Travel

We’ve often heard of city breaks, but with slow travel on the rise, many travellers are looking to take things slower and enjoy the finer things in life, away from the city. According to an international listing established by Farawayfurniture.com, Italy’s stunning Cinque Terre tops the list as the most Instagrammed village in the world.

Perched in the Italian Riviera not far from Genoa, Cinque Terre is a group of five villages in a UNESCO world heritage site national park.  The rugged coastline of this colourful paradise, now a destination for mass tourism, also has a total of 2,049,711 hashtags.

Travellers are clearly very fond of Italian villages on Instagram, as the country has three destinations in the top 10 of the most Instagrammed villages. Burano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon in northern Italy, is the second most Instagrammed Italian village. Photographers are in love with the brightly coloured fishermen’s houses, to the point where there are 1,048,053 images on the social network.

The third Italian entry on the list is Alberobello. Considered a must-see destination for visitors to Apulia, the village is famous for its trulli, a typical southern-Italian stone dwelling, with beautiful conical roofs. For first-time travellers, head to the Rione Monti quarter within the ‘trulli zone’. Situated on a mini hill, it contains over 1,000 trulli-inspired homes.

However, for all its supposed allure, France has only one destination in the top 10 most Instagrammed villages, and surprisingly, it is not a Mediterranean village that’s favoured by travellers. Instead, the small town of Colmar in Alsace has captured the hearts of many.

Additionally, Japan’s Shirakawa-go also makes it to the list. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, the area is famous for its traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, where the roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. For history buffs, some of homes in this area are more than 250 years old.

Here’s the complete list of the world’s top 10 most Instagrammed villages:

1. Cinque Terre, Italy (2,049,711)

2. Reine, Norway (1,614,863)

3. Oia, Greece (1,486,743)

4. Burano, Italy (1,048,053)

5. Colmar, France (995,124)

6. Hallstatt, Austria (817,211)

7. Alberobello, Italy (584,207)

8. Hobbiton, New Zealand (499,028)

9. Shirakawa-go, Japan (257,244)

10. Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia (232,785)

Source: AFP Relax News

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