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10 comuni with a station and under 3,000 people

Comuni with an active railway station and fewer than 3,000 residents. 10 towns shown, smallest first.

The Italian railway network was built when these towns were bigger, and the stations stayed after the people left. The result is a specific kind of luck: comuni of under three thousand residents that you can still reach without a car.

Smallest first. Check the current timetable before you commit an itinerary to any of them; a station on the map is a fact, a convenient departure time is a hope.

  1. 1.Monteviasco12 residentsVarese · LombardyA near-abandoned mountain frazione of Curiglia con Monteviasco at 928 metres above the Veddasca valley — historically reached only by an aerial cable-car since 1989 (since suspended) or a 1,400-step stone staircase, with permanent population in the single digits.
  2. 2.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.
  3. 3.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.
  4. 4.Anversa degli Abruzzi312 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 604 meters above the Sagittario Gorges, the cliff village where D'Annunzio set La Fiaccola sotto il moggio in 1905.
  5. 5.Vallo di Nera345 residentsPerugia · UmbriaCastle village of 345 people at 467 meters in the upper Valnerina, granted by Spoleto in 1217 and barely changed since.

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  1. 6.Belgirate473 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA small Lake Maggiore village at 199 meters whose Chiesa Vecchia di Santa Maria has held its 11th-century Romanesque bell tower for nine hundred years.
  2. 7.Goriano Sicoli511 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 720 meters in the Subequana valley, the medieval village M.C. Escher drew in 1929 and a May ritual the folklorists trace to Demeter.
  3. 8.Verduno567 residentsCuneo · PiedmontA Langhe hilltop at 381 meters on the northwestern edge of the Barolo DOCG, the home village of the Pelaverga grape.
  4. 9.Framura577 residentsLa Spezia · LiguriaFive hamlets between sea level and 300 meters on the Riviera di Levante, with Byzantine watchtowers built against Saracen incursions.
  5. 10.Roccacasale597 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA village of 597 on the slopes of Monte Morrone, under the ruins of a Cantelmo-De Sanctis castle blown up by Napoleon's army in 1803.

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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