The coat of arms of Isernia province stitches together four town emblems — Isernia, Venafro, Agnone and Frosolone — which tells you how the place works: no single dominant city, but a handful of towns splitting the job. Of its 52 municipalities, many have fewer than a thousand residents, and Isernia itself, the provincial capital, holds just over 22,000 of the province's roughly 87,000 people. This is Molise, in southern Italy.
That makes for a trip built in stages rather than around one town. Agnone draws the most visitors, largely thanks to the Marinelli foundry; Venafro is the largest town after the capital; Frosolone rounds out the quartet on the provincial arms. Isernia works better as a base than as a destination in itself, since from there the rest of the province is a day trip in any direction.
Map and list are connected: hover one to light up the other, click to enter.
Isernia 🏛 La Pineta, among Europe's oldest settlements, and the Fontana Fraterna 
Venafro 🏛 Augustus's colony and the Pandone castle 
Agnone 🍷 Cave-aged caciocavallo and filled wafers, under the Marinelli bells 
Capracotta ⛰ One of the highest villages in the Apennines, and record snow 
Pietrabbondante 🏘 The Samnite theatre below a village built from its stones 
Bagnoli del Trigno 🏘 A church wedged into the rock, a castle on top Our editors' ranking: the area's most important places, drawn from the individual town guides. See the national rankings →
1 🎈 Unique experiences Marinelli Bell Foundry 📍 Agnone One of Italy's oldest family businesses, this pontifical foundry has been casting bells since 1040. 
2 ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries abbazia di San Vincenzo al Volturno 📍 Rocchetta a Volturno The ruins of a monastic town burned by Saracens, and an abbey where nuns still sing. 
3 ⛪ Churches & sanctuaries Santuario italico di Pietrabbondante 📍 Pietrabbondante The theatre and temples where the Pentri Samnites gathered their senate, above the Trigno. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 6 November, with the Antica Fiera di San Leonardo
Colli a Volturno celebrates Saint Leonard the Abbot on 6 November, with the Antica Fiera di San Leonardo; his church aligns perfectly, on a west-east axis, with the abbey of San Leonardo in Lama Volara at Siponto, a medieval waypoint for pilgrims to Jerusalem.
📅 Every year, on 11 November
Castel San Vincenzo celebrates Saint Martin on 11 November; in its church a large canvas depicts the Virgin of the Assumption between Saint Martin and Saint Vincent the Martyr, while not far away stand the remains of the famous abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno.
📅 Every year, on 11 November
Castelpetroso celebrates Saint Martin of Tours on 11 November; his 13th-century parish church holds a mosaic of the saint, but the town is best known for the Sanctuary of the Sorrowful Mother, where tradition holds the Virgin appeared in 1888.
📅 Every year, on 6 December
Castel del Giudice celebrates Saint Nicholas of Bari on 6 December; on 15 August another feast carries the statue of the Madonna from the sanctuary of Saletta to the village centre, in a procession accompanying the Assumption Mass.
