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10 towns at their best in November

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

November is Italy's least defended month: the season closed, the fog licensed to wander, the restaurants cooking for neighbors again. In certain towns this is not the off season but the point.

Our visiting calendar marks each of these as at its best in November. Ranked by recognitions held. Bring a coat, skip the queue that is not there.

  1. 1.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.
  2. 2.Sardara3,801 residentsSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.
  3. 3.Sambuca di Sicilia5,341 residentsAgrigento · SicilyAn Arab-founded hill town in the Belice valley, named Borgo dei Borghi in 2016, still called Zabut in living memory before 1923.
  4. 4.Caramanico Terme1,779 residentsPescara · AbruzzoA 650-meter Majella spa village at the confluence of the Orfento and Orta, with sulphurous springs whose properties were documented in 1576.
  5. 5.Levico Terme8,167 residentsTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA Habsburg spa town in the Valsugana at 520 metres, with arsenic-iron thermal waters, an English park and a Blue Flag lake at the edge of the centre.

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  1. 6.Modica53,503 residentsRagusa · SicilyA vertical Baroque city in the Hyblean Mountains, rebuilt from the 1693 earthquake and home to a chocolate recipe brought from Aztec Mexico.
  2. 7.Viterbo65,949 residentsViterbo · LazioThe medieval capital of the Tuscia, papal seat for five popes between 1257 and 1281 and home to the longest conclave in Church history.
  3. 8.Battaglia Terme3,766 residentsPadova · VenetoA barge village at the foot of the Euganean Hills, built around the 1201 canal and Italy's only river navigation museum.
  4. 9.Rapolano Terme5,072 residentsSiena · TuscanyA Sienese thermal town in the Crete Senesi, 38-degree calcium-sulphur waters and travertine quarries that supplied the Pienza Duomo and Montepulciano's San Biagio.
  5. 10.Bagno di Romagna5,592 residentsForlì-Cesena · Emilia-RomagnaA 491-meter thermal town at the head of the Savio valley, drawing on springs that have run at 47 degrees since Roman times.

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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