Designation
Greenways
11 towns across 6 regions
Emilia-Romagna2

Spilamberto
Province: Modena · 69 m
A 69-meter Po-plain town on the Via Romea, headquarters of the Consorteria that codifies Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena since 1967.

Vignola
Province: Modena · 125 m
The cherry-and-castle town on the Panaro at 125 meters, with the Contrari fortress and Barozzi's self-supporting 1500s spiral staircase.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia2

San Dorligo della Valle-Dolina
Province: Trieste · 84 m
A Slovene-speaking Karst commune ten kilometers from Trieste, with its own valley, its own wine, and a canyon Roman aqueducts once crossed.

Trieste
Province: Trieste · 2 m
The Adriatic port the Habsburgs built as their window on the sea, an Italian regional capital still arguing in four languages on the Slovenian border.
Lombardy2

Clusone
Province: Bergamo · 648 m
At 648 meters in upper Val Seriana, capital of the macabre fresco and the 1583 planetary clock above its civic tower.

Gorgonzola
Province: Milano · 132 m
The town that gave its name to the cheese — a 21,000-resident commune on the Naviglio della Martesana 24 km east of Milan, the documented birthplace of Gorgonzola DOP since AD 879 and now the eastern terminus of Milan's M2 metro line, with a Greenways cycling-route signal along the canal.
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol2

Cavalese
Province: Trento · 1,000 m
The capital of Val di Fiemme at 1,000 metres, seat of the Magnifica Comunità since 1111 and its open-air Banco della Reson parliament.

Toblach
Province: Bolzano · 1,256 m
The Val Pusteria gateway to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, where Mahler wrote his last three symphonies in a cabin behind town.
Veneto2

Cortina d'Ampezzo
Province: Belluno · 1,224 m
The Queen of the Dolomites at 1,224 meters, host of the 1956 Winter Olympics and co-host of Milano-Cortina 2026.

San Vito di Cadore
Province: Belluno · 1,011 m
A Cadore valley village at 1,011 meters between the Antelao and the Pelmo, ten kilometers south of Cortina and built around a fifteenth-century frescoed chapel.
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.
Substack sends a confirmation link to your inbox. The signup finishes when it’s clicked.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover

Pieve di Soligo
Province: Treviso
The market town between the Soligo and Lierza rivers in the Prosecco UNESCO zone, birthplace of the twentieth-century poet Andrea Zanzotto.

Vallefoglia
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A 2014 merger commune at 295 meters in the Foglia valley, born from Colbordolo, birthplace of Raffaello's father, and Sant'Angelo in Lizzola.

Abano Terme
Province: Padova
Europe's oldest thermal town on the Euganean Hills' eastern slope, where 80°C bromo-iodine springs have been drawing bathers since the eighth century BC.

Bosa
Province: Oristano
A colour-washed riverside town on Sardinia's only navigable river, with a Malaspina castle on the hill and the tanneries of Sas Conzas along the Temo.

Castagnole delle Lanze
Province: Asti
An Asti hill town at 298 meters between Langhe and Monferrato, with two Baroque churches and a nineteenth-century astronomical tower.

