Population
The 10 smallest Borghi più belli d'Italia
The smallest comuni in the catalogue that hold the Borghi più belli d'Italia recognition. 10 towns shown.
The Borghi più belli d'Italia list certifies beauty. It does not certify visitors, and its smallest members prove the two are separable: recognized, photographed for the association's calendar, and quiet fifty weekends a year.
These are the smallest holders of the recognition in our catalogue. The certification plaque by the town gate is often the newest thing in the town.
- 1.Cornello dei Tasso50 residentsBergamo · LombardyA car-free medieval frazione of Camerata Cornello in the Val Brembana, reachable only on foot, built around the family that ran Europe's first integrated postal network.
- 2.Ostana85 residentsCuneo · PiedmontAn 85-resident Occitan-speaking alpine borgo at 1,280m in the upper Po valley, rebuilt from near-abandonment into an architecturally celebrated mountain village with a direct frontal view of Monviso.
- 3.Bard108 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyA 108-person village under the largest Savoy fortress in the Alps.
- 4.Santo Stefano di Sessanio114 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA Medici outpost at 1,250 meters, restored building by building since 1999 into Italy's first scattered hotel.
- 5.Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena130 residentsSavona · LiguriaA stone village of 130 residents at 420 meters, built into the southern foot of a 1,142-meter limestone outcrop.
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- 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.
- 7.Mombaldone197 residentsAsti · PiedmontA walled village of 197 residents, the only borgo in its area that still holds its full medieval perimeter.
- 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.
- 9.Percile219 residentsRoma · LazioA 219-person medieval borgo at 575 meters, built on a rocky spur with two karst lakes hidden in the woods above it.
- 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.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Pozzuoli
Province: Napoli
A Roman port on a volcanic caldera, the Greek Dicearchia and the Roman Puteoli, where a market's columns first proved that the ground itself rises and falls.
Moena
Province: Trento
The largest village in the valley, Ladin-speaking, dressed in Ottoman costume for three days every August.
Polcenigo
Province: Pordenone
A 40-meter village at the foot of the Carnic Prealps where the Livenza rises, neighbour to the UNESCO Palù pile-dwelling site occupied since 4900 BC.
Pietra Ligure
Province: Savona
A Riviera di Ponente town named after the rock castle above its center, known today for one of the largest triennial flower carpets in Europe.
Ponte di Legno
Province: Brescia
The uppermost commune in the province, 1,257 meters up, where two streams meet under the Adamello range to form a river.