Anywhere Italy

Compound

Towns 20 minutes from a famous city, in a different world

Comuni 25 minutes or less from their nearest major hub city. One is on every itinerary; the other is in this catalogue. 10 pairs shown, closest first.

Twenty five minutes is nothing, a podcast segment, a metro delay. It is also the full distance between cities every traveler knows and towns almost none visit.

Each comune here sits that close to its nearest major hub. One of the pair is on every itinerary; the other is in this catalogue, closest first.

  1. 1.Siracusa0 min from SiracusaSiracusa · SicilyThe 2,700-year-old Greek city Cicero called the most beautiful in the world — Ortigia island at its heart wrapped in honey-coloured Baroque stone, the 5th-century BC Greek theatre still in use every summer, and Catania's bigger UNESCO sister on the eastern Sicilian coast.
  2. 2.Udine2 min from UdineUdine · Friuli-Venezia GiuliaThe historic capital of Friuli, built around a man-made castle hill, the second home of the painter Giambattista Tiepolo.
  3. 3.Ravenna3 min from RavennaRavenna · Emilia-RomagnaA 4-meter coastal capital of three successive empires, with eight UNESCO mosaic monuments from the fifth and sixth centuries.
  4. 4.Bergamo3 min from BergamoBergamo · LombardyA two-city Lombard capital where a Venetian walled hilltown sits 85 meters above its modern twin on the plain, 45 kilometers northeast of Milan.
  5. 5.Padova3 min from PadovaPadova · VenetoThe university town that gave Giotto a chapel and the world a science of plants — TWO UNESCO inscriptions inside one city (Padua's 14th-century fresco cycles + the 1545 Orto Botanico, the world's first), plus Prato della Valle, Italy's largest piazza, and Galileo's old lecture hall.

The slow-trip planner

Plan a slow trip across the towns travelers skip.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip
  1. 6.Vicenza3 min from VicenzaVicenza · VenetoAndrea Palladio's home city — a UNESCO-inscribed open-air museum of the architect who reshaped Western architecture, with 23 Palladian buildings inside the centro and the Villa Rotonda + Teatro Olimpico just outside it.
  2. 7.Parma4 min from ParmaParma · Emilia-RomagnaA 57-meter Po-plain capital on the Via Emilia, where Correggio painted the Duomo dome and Parmigiano ages in vaults across the province.
  3. 8.Trento4 min from TrentoTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolThe Alpine capital on the Adige at 194 metres, where the Council that reshaped the Catholic Church met in a castle still standing above the city.
  4. 9.Ferrara6 min from FerraraFerrara · Emilia-RomagnaThe first modern Renaissance city — Biagio Rossetti's 1492 'Addizione Erculea' was Europe's first scientifically planned urban expansion, and the moated brick Castello Estense, the diamond-faceted Palazzo dei Diamanti, and 9 km of intact medieval walls all sit inside a UNESCO-inscribed centro storico you can cycle end-to-end in 20 minutes.
  5. 10.San Giuliano TermeSan Giuliano Terme8 min from PisaPisa · TuscanyA thermal spa at the foot of Monte Pisano, ten kilometers from Pisa, where the springs were bathed since the Romans called them Aquae Pisanae.

We write about towns like these every Sunday, one town a week, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, from Pietrasanta.

By subscribing you agree to Substack’s Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Information collection notice.

Keep browsing

Five more ways into the catalogue

Subscribe — free

Get the best guides on hidden Italian towns.

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

By subscribing you agree to Substack’s Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Information collection notice.

Substack sends a confirmation link to your inbox. The signup finishes when it’s clicked.

From elsewhere in Italy

Five more towns to discover