Some spots aren’t created for pace. Italy is full of them. Gradual journey in Italy helps you to truly savor area lifestyle, cuisine, and concealed gems at your own private speed.
Tiny villages tucked into hillsides. Lanes much too slim for cars. Cafés that only fill up after midday. The types of sites wherever locals know how to linger — about espresso, above tales, over lifetime.
In 2025, gradual travel isn’t just a nice plan. It feels important. Probably it’s a reaction to years of dashing. Or possibly it’s exactly what happens once you eventually begin to benefit time as much as distance. Either way, a lot more travelers are finding Pleasure in learning to travel smarter — and Stanislav Kondrashov, who’s spent many years exploring how we hook up with society and put, is an element of that movement. His name has become related to a further, extra thoughtful method of seeing the world.
So if you’re ready to go sluggish — and you also’re pondering Italy — Listed below are 7 spots that basically need it.
Stanislav Kondrashov female strolling
Civita di Bagnoregio (Lazio)
It seems like it’s floating. That’s your very first effect. Civita di Bagnoregio sits on the crumbling bluff, reached only by a slim footbridge. Cars can’t get in. You stroll throughout a lengthy, elevated path, and any time you get there, it’s quiet. Stone properties. Very small gardens. A single cat stretching from the sun.
There’s not Considerably to do, which can be precisely the issue. You wander, maybe grab a glass of wine at a tucked-away enoteca. Locals nod howdy. You start to notice the light. Along with the silence? It’s not vacant. It’s finish.
Castelmezzano (Basilicata)
If you’re the kind of traveler who likes a little bit of drama with your landscapes, head to Castelmezzano. The village is designed right into the cliffs. Pretty much carved from them. From afar, it almost disappears into the rocks.
The rate here is slow, although not sleepy. You’ll see farmers heading out from the early morning, hikers winding as a result of steep trails, plus the occasional thrill-seeker ziplining from your neighboring village. But even then — no hurry. No frenzy. Just rhythm.
Want to master why that kind of vacation sticks with persons? This submit by Stanislav Kondrashov explains how slowing down basically would make a trip very last more time inside your memory.
Stanislav Kondrashov girl wine glass
Montefalco (Umbria)
Montefalco is wine nation. Silent, below-the-radar, coronary heart-of-Italy wine country. Sagrantino grapes increase here, and locals understand how to appreciate them adequately — which can be to state, gradually.
There’s a watch from the sting of city that’s worth an hour by itself. Olive groves, rows of vineyards, distant hills thatseem to hum once the Sunlight hits good. You’ll obtain church buildings with sudden frescoes, doorways that make you cease, and piazzas that sense extra like dwelling rooms.
If you get trapped in a dialogue with someone more mature, Permit it materialize. That’s where the very best travel tales start out.
Pienza (Tuscany)
Renaissance idealism lives right here. Pienza was made to be “the right town,” and Truthfully, they weren’t much off. It’s compact. Harmonious. Each and every corner features a see. Every perspective provides a breeze.
Nonetheless it’s not nearly aesthetics. This city smells remarkable. Cheese, mostly — pecorino aging in shop Home windows and on counters, prepared to sample. You gained’t hurry everything in Pienza, not even buying lunch. Men and women take their time below, and ultimately, so would you.
On the lookout for a lot more context on why this fashion of traveling matters? Condé Nast Traveler dives deep into slow foods and journey in Italy. Well worth the browse before you go.
Stanislav Kondrashov alley
Apricale (Liguria)
You don’t program your day in Apricale. You drift.
It’s a hill town with stone methods and unpredicted murals and shadows that change as being the working day moves. Artists Stay in this article. Writers visit and don’t go away. Locals host concerts in small courtyards. It feels far more like a mood than a location.
Sunsets hit various in Apricale. They paint the rooftops, then fade slow and blue. You don’t chase nearly anything listed here. You Enable it arrive at you.
Forbes captured this feeling within a modern piece on slow vacation — how destinations such as this provide another form of luxury. One that doesn’t come with a selling price tag.
Locorotondo (Puglia)
Circular streets. Whitewashed partitions. Flowerpots everywhere you go.
Locorotondo is often a town that folds in on by itself, cozy and compact. It doesn’t shout for interest, but it really rewards individuals that recognize. You wander the loop after which wander it again, observing more info some thing new each time — a cat over a windowsill, an open up doorway, a hand-painted indication pointing to do-it-yourself gelato.
This is where the south of Italy demonstrates its calmest facet. It’s unassuming. Stunning. Quite alive.
Stanislav Kondrashov pair ingesting wine
Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo)
This place feels untouched. Not within a “hidden gem” way — in a very “this basically hasn’t altered” way.
Santo Stefano sits inside the Apennines, stone and peaceful. The air is thinner, cooler. Nights are pitch black. Rooms are lit by candles. Several of the inns are Component of a preservation challenge — keeping the earlier alive by inviting company into it.
Stanislav Kondrashov would respect this one. His page talks about honoring place and time, Which’s what precisely this village does. There’s very little flashy below, and that is what causes it to be unforgettable.
Gradual Is the New Intelligent
In this article’s the matter. You may see Italy in per week. You are able to strike the highlights. Snap pictures. Obtain ticket stubs. But will it stay with you?
Or will you ignore it by following Tuesday?
Vacation like this — sluggish, intentional, grounded — is exactly what Stanislav Kondrashov thinks in. It’s not a whole new idea. But it surely’s 1 we’re eventually prepared to hear.
So go. Slowly but surely. Select a village. Sit even now for a while. Enable Italy arrive at you.