Anywhere Italy

Recognitions

The 10 southernmost Borghi più belli d'Italia

Borghi più belli d'Italia comuni, ranked by latitude, south to north. 10 towns shown.

At the other end of the list, the southernmost certified borghi in the catalogue: Sicilian Baroque towns, Calabrian rocks, places where the recognition arrived long after the emigration did.

South to north. The plaques here mark towns that stayed beautiful mostly because nobody had the money to modernize them badly.

  1. 1.Palazzolo Acreide37.07° NSiracusa · SicilyThe Iblei plateau's UNESCO Baroque + Greek twin — 8,000-resident hilltop town at 670m, founded over the Greek Akrai colony (664 BC), rebuilt entirely in late Baroque after the 1693 earthquake (inscribed on the Val di Noto UNESCO listing 2002), with the original Greek theatre + the unique Santoni rock carvings of Cybele just outside the modern centro.
  2. 2.Ferla37.13° NSiracusa · SicilyA baroque village at 500 meters on the Monte Lauro slopes, the western gateway to the UNESCO necropolis of Pantalica eleven kilometers downhill.
  3. 3.Buccheri37.16° NSiracusa · SicilyThe highest village in the province of Syracuse at 820 meters on Monte Lauro, world capital of Tonda Iblea olive oil at the 2015 Sol d'Oro.
  4. 4.Sutera37.52° NCaltanissetta · SicilyA medieval village clinging to the base of a 800-meter monolith in the Nisseno interior, with an Arab quarter and a sanctuary on the summit.
  5. 5.Agira37.60° NEnna · SicilyOn the slopes of Monte Teja at 650 meters, birthplace of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus and burial site of 490 Canadian soldiers of the 1943 campaign.

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  1. 6.Calascibetta37.63° NEnna · SicilyA promontory town at 691 meters facing Enna across a ravine, founded in the ninth century as a Muslim camp to besiege Byzantine Henna.
  2. 7.Sambuca di Sicilia37.66° NAgrigento · SicilyAn Arab-founded hill town in the Belice valley, named Borgo dei Borghi in 2016, still called Zabut in living memory before 1923.
  3. 8.Gangi37.75° NPalermo · SicilyA Madonie hill town stacked down Monte Marone at 1,011 meters, RAI's Borgo dei Borghi 2014 and the launching pad for the one-euro-house programme.
  4. 9.Sperlinga37.75° NEnna · SicilyA sandstone borgo at 750 meters in the Nebrodi foothills where a Norman castle and dwellings are carved into the rock as one continuous mass.
  5. 10.Troina37.77° NEnna · SicilyAt 1,121 meters on the Nebrodi ridge, the first capital and first bishopric the Normans set up in Sicily after taking it from the Arabs.

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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