Yet another enthusiastic vote for Lucignano and Bergamo (Citta' Alta). And one I almost hate to give away: Loro Ciuffenna near San Giovanni Valdarno, about 45 minutes southeast of Florence. Three exceptional restaurants, wonderful old town on a crazy river, not a tourist in sight (well, 5 years ago anyway...)

Without a doubt Grein or Aschach an der Donau in Austria; totally a storybook experience.

Cortona

In the spirit of staying with Myra's "small villages" theme, here is another vote for:

Civita di Bagnoregio in the Lazio region near Orvieto. It's amazing and haunting as it seems be an island in the sky.

We just visited Montefalcone in the Ascoli Piceno province of Le Marche region. It was wonderful--a little castle in the sky. (if you are interested, check out my blog posting about it:
http://www.stelleinitalia.blogspot.com ).

Jean and Tries2PakLite -
You both mentioned Lerici. We will be traveling down the coast in June and need to book two days in a coastal town close to Lucca. We have noticed that Lerici is ideal. Do you have any suggestions for accomodations there?

Mustang, Check out my most recent Civita shot at the same URL above. Try to ignore the prop in the foreground.

ttt

THANK YOU ALL for sharing such privileged information !!! We just need enough days and years to experience all these womderful recommendations!

Whoops! Wonderful has an "n"---but our thanks still apply.

Going to the top.

Small Towns? Look to the Czech Republic. Cesky Krumlov, Telc, Slavonice - delightful town in south Bohemia. Mikulov. Center of the czech vinery where you can to explore viticulture and wine in small wine-cellars of mikulover wine-growers, taste local wines, listen cymbalo. The cellar of Mrs. Solarikk is very unusual. It is located in a cave. Straznice... look here: www.czechtourism.com

Rizzoli publihing has released "One hundred and one beautiful small towns in Italy". Its about 12" by 12" (almost a coffee table book). They included a few towns mentioned above but not as many as I had initially hoped.

Chatham, Pennsylvania USA and Chilhowie, Virginia

To the top for someone else.

just to add some more to the pile
Asolo{veneto}quaint hilltop unspoilt
Castelina in chianti {tuscany}
Varenna {lake como} a sheer delight

We enjoyed Beilstein on the Mosel quite a lot. But now I understand that Rick Steves recommends it, as well as the hotel we stayed at. So I do worry that it might be overwhelmed by visitors now.

Santa Marguerita Ligure..We had to go thru this Beauty to get to Portofino...actually preferred it to the tourist infested Port and returned to stay there...Beautiful shops and wonderful food!!

So many everywhere. I would like to get to the ones in the Bari area and on the Adriatic, as I've never been to that section.

Many above I've enjoyed. Also Gaeta, Formia, Rapello. Positano on a sunny day in March with a million red peppers hanging all over, I will never forget.

There are many towns I walked through and did not know their names. In one of the CT towns a native demonstrated to me in her kitchen how to make pesto Vernazzi style.

A small town in Germany Garmish-Par. (can't spell it). The cows woke me up (bells) coming down the street in the morning.

Malvito, Calabria. My great-grandmother was born there and driving up to it through the hills was like a fairytale.