The 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Each one handpicked and written by Peter Benei, who lives in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.

The 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Each one handpicked and written by Peter Benei, who lives in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.

The 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Each one handpicked and written by Peter Benei, who lives in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.

The 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Each one handpicked and written by Peter Benei, who lives in Pietrasanta, Tuscany.

Inland from Naples, past the buffalo plains and up into the Matese, the cooking turns to meat: podolica beef, mountain lamb, pork cured in cold stone cellars. These towns sit inside the production zones of protected meats, and eat accordingly.

Six small towns in the province of Perugia where a national or international dining guide has named a table: Umbrian lentils, black truffle, wood-fired pigeon and pork cured the way the hill villages have always cured it.

Small towns across Lombardia that can be reached without a car, from lakeside stations on Lago di Como and Lago d'Iseo to Alpine valleys and the Valtellina terraces. Each one confirmed reachable by train, bus or ferry.

Inland from Lake Bolsena and the Via Cassia, the hill towns of the Viterbese are built from grey-black volcanic tufo and cook accordingly: chestnuts, hazelnuts, lentils, wild boar, pecorino and the flat bread they still bake for the acquacotta. Each of these towns has a table named by a national dining guide.

East of Roma the land climbs fast into the Apennines, where limestone villages sit above beech woods and the air turns cold by late afternoon. These are the mountain towns of the Marsica, the Sabina and the Prenestini hills, close enough to the capital for a day but built entirely apart from it.

Liguria presses its olives late, and the taggiasca gives an oil that is soft, almost sweet, good on raw fish and boiled chard. These are olive-growing towns on the coastal railway line, reachable without a car.

Puglia's olive country runs from the Gargano headlands to the Murgia plateau, with towns built from pale limestone, mills pressing new oil in late autumn, and dining rooms that cook with it rather than around it. These are the smaller places where the oil is local and a guide has still found a table worth booking.

Ligurian olive oil comes from the taggiasca, a small dark olive grown on dry stone terraces above the sea, and the towns that press it also know how to cook with it. These are the places inland and along the coast where the oil is local, the mills still run in winter, and a dining guide has named a table worth booking.

Puglia's coast runs from the limestone cliffs of the Gargano to the Adriatic ports of the south, and along it sit towns where raw prawns, burrata and grilled scorpion fish are treated with the seriousness of a city kitchen. These are seafront places whose restaurants have been picked out by the most demanding of the guides.

Thermal water surfaces all around Verona, in the volcanic mud of the Euganean Hills, along the Trentino valleys and at the foot of the Apennines, and whole towns have been built on top of it: colonnaded bathhouses, hot pools steaming in November, and hotels that still write mud treatments into the price of a room.

Emilia-Romagna's regional nature parks run from the Apennine ridge down to the pine woods and salt pans of the Adriatic, and the towns inside them keep tables a dining guide has singled out. Sandstone hill villages, chestnut woods, salt-cured pork and pasta rolled by hand.

Sardinian towns where a national or international dining guide has named a table, from the granite hills of the Barbagia to the Tunisian-inflected kitchens of the south-west. Inland shepherds' cooking, Vermentino, Cannonau and coastal towns where the restaurants stay open for locals.

Vineyard country begins closer to Milan than most visitors expect, in the Oltrepò Pavese hills, the high Novara slopes and the Monferrato ridges, where Nebbiolo, Cortese and Barbera are poured in cellars a short drive from the city. These are the wine towns to head for, each inside the zone of a protected wine.

Umbrian towns in the province of Perugia that sit on a working railway line and still keep a kitchen worth the trip, from lake fish at Trasimeno to olive oil pressed on the slopes below Trevi.

Beach towns along the province of Salerno's coast, from the Amalfi cliffs down to the long Cilento shore, each holding the national award for clean bathing water and well-run beaches.

Liguria's regional nature parks cover beech forest, chestnut woods, slate gorges and headlands of pine falling straight into the sea. These are the smaller towns that sit inside their boundaries, from the Beigua ridge to the Aveto valley and the Portofino promontory.

Inland Umbria and its Tuscan border country, where stone hill towns above the olive terraces keep kitchens good enough for the strictest guides: torchio pasta, pigeon, Sagrantino and truffle in the cold months.

The plain between Bologna and Modena grows cherries, pears and the grapes that go into balsamic vinegar, and the towns along the via Emilia and the first hills behind it are where the crops are named, protected and eaten in season. Fruit, acetaie and Lambrusco within a short drive of the city.

Inland from the Adriatic, the hills behind Pescara run through olive terraces, Montepulciano vineyards and stone towns where a guide-listed table sits a short walk from the main square. Arrosticini, saffron, confetti and mountain pecorino, within a drive of the coast.

Six smaller Tuscan towns that sit inside a regional nature park, from the marble ridges of the Apuane above Seravezza and Stazzema to the wooded mining hills behind Massa Marittima, Campiglia Marittima and Suvereto.