Silence
The 10 quietest coastal towns in Italy
The silence index scores every catalogued comune from the numbers alone: residents, people per square kilometre, drive time to the nearest airport hub, distance from the nearest big town, and whether a train reaches it. Higher means more silent. These are the 10 highest scores among comuni our catalogue classes as coastal or island.
The Italian coast is where silence goes to die every June. But the shoreline is long, the famous stretches are short, and the catalogue holds coastal and island comuni that stay quiet by the numbers even with the sea at the door.
These are the ten highest silence scores among them. August will still be August; the other eleven months are yours.
- 1.Capraia Isola94 / 100 silenceLivorno · TuscanyA volcanic island of 370 residents and one village, the third largest of the Tuscan Archipelago, a penal colony from 1873 to 1986 and a national park since.
- 2.Pisciotta80 / 100 silenceSalerno · CampaniaA Cilento hilltop town of olive terraces above the Tyrrhenian, where fishermen still pull anchovies with the medieval menaica net.
- 3.Isola del Giglio78 / 100 silenceGrosseto · TuscanyA granite island in the Tyrrhenian Archipelago, walled village on the ridge, port below, where the Costa Concordia ran aground in January 2012.
- 4.Stintino78 / 100 silenceSassari · SardiniaThe northernmost tip of north-west Sardinia and the gateway to Asinara National Park, anchored by La Pelosa — the iconic Caribbean-blue shallow-shelf beach under the 16th-century Aragonese watchtower that fronts every Sardegna postcard.
- 5.Posada76 / 100 silenceNuoro · SardiniaThe capital of the Baronia, a 3,000-person village on a 71-meter rock above the Rio Posada, with a 13th-century tower over the valley.
The slow-trip planner
Plan a slow trip across the towns travelers skip.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
- 6.Roseto Capo Spulico76 / 100 silenceCosenza · CalabriaA Frederician castle on a rock above the Ionian, a former Sybaris satellite city founded in the seventh century BC, Templar legend included.
- 7.Isole Tremiti76 / 100 silenceFoggia · ApuliaAn Adriatic archipelago of five islands twenty-two kilometers off the Gargano, the only Italian commune scattered across an open-sea group.
- 8.
Vernazza76 / 100 silenceLa Spezia · LiguriaThe middle village of the Cinque Terre, the only one with a natural harbor, buried under four meters of mud in October 2011. - 9.Santa Teresa Gallura75 / 100 silenceSassari · SardiniaThe northernmost town in Sardinia, founded in 1808 on a Turin-style grid above the Strait of Bonifacio and 11 kilometers from Corsica.
- 10.San Nicola Arcella74 / 100 silenceCosenza · CalabriaA cliff village above the Tyrrhenian Riviera dei Cedri, where the Arco Magno sea arch fronts a cove only reachable on foot or by boat.
We write about towns like these every Sunday, one town a week, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, from Pietrasanta.
By subscribing you agree to Substack’s Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Information collection notice.
Subscribe — free
Get the best guides on hidden Italian towns.
One letter on Sundays. The week’s town, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
Substack sends a confirmation link to your inbox. The signup finishes when it’s clicked.
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.