Elevation
10 hill towns under 300 meters, for travelers who hate climbing
Inland comuni that sit between 100 and 300 meters: the hill town shape without the hill town climb. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions held.
The Italian hill town has a tax: the climb. These comuni collect the architecture without the cardio, inland towns between one hundred and three hundred meters where the streets slope politely instead of punishing.
Ranked by the recognitions they hold. Knees are not a reason to skip Italy's interior; they are a reason to choose it carefully.
- 1.
Suvereto127 mLivorno · TuscanyA stone borgo at 127 meters above the Val di Cornia, named for the cork oaks of its forests and ruled from the Rocca Aldobrandesca since 973. - 2.Cerreto Sannita290 mBenevento · CampaniaA Sannio ceramics town at 290 meters, rebuilt from scratch by royal engineer Giovanni Battista Manni after the 1688 earthquake leveled the old hill.
- 3.Sardara163 mSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.
- 4.Bevagna225 mPerugia · UmbriaRoman Mevania on the Umbrian plain at 225 meters, four medieval quarters that compete every June in a reconstructed market of the 13th century.
- 5.Asolo205 mTreviso · VenetoA walled hill town at 205 meters that Caterina Cornaro ran as her court after trading Cyprus to Venice in 1489.
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- 6.Bobbio272 mPiacenza · Emilia-RomagnaA 272-meter Trebbia-valley town built around the abbey Saint Columbanus founded in 614, named Borgo dei Borghi by RAI in 2019.
- 7.Follina191 mTreviso · VenetoA Prosecco-hills borgo at 191 meters around the Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria, with a cloister finished in 1268.
- 8.Castell'Arquato224 mPiacenza · Emilia-RomagnaA 224-meter hilltop borgo in the Val d'Arda, kept intact since the tenth century and crowned by Luchino Visconti's 1342 fortress.
- 9.Sutri291 mViterbo · LazioAn Etruscan and Roman town on a tuff spur, with a rock-cut amphitheater carved straight from the volcanic stone of the Cimini.
- 10.Brisighella115 mRavenna · Emilia-RomagnaA Lamone-valley borgo at 115 meters under three selenite hills crowned by a fortress, a clock tower, and a sanctuary.
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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From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Putignano
Province: Bari
Europe's longest-running carnival — Putignano Carnevale has run continuously since 1394, with 631 years of cartapesta papier-mâché floats, a 26,000-resident Murgia town on the Bari–Lecce plateau, and the Grotta del Trullo karst cave inside the centro.
Pistoia
Province: Pistoia
Italy's nursery capital and the medieval Tuscan rival that gave its name to the pistol — a quietly extraordinary centro storico of zebra-striped Romanesque churches, Andrea della Robbia's polychrome frieze on the Ospedale del Ceppo, and Italy's Capital of Culture 2017, all 30 minutes from Florence by train.
Tropea
Province: Vibo Valentia
Cliff town on a tufa headland over the Tyrrhenian Coast of the Gods, with a Norman monastery on a sea rock.
Caldes
Province: Trento
A scattered Val di Sole commune on the Noce, six hamlets gathered around a thirteenth-century tower-house castle that once belonged to the Thun family.
Cantiano
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A border borgo at 374 meters under Monte Catria on the old Via Flaminia, known for the Good Friday Turba and the sour-cherry visciola harvest.