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Train

The 10 highest towns with a train station

Comuni with an active railway station, ranked by elevation. 10 towns shown, highest first.

Rail and altitude rarely agree. Where they do, the engineering is usually Habsburg or heroic, and the ride in is half the reason to go. These are the highest comuni in the catalogue that keep an active station.

Ranked by elevation. The upper entries sit on the great alpine lines, which run in winter too, when the roads up have other ideas.

  1. 1.Toblach1,256 mBolzano · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolThe Val Pusteria gateway to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, where Mahler wrote his last three symphonies in a cabin behind town.
  2. 2.Roccaraso1,236 mL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,236 meters in the Alto Sangro, the south of Italy's largest ski resort, leveled by the Gustav Line in 1943 and rebuilt from rubble.
  3. 3.Innichen1,175 mBolzano · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolAn Alta Pusteria town at 1,175 metres on the Austrian border, with the most important Romanesque church in the Eastern Alps and the Drei Zinnen rising thirty kilometres south.
  4. 4.Campo di Giove1,064 mL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,064 meters under the southwestern Maiella, the highest village in the park, named for a Roman temple to Jupiter.
  5. 5.San Giovanni in Fiore1,049 mCosenza · CalabriaThe capital of the Sila Grande at 1,049 meters, grown from the abbey Gioacchino da Fiore founded in 1188, Italy's most populated commune above a thousand.

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  1. 6.Limone Piemonte1,000 mCuneo · PiedmontA ski village at 1,000 meters in the Vermenagna valley, the southern end of the Alps where the Tenda tunnel drops toward the Côte d'Azur.
  2. 7.Petralia Sottana1,000 mPalermo · SicilyA Madonie village at 1,000 meters, the only Bandiera Arancione in Sicily, and the headquarters of the Parco delle Madonie.
  3. 8.Sante Marie950 mL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 950-meter Marsica village and the trailhead of the Cammino dei Briganti, the seven-day brigand trail through the Cartore band's territory.
  4. 9.Sterzing948 mBolzano · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA bilingual mining town at 948 metres on the Brenner road, where a 46-metre tower built in 1472 still divides the old town from the new.
  5. 10.Monteviasco928 mVarese · 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.

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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