta.

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