Anywhere Italy

Best time

10 spring towns before the season starts

Comuni whose visiting calendar marks March or April as a best month. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions held.

There is a short window between the winter closures and the first tour buses when Italy runs at spring temperature with winter crowd levels. March and April, roughly, depending on Easter's mood.

These towns are marked best in those months in our calendar. Wildflowers on the hill paths, wet stone in the morning, dinner among locals.

  1. 1.Norcia4,544 residentsPerugia · UmbriaBirthplace of San Benedetto at 604 meters on a Sibillini plateau, leveled by the 2016 earthquake and rebuilt stone by stone.
  2. 2.Matera59,685 residentsMatera · BasilicataCave dwellings carved into limestone since the Paleolithic, called the shame of Italy in the 1950s and made European Capital of Culture in 2019.
  3. 3.San Casciano dei Bagni1,500 residentsSiena · TuscanyA hilltop borgo at 582 meters above 42 hot springs that produced the largest Etruscan bronze hoard of the last fifty years.
  4. 4.MontalcinoMontalcino5,611 residentsSiena · TuscanyA walled hill town at 564 meters above the Val d'Orcia, the last fortress to hold out for the Sienese Republic and the birthplace of Brunello.
  5. 5.Trevi8,063 residentsPerugia · UmbriaA walled town at 412 meters above the Spoleto valley, ringed by 200,000 olive trees that make it the Umbrian capital of olive oil.

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  1. 6.Massa Marittima8,139 residentsGrosseto · TuscanyA medieval mining town at 380 meters in the Colline Metallifere, free commune from 1255 to 1337, whose cathedral holds the relics of San Cerbone.
  2. 7.Scanno1,697 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 1,057-meter Sagittario valley village photographed by Cartier-Bresson and Giacomelli, where women in black still walk the same alleys as the 1957 series.
  3. 8.Arquà Petrarca1,810 residentsPadova · VenetoThe Euganean Hills village where Francesco Petrarca spent his last four years and died in 1374, renamed in his honor in 1868.
  4. 9.Nemi1,877 residentsRoma · LazioThe smallest comune in the Castelli Romani, perched at 521 meters above a volcanic crater lake the Romans called the mirror of Diana.
  5. 10.SuveretoSuvereto2,955 residentsLivorno · 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.

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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One letter on Sundays. The week’s town, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

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