Anywhere Italy

Silence

10 silent comuni within an hour of loud cities

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 10 keep a high score while sitting within a 60 minute drive of an airport hub cluster, so the quiet starts one hour after the arrivals hall.

The usual price of silence in Italy is distance. These towns did not pay it. Each scores high on our silence index while sitting within an hour's drive of an airport hub, close enough that the quiet starts before the rental car smell fades.

That combination is rare: only a handful of comuni manage a high score inside the 60 minute ring. Here are the ten best trades of proximity for peace in the catalogue.

  1. 1.Aiello Calabro66 / 100 silenceCosenza · CalabriaA hilltop borgo at 502 meters in the Tyrrhenian hinterland of Cosenza, ruled for two centuries by the Cybo-Malaspina from Massa Carrara.
  2. 2.Cicala64 / 100 silenceCatanzaro · CalabriaA village of 887 people at 829 meters on the western foothills of the Sila Piccola, founded in 1616 by farmers asking the Count Cigala for land.
  3. 3.Genga61 / 100 silenceAncona · MarcheA small Sentino-valley commune at 322 meters whose territory holds the Frasassi caves, the largest karst show cave in Italy.
  4. 4.Serrastretta57 / 100 silenceCatanzaro · CalabriaThe chair town of the Reventino massif, founded in 1383 in a narrow gorge between two mountain ranges, still weaving straw seats by hand.
  5. 5.San Zeno di Montagna56 / 100 silenceVerona · VenetoThe balcony of Lake Garda at 680 meters on the west slope of Monte Baldo, where chestnut groves sit above the eastern shore.

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  1. 6.Castellaro Lagusello55 / 100 silenceMantova · LombardyA walled medieval borgo south of Lake Garda, ringed by 13th-century stone walls and overlooking a small heart-shaped natural lake that gives the village its second name and most-photographed silhouette.
  2. 7.Castiglione di Sicilia55 / 100 silenceCatania · SicilyA hill town on the north flank of Etna at 621 meters, base camp for the Alcantara valley and the volcano's most serious red wines.
  3. 8.Deiva Marina55 / 100 silenceLa Spezia · LiguriaA Riviera di Levante seaside commune between Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre, reachable by sea only after the 1874 railway.
  4. 9.Portobuffolè55 / 100 silenceTreviso · VenetoThe smallest commune in the Treviso province, a Livenza river port centered on the fourteenth-century home of the poet Gaia da Camino.
  5. 10.Sant'Alfio53 / 100 silenceCatania · SicilyAn Etna village at 537 meters where the world's largest and oldest chestnut tree has been measured at over 57 meters in girth.

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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