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10 recognized borghi under 90 minutes from an airport, open in winter

Comuni with at least one recognition, within 90 minutes of an airport hub, whose January stays open in the visiting calendar. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions.

The winter city break has a rural competitor: recognized towns within ninety minutes of an airport whose January stays open rather than shuttered.

Each holds at least one major recognition. Ranked by recognitions held. Land, drive an hour, be somewhere the season never closes.

  1. 1.Matera8 recognitionsMatera · BasilicataCave dwellings carved into limestone since the Paleolithic, called the shame of Italy in the 1950s and made European Capital of Culture in 2019.
  2. 2.Arquà Petrarca6 recognitionsPadova · VenetoThe Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
  3. 3.Nemi6 recognitionsRoma · LazioThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
  4. 4.Cerreto Sannita6 recognitionsBenevento · CampaniaA Sannio ceramics town at 290 meters, rebuilt from scratch by royal engineer Giovanni Battista Manni after the 1688 earthquake leveled the old hill.
  5. 5.Sardara6 recognitionsSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.

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  1. 6.Monzambano6 recognitionsMantova · LombardyA Mincio commune at 88 meters in the moraine hills west of Mantova, whose frazione Castellaro Lagusello sits on a heart-shaped lake inside fortified walls.
  2. 7.Asolo6 recognitionsTreviso · VenetoA walled hill town at 205 meters that Caterina Cornaro ran as her court after trading Cyprus to Venice in 1489.
  3. 8.Gardone Riviera5 recognitionsBrescia · LombardyA western Garda lakeshore town whose hillside holds the Vittoriale, the estate Gabriele D'Annunzio turned into a monument to himself.
  4. 9.Montaione5 recognitionsFirenze · TuscanyA medieval glassmaking and truffle borgo at 341 meters above the Valdelsa, with a Franciscan replica of Jerusalem in the woods at San Vivaldo.
  5. 10.Follina5 recognitionsTreviso · VenetoA Prosecco-hills borgo at 191 meters around the Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria, with a cloister finished in 1268.

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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