They don't just beautify the village — they tell its history, its traditions, its bonds. Murals define many painted villages from the north to the south of the Peninsula and are an opportunity to uncover further treasures of the area, from natural landscapes to museums to historic buildings.
Have you ever visited a village where the walls of houses and public buildings are covered in paintings? Well, you should know that in Italy there are more than two hundred villages defined by murals. They have all (or nearly all) been catalogued by the Associazione italiana dei paesi dipinti, which came into being when the Azienda di promozione turistica del varesotto, the owner of the frescoes in Arcumeggia (Va), attempted to draw up a first list of municipalities sharing this characteristic, only to discover that the phenomenon was far more significant than initially thought. The paintings — created to commemorate, to protest, to tell a story — have in many cases become genuine works of art. We're bringing you five destinations, but don't stop there!
The murals of Vernante, a village in the province of Cuneo, are distinctive because every single one of them tells the story of Pinocchio. There are more than 150, painted by Bruno Carlet and Meo Cavallera. What does the fairy tale have to do with Vernante? Attilio Mussino, one of the most celebrated illustrators of Pinocchio, spent the final years of his life here. A museum dedicated to him allows visitors to admire a number of rare illustrated editions of the tale. At the entrance to the village you will also find a statue of the world's most famous wooden puppet, crafted by local artisans.
The medieval village of Dozza, one of the Borghi più Belli d'Italia, sits perched on a hill overlooking the valley of the River Sellustra, between Imola and Bologna. It is a true open-air museum: around a hundred works by artists bring colour to houses and streets, and it plays host to the Biennale d'Arte contemporanea del Muro Dipinto (the 26th edition will take place this year from 11 to 17 September). You simply must step inside the majestic Rocca Sforzesca, at the highest point of the village, where you can visit several rooms, the prisons and the walkways along the towers, and where the Enoteca regionale is housed, offering a selection of labels to buy and enjoy alongside hand-rolled tortelli pasta, as tradition in these parts demands.
In the province of Belluno, nestled in a lush valley at over a thousand metres above sea level, Cibiana di Cadore tells its story through around fifty frescoes painted from the 1980s onwards on the outer walls of its buildings by Italian and international artists. The paintings depict above all traditional trades — from blacksmith to cheesemaker, miller to charcoal burner — and can all be discovered by following a set route with the help of a map. While you're here, also visit the Messner Mountain Museum Dolomites, or Museo nelle Nuvole, on Monte Rite, conceived by Reinhold Messner to recount the history of exploration and mountaineering in the Dolomites.
On the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, Diamante is best known for its long beaches, its crystal-clear sea and its chilli pepper festival, but did you know the village also boasts around a hundred murals adorning the historic centre? The idea of turning building walls into large canvases came from Milanese painter Nani Razzetti, and in 1981 Italian and international artists created 85 works, to which further pieces were added from 1986 to 1997. Don't miss, for example, the Murales a mosaico di Michele ed Angiolina Sposito di Ferrara, painted in Via Alfieri on the exterior of the Chiesa Madre.
Scenes from everyday peasant life or moments of social struggle and power: the murals of Orgosolo, a village in the Barbagia, tell all of this in an immediately accessible way. The first ones appeared in the second half of the twentieth century as a tool of protest by a group of anarchists, and thanks to them Orgosolo today attracts thousands of visitors from around the world. If you find yourself here, also go in search of the Supramonte plateau on organised excursions on foot, by bike or by off-road vehicle through mountains and hills where nature is still lush and unspoilt.
