While the British love affair with Italian property typically begins and ends with a restored farmhouse in Tuscany or a pied-à-terre in Rome, savvy buyers are discovering Italy’s best-kept secrets. From the heel of the boot to the Alpine foothills, these underrated destinations offer everything the famous regions do – spectacular food, vibrant culture, and that indefinable Italian magic – but with price tags that won’t require remortgaging your Surrey semi.
Abruzzo: The Wild Side Of Italy
Average property price: €124,000-€248,000
Nearest airports: Pescara (in the region), Rome Fiumicino (2.5 hours)
IDEAL for: Nature lovers who like their wine robust and their mountains dramatic
Imagine Tuscany after a few shots of grappa – wilder, more rugged, and refreshingly unpretentious. That’s Abruzzo. Dubbed ‘Europe’s greenest region’, this is where Romans escape when they want proper mountains, proper beaches, and properly enormous portions of pasta.
The medieval town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio looks like a film set but without the tour buses. Here, if you looking at homes for sale in Italy, you can still buy a stone house needing love for around €50,000, or splash out €300,000 on something with valley views that’ll make your Instagram followers weep with envy.
The nightlife? Think less flashy clubs, more cosy osterie where the owner’s nonna still makes the pasta by hand. The local Montepulciano d’Abruzzo flows freely, and if you’re lucky, you’ll stumble into a sagra (food festival) where entire villages gather to celebrate everything from lentils to lamb. Speaking of lamb, the arrosticini – skewers of perfectly seasoned meat grilled over charcoal – are so good they should be illegal.
Beach bums aren’t forgotten either. The Costa dei Trabocchi features those extraordinary wooden fishing platforms jutting into the Adriatic, many now converted into atmospheric restaurants where you eat whatever was caught that morning.
Read: Italy’s most spectacular festivals
Friuli-Venezia Giulia: Where Austria Meets The Adriatic
Average property price: €153,000 for a family home
Nearest airports: Trieste (regional airport), Venice Marco Polo (1.5 hours)
IDEAL for: Wine snobs and coffee addicts
Sandwiched between Austria, Slovenia, and the sea, Friuli is Italy’s most intriguing cultural mash-up. This is serious wine country – the whites here are so good, Veneto should be jealous – yet property prices remain surprisingly sensible.
Trieste, the capital, is a coffee lover’s paradise with a café culture that rivals Vienna’s. The nightlife is more jazz club than techno temple, perfect for those who prefer their evenings sophisticated. Want something livelier? The university ensures a healthy population of dive bars and late-night pizzerias.
The food scene is bonkers good: think Austrian-influenced goulash alongside perfect prosciutto di San Daniele, all washed down with exceptional Friulano wines. In this area you’ll find towns like Cividale del Friuli offer medieval charm without the tourist coaches, while the Carnic Alps provide skiing just an hour from the beach. Properties range from €100,000 apartments in town to €300,000 country houses with mountain views.
Le Marche: Tuscany Without The Tourists
Average property price: €160,000 for a family home
Nearest airports: Ancona (1.5 hours from region), Rimini (2 hours), Pescara (1 hour 45 mins)
IDEAL for: Sunseekers who want culture and history alongside their tan
Le Marche is what happens when Tuscany and the Adriatic have a love child – all the Renaissance art and rolling hills you could want, plus 180 kilometres of beaches. Yet somehow, it’s remained deliciously under the radar.
The university town of Urbino keeps things lively with students ensuring a decent bar scene year-round. Come summer, the coastal town of Senigallia transforms into party central, with beach clubs that go from lazy aperitivo spots by day to thumping discos by night. Not your scene? Head inland to the wine country, where Verdicchio flows like water and every hilltop town seems to have its own food speciality and cultural signature.
The region’s signature snack, olive all’ascolana (meat-stuffed olives, deep-fried to golden perfection), is the ultimate beer food – though locals prefer them with a crisp Rosso Piceno. Property-wise, you can snag a townhouse in a medieval borgo for under €100,000, or go full countryside with a farmhouse and vineyard for around €300,000.
Basilicata: Italy’s Best-Kept Secret
Average property price: €119,000-€238,000
Nearest airports: Bari (2 hours), Naples (2 hours)
IDEAL for: Adventure seekers who like their Italy raw and real
Yes, Matera’s cave hotels are all over Instagram, but venture beyond and you’ll find an Italy that time forgot – in the best possible way. This is where village houses go for London parking space prices, and where the food is so good it doesn’t need to try.
Potenza, the regional capital, might be gritty but its bar scene is surprisingly hip, with craft beer spots and natural wine bars popping up between the brutalist architecture. Down on the coast, Maratea – dubbed the ‘Pearl of the Tyrrhenian’ – offers Caribbean-blue waters without the Caribbean price tags.
The cuisine here is properly hardcore: peperoni cruschi (sweet peppers dried until crispy) are eaten like crisps with drinks, lucanica sausages pack a proper punch, and the pasta is still made the way nonna did it. Some villages are part of the famous €1 house scheme, though factor in renovation costs before you get too excited.
Read: Italy’s very best walking holidays
Molise: The Region That ‘Doesn’t Exist’
Average property price: €95,000 for a family home
Nearest airports: Naples (2 hours), Pescara (2 hours)
IDEAL for: True escapists who want to disappear into real Italy
There’s a running joke in Italy that Molise doesn’t exist. With only 300,000 inhabitants in the entire region, it’s Italy’s second-best-kept secret (after the recipe for proper carbonara). This is where you come to properly escape.
Campobasso, the tiny capital, punches above its weight with a lively student scene keeping the bars buzzing and ensuring decent pizza at 2am. The coastal town of Termoli offers proper Italian beach life – think families playing cards under umbrellas and seafood so fresh it was swimming an hour ago.
The food is outrageously good and outrageously cheap: wild boar ragù, truffle everything, and caciocavallo cheese that’ll ruin you for supermarket cheddar. Some villages here are literally giving houses away to attract new blood – perfect if you fancy a project and have a thing for authentic Italy minus the crowds.
Piedmont’s Hidden Valleys: Gourmet Paradise On A Budget
Average property price: €133,000 in lesser-known areas
Nearest airports: Turin (1 hour), Milan Malpensa (1.5-2 hours)
IDEAL for: Serious food lovers with champagne tastes on prosecco budgets
Everyone knows about the Langhe and its eye-watering prices, but venture into Piedmont’s other valleys and you’ll find the same rolling vineyards, medieval towers, and truffle-scented air for half the cost.
Towns like Asti (yes, of spumante fame) and the spa town of Acqui Terme offer proper Italian life with a sophisticated edge. The thermal baths in Acqui have been soothing Romans since, well, Roman times, and today’s aperitivo scene would make Milan jealous.
This is Italy’s gastronomic heartland: white truffles, Barolo wines, gianduja chocolate, and beef so good it has its own denomination. The nightlife revolves around enotecas where sommeliers treat wine like religion, and dinner is a four-hour affair. Properties range from €100,000 fixer-uppers to €500,000 Liberty-style villas, with plenty of vineyard-adjacent options for aspiring winemakers.
Northern Puglia’s Gargano Peninsula: The Spur Of The Boot
Average property price: €130,000-€260,000
Nearest airports: Bari (2.5 hours to Vieste), Foggia (1 hour)
IDEAL for: Beach lovers who prefer their coastline dramatic
While everyone fights for a spot on Salento’s beaches, the Gargano Peninsula offers something altogether more wild. Think dramatic white cliffs, hidden coves accessible only by boat, and fishing villages that haven’t changed since your grandparents’ time.
Vieste perches on a white limestone peninsula with beaches on both sides – perfect for following the sun throughout the day. The old town is a maze of steep steps and washing lines, where the evening passeggiata still matters and the gelato is made by someone’s actual nonna.
Summer brings beach clubs that transform from lazy day spots to sunset party venues, with DJs spinning until dawn. The food is Puglia at its finest: burrata so fresh it’s still warm, orecchiette with turnip tops, and seafood pulled from the boat to your plate. The Foresta Umbra offers hiking through ancient beech forests when you need a break from the beach, and the whole area remains refreshingly Italian in character.
The Practical Bits
Property prices mentioned are based on 2025 data from the Global Property Guide and My Dolce Casa’s Italy Real Estate Market Report. Post-Brexit, UK buyers need to jump through a few more hoops, but a good bilingual lawyer will sort you out.
Most regions have decent flight connections from the UK, though you’ll want a car for exploring. The good news? Petrol is cheaper than the UK, the autostrade are gloriously empty compared to the M25, and Italian drivers aren’t nearly as terrifying as everyone says (okay, that last bit might be a lie).
The Bottom Line
These regions offer what we all want from Italy – incredible food, affordable wine, actual Italian neighbours (not just other expats), and property prices that won’t require selling a kidney. You’ll need some basic Italian (Duolingo won’t cut it for negotiating with the local builder), and yes, the bureaucracy can be maddening, but that’s a small price for la dolce vita.
Honestly, when you’re sitting on your terrace, glass of local wine in hand, watching the sun set over your own piece of authentic Italy, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
