Anywhere Italy

Recognitions

10 Borghi più belli d'Italia that stay empty anyway

Borghi più belli d'Italia comuni under 1,000 residents, recognition without the coach parking. 10 towns shown, smallest first.

Recognition is supposed to bring visitors. For these Borghi più belli d'Italia members, all under a thousand residents, it mostly brought a plaque.

The reasons vary: a road that ends there, a province off the flight paths, stronger names nearby. The result is the same, certified beauty with room to stand.

  1. 1.Cornello dei Tasso50 residentsBergamo · LombardyA car-free medieval frazione of Camerata Cornello in the Val Brembana, accessible only on foot, anchored by the Museo dei Tasso e della Storia Postale — birthplace of the family that ran the European postal network from the 16th century onward.
  2. 2.Ostana85 residentsCuneo · PiedmontItaly's most spectacular Monviso belvedere — an 85-resident Occitan-speaking alpine borgo at 1,280m in the upper Po valley, with a direct frontal view of Monviso (3,841m), an architecturally celebrated mountain renaissance (60+ ruined stone houses rebuilt 2000-2024 by a regional master plan), and Borghi più belli d'Italia inscription despite the small population.
  3. 3.Bard108 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyA 108-person village under the largest Savoy fortress in the Alps, where 400 soldiers held off Napoleon's 40,000 for two weeks in 1800.
  4. 4.Santo Stefano di Sessanio114 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA Medici outpost at 1,250 meters on the southern edge of Campo Imperatore, restored building by building since 1999 into Italy's first scattered hotel.
  5. 5.Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena130 residentsSavona · LiguriaA stone village of 130 residents at 420 meters in the Val Neva, built into the southern foot of Rocca Barbena at 1,142 meters.

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  1. 6.Usseaux175 residentsTorino · PiedmontA Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
  2. 7.Mombaldone197 residentsAsti · PiedmontA walled village of 197 residents in the Langa Astigiana, the only borgo in the area that still holds its full medieval perimeter.
  3. 8.Pietracamela218 residentsTeramo · AbruzzoA village of 218 people clinging at 1,005 meters under the north wall of Corno Piccolo, birthplace of Italian Apennine climbing in 1925.
  4. 9.Percile219 residentsRoma · LazioA 219-person medieval borgo at 575 meters in the Monti Lucretili park, with two karst lakes called Lagustelli hidden in the beech woods above.
  5. 10.Castellaro Lagusello250 residentsMantova · LombardyA walled medieval borgo south of Lake Garda, ringed by 13th-century stone walls and overlooking a small heart-shaped natural lake that gives the village its second name and most-photographed silhouette.

We write about towns like these every Sunday, one town a week, with the photo, the food, the festa. Free, from Pietrasanta.

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