Secret Italy: here are the 10 most evocative villages to visit this summer for a low-cost holiday

There is it Sicily in pole position, with Favignana and San Vito Lo Capo, followed closely by the chic Portofino. To get lost in the blue painted blue there are the Sardinian San Teodoro, Amalfi or the Tremiti islands. Next to the sea with a capital M, here is the mountain with a capital M: the Dolomites with Moena, the Alps and their giant with Courmayeur, or the Apennines with Roccaraso. And there is no shortage of attractive lakeside locations, such as Limone del Garda or the prestigious Bellagio, and art pearls such as Pienza. All places under 5000 inhabitants (in fact, just 400 residents for Portofino) and all dreamlike.

Sweet dreams!
The list of 30 villages (www.holidu.it/casa-vacanze/italia) was created by Holidu based on average monthly search volume of Googlevia the site Semrush. Thus it turned out that the first three villages in the ranking, the two Sicilian and the Ligurian one, fluctuate around 90,000 average monthly searches – to be precise, 92,000 for the first in the ranking. The operator has fished in all the Italian regions, literally “from the Alps to Sicily”: Lombardy deserved the podium of the most popular villages, with 5 lake, mountain and spa locations, followed by Piedmont, Lazio and Marche. But how much does it cost to sleep in these 30 little gems? Holidu has also drawn up a ranking of the average price per night of a stay in each of the villages. “Small” does not necessarily mean cheap, given the tourist interest of these locations. As expected, high prices await tourists in Portofino and Positano (5th in the ranking), where for each night you have to shell out on average €407 and €777 respectively. It goes just a little better with Amalfi (7th place) and Courmayeur (4th place): with €315 and €280 per night respectively. Fortunately, beauty is not denied to the most modest budgets: on average, with just over €100 a night you can sleep in Peschici, Pitigliano and Scilla, while Castel del Monte in Abruzzo stands at around €100, earning the prize of cheapest destination among the 30 in the ranking.

The goodies of Everyday occurrence
And here is our selection of ten villages to (re)discover, with the relative position in the ranking. They are all on average under €200 per night and listed in ascending order of prices.

1. Castel del Monte, AQ (22nd, €100). A cluster of houses that descends down the mountain, dominated by a tower: here is “the shepherds’ capital”, a wool and transhumance village, surrounded by woods, pastures and the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. Walking around its streets it is easy to come across the porticoes, tunnels dug into the limestone to connect the various inhabited areas, thus making the most of the scarcity of space.
2. Scylla, RC (25th, €108). In front of the clear waters of the Strait of Messina, which reminds us of the myth of Ulysses and the magic of Morgana (the phenomenon which, at certain moments of the day, makes houses and buildings float), Scilla is dominated by the cliff on which the Ruffo castle stands . It promises unforgettable sunsets, breathtaking views from its historic center, charming streets in the seaside district of Chianalea, irresistible beaches.
3. Pitigliano, GR (27th, €115). From afar (the viewpoint in front of the Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie is ideal) it amazes with its skyline, perched on a large tuff cliff. Up close, the “little Jerusalem” certainly does not disappoint, starting from its ghetto (which earned it its nickname), with the synagogue, the Unleavened Oven and the Ritual Bath. No less interesting are the medieval city walls, the Orsini fortress-palace, from which the counts governed Pitigliano until the 1600s, the Medici Aqueduct (16th century), from whose elegant arches you can enjoy a beautiful panorama, and the Duomo with its baroque façade .
4. Peschici, FG (24th, €122). To begin with, we are in the beautiful Gargano, and we can admire the sunrise or sunset at will. And it goes without saying, there is the sea, the Adriatic. Dotted with Saracen towers, the coast has a small port and a long sandy coastline. Above is the old village, whose alleys are flanked by white houses and open here and there onto glimpses of the blue sea. Above is the castle, dating back to the year 1000. All around, pine forests and Mediterranean scrub.
5. Favignana, TP (1st, €127). The largest island of the Egadi Islands resembles a butterfly, resting on a sea of ​​magnetic transparency. Obviously there is no shortage of golden sandy beaches and picturesque coves, but to best enjoy crystal clear and calm waters you have to… smell the wind: if it comes from the south, all go to the north, if from the east, all go to the west. And after swimming and sunbathing you can visit the Tonnara Florio or go up to the castle of Santa Caterina, venture into the former tuff quarries, now verdant with gardens, or visit the eighteenth-century Madrice church.
6. San Pellegrino Terme, BG (20th, €129). In Val Brembana, in the shadow of the Bergamo Prealps, San Pellegrino harks back to the splendor of the early 1900s with its Art Nouveau buildings. Although they have lost their original function, the imposing 7-storey Grand Hotel and the Municipal Casino still boast the floral style, with decorations of butterflies and stag beetles. The funicular and the spa are also Liberty, with hydromassage tubs, Kneipp path, saunas and waterfalls.
7. Maratea, PCS (6th, €135). Overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, Maratea is located in the Gulf of Policastro. Famous for the statue of Christ the Redeemer (from 1965, in concrete and marble, 21 m high), it is full of religious buildings, so much so that it is called the “city of 44 churches”. Of these, the most important is located in the upper part: it is the clear basilica of San Biagio, with a gabled façade preceded by a portico with three arches and an unusual bell tower with a square base, an octagonal central part and a cylindrical upper part, topped by a cone . You go back down towards the coast along a scenic hairpin road.
8. Stresa, VB (14th, €149). Palm trees, lush gardens, sumptuous Art Nouveau hotels, historic buildings such as the Villa Ducale or Villa Pallavicino (the latter on the lakeside, with a park of centuries-old trees), Stresa has a timeless charm. Located at the foot of Mottarone, it overlooks the green waters of Lake Maggiore, which you can sail through to reach the Borromean islands. Because you cannot leave without having seen the beautiful English botanical park of Isola Madre, or the characteristic alleys of Isola dei Pescatori, with the church of San Vittore, dating back to 1000.
9. Villasimius (CA) 18th, €161). A trip to Villasimius is an immersion in colours: the blue of the sea, the white of the coastal dunes, the green of the lagoons and hills, the pink of the flamingos of the Notteri pond, behind Porto Giunco. Surrounded by Mediterranean scrub, there is a succession of beaches: Porto sa Ruxi, Campus and Campulongu. And then Capo Carbonara with its coves, the Spiaggia del Riso, made up of characteristic “grains”, and many others. Between one dive into the sea and another, an immersion in archaeology: the necropolises of Accu Is Traias (1st century BC-III AD) and of Cruccuris (1st-2nd century AD), the remains of the Nuragic age, the site of Cuccureddus, first Phoenician-Punic and then Roman, the Roman baths of Santa Maria.
10. Numana, AN (28th, €179). Squeezed between the Conero natural park and the Adriatic, Numana is divided between an upper and a lower part connected by a long and characteristic staircase, the Costarella, very lively in summer. Narrow streets, small squares and beautiful views characterize the upper part, where there is also the sanctuary with the wooden Crucifix, with an unusual serene and clean-shaven Christ. The coast offers pebble beaches and cliffs with beautiful coves.