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Population

Italy's smallest comuni

The smallest comuni in our catalogue, ranked by official ISTAT population. 60 towns shown, each under a thousand residents.

ISTAT counts residents, not visitors, and by that count these are the emptiest comuni we cover. Some are alpine villages that lost their young to the valley factories two generations ago. Some are hill towns that never had more than a few hundred people to begin with.

Small does not mean abandoned. Every town on this list still has a municipal government, a church that opens for the festa, and someone who unlocks the bar in the morning. What it lacks is crowd, and that is the point of coming.

  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.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.
  3. 3.Montelapiano75 residentsChieti · AbruzzoAt 740 meters on a limestone marl ridge, the smallest non-Alpine comune in Italy with 67 residents and a view straight onto Lake Bomba.
  4. 4.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.
  5. 5.Monteferrante106 residentsChieti · AbruzzoAt 800 meters on a terrace above the Sangro valley, a 12th-century Caracciolo feud of 106 people facing Lake Bomba and the Maiella.

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  1. 6.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.
  2. 7.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.
  3. 8.Castelvecchio Calvisio118 residentsL'Aquila · Abruzzo118 people at 1,067 meters on a ridge above the Tirino, inside a fortified ellipse of stone walls with alleys orthogonal to its perimeter.
  4. 9.Calascio125 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,200 meters under the highest castle in the Apennines, a village of 125 people that played the monk's refuge in Ladyhawke.
  5. 10.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.
  6. 11.Celle di San Vito148 residentsFoggia · ApuliaThe smallest commune in Puglia, 148 residents at 726 meters in the Monti Dauni, one of two Franco-Provençal-speaking villages in the south.
  7. 12.Usseaux175 residentsTorino · PiedmontA Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
  8. 13.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.
  9. 14.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.
  10. 15.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.
  11. 16.Pescopennataro239 residentsIsernia · MoliseAn Alto Molise stone village at 1,190 meters, the paese della pietra e degli abeti, above a rare high-altitude white-fir forest.
  12. 17.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.
  13. 18.Montesegale258 residentsPavia · LombardyA 258-person hill village at 400 meters in the Oltrepò Pavese, built around the Gambarana castle that today holds a contemporary art collection.
  14. 19.Castel di Tora266 residentsRieti · LazioA village of 266 on Lago del Turano at 607 meters, with an eleventh-century polygonal tower and a ghost promontory called Antuni.
  15. 20.Luserna267 residentsTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA Cimbrian island at 1,333 metres on the Alpe Cimbra plateau, the last village in Italy where the medieval Bavarian dialect is still spoken at home.
  16. 21.Ronco Canavese271 residentsTorino · PiedmontA 271-inhabitant Francoprovenzale village at 956 meters in the Valle Soana, on the Piemonte side of the Gran Paradiso National Park.
  17. 22.Seborga276 residentsImperia · LiguriaA hilltop village at 517 meters above Bordighera that calls itself a principality, 276 residents, its own coins and stamps since 1963.
  18. 23.Zuccarello280 residentsSavona · LiguriaA 280-person medieval borgo in the Neva valley above Albenga, founded by the Marquises of Clavesana in 1248, birthplace of Ilaria del Carretto.
  19. 24.Civitella Alfedena285 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,123 meters above Lake Barrea, 285 residents, the trailhead for the Camosciara reserve and home of the Apennine Wolf Museum.
  20. 25.Civitacampomarano302 residentsCampobasso · MoliseThe Molisan ghost-borgo that became Italy's most ambitious street-art village — 302 residents and 30+ large-format murals by international artists (Bifido, Hitnes, Alice Pasquini, Borondo, Vesod) painted across the abandoned house-walls of the centro storico during the annual CVTà Street Fest since 2016, anchored by the 11th-c Castello Angioino on a tufa spur.
  21. 26.Capranica Prenestina306 residentsRoma · LazioA 915-meter ridge village on the Monti Prenestini east of Rome, with the Mentorella sanctuary at 1,018 meters above the Giovenzano valley.
  22. 27.Castel del Giudice308 residentsIsernia · MoliseItaly's most-cited Apennine reinvention case study — a 308-resident Alto Molise borgo at 800m that rebuilt its abandoned schoolhouse as a 30-room albergo diffuso, recovered 5,000 ancient apple trees into a recognised organic-orchard cooperative, and became the template Comuni Virtuosi cite when explaining how depopulated villages can self-sustain.
  23. 28.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.
  24. 29.Pizzone313 residentsIsernia · MoliseA 313-person Mainarde village at 724 meters in the Molise sector of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, above the Volturno springs.
  25. 30.Monte Rinaldo317 residentsFermo · MarcheA 317-resident village on a 478-meter ridge of the Aso valley in the Marche interior, anchored by the 1st-century BC Roman sanctuary of La Cuma — the largest pre-imperial sanctuary excavated in the central Adriatic.
  26. 31.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.
  27. 32.Labro355 residentsRieti · LazioA 355-person stone borgo at 628 meters above Lake Piediluco, restored since the 1960s by a Belgian architect and his descendants.
  28. 33.PortofinoPortofino355 residentsGenova · LiguriaThree hundred and fifty-five residents, the smallest municipal territory in the metropolitan area, and the harbor every superyacht in the Mediterranean wants to anchor in.
  29. 34.Alessandria del Carretto357 residentsCosenza · CalabriaThe highest village in the Pollino at 1,043 meters, the only Italian commune carrying its founder's full name, with a fir-tree ritual every 3 May.
  30. 35.Fortunago365 residentsPavia · LombardyA 365-resident village on a 482-meter Oltrepò Pavese ridge, with stone façades, porphyry streets and the production zone of Salame di Varzi at its doorstep.
  31. 36.Capraia Isola370 residentsLivorno · TuscanyA volcanic island of 370 residents and one village, the third largest of the Tuscan Archipelago, a penal colony from 1873 to 1986 and a national park since.
  32. 37.Triora373 residentsImperia · LiguriaThe witches' village at 776 meters in the upper Valle Argentina, where the Inquisition put around 200 women on trial between 1587 and 1589.
  33. 38.Sauris389 residentsUdine · Friuli-Venezia GiuliaA 1,212-meter German-speaking island in the Carnic Alps, second-highest commune in Friuli, where Tyrolean settlers founded the village around the thirteenth century.
  34. 39.Collalto Sabino391 residentsRieti · LazioA 980-meter Sabine borgo dominated by a Barberini baronial castle, with a 360-degree panorama from the keep over the Gran Sasso, Terminillo and Maiella.
  35. 40.Orvinio396 residentsRieti · LazioThe highest borgo in the Monti Lucretili park at 840 meters, called Canemorto until 1863 and dominated by the Castello Malvezzi-Campeggi.
  36. 41.Bova416 residentsReggio di Calabria · CalabriaThe capital of the Bovesìa — a 416-resident Aspromonte hilltop borgo at 820m that is the cultural centre of the Grecanic minority, where the Calabrian-Greek dialect (a direct descendant of Byzantine-era Greek) is still spoken by elders, with the triple Borghi più belli + Bandiera Arancione + Parco Nazionale dell'Aspromonte signal.
  37. 42.Fontainemore418 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyA 418-person Walser-influenced village at 760 metres in the Lys Valley, with a single-arch medieval bridge and a five-yearly pilgrimage to Oropa.
  38. 43.Ofena420 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 531-meter Vestian basin called the Forno d'Abruzzo, sealed by the Gran Sasso wall, where Montepulciano ripens on what may be the oldest of its slopes.
  39. 44.Castel del Monte431 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,346 meters under Monte Bolza facing Rocca Calascio, the capital of shepherds, whose wool reached the Medici and whose witches return each August.
  40. 45.Montresta438 residentsOristano · SardiniaA Planargia hill village of 438 people founded in 1746 by Maniot Greek families who left Corsica for new land in Sardinia.
  41. 46.Castel San Vincenzo440 residentsIsernia · MoliseA 749-meter village near the Volturno source, sharing ground with one of medieval Europe's most powerful abbeys and a ninth-century frescoed crypt.
  42. 47.Scheggino446 residentsPerugia · UmbriaTriangular castle village on the banks of the Nera at 280 meters, where the first commercial Italian truffle company was founded in 1928.
  43. 48.Cella Monte465 residentsAlessandria · PiedmontA 465-person Monferrato Casalese borgo at 268 meters built in pietra da cantoni, with infernot cellars listed under the UNESCO Vineyard Landscape.
  44. 49.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.
  45. 50.Fenestrelle476 residentsTorino · PiedmontA Val Chisone village at 1,154 meters below the largest alpine fortress in Europe, three kilometers of stone climbing 650 vertical meters up the ridge.
  46. 51.Etroubles478 residentsAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyA 478-person village at 1,280 metres on the Via Francigena, with an open-air contemporary art museum and the region's first dairy.
  47. 52.Isole Tremiti479 residentsFoggia · ApuliaAn Adriatic archipelago of five islands twenty-two kilometers off the Gargano, the only Italian commune scattered across an open-sea group.
  48. 53.Serralunga di Crea503 residentsAlessandria · PiedmontA Basso Monferrato commune of 503 holding the Sacro Monte di Crea, a UNESCO Sacri Monti site of 23 chapels around an Eusebian sanctuary.
  49. 54.Madesimo507 residentsSondrio · LombardyA ski village at 1,550 meters at the head of Valle Spluga, with lifts to 2,880 meters and the Canalone off-piste descent.
  50. 55.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.
  51. 56.Villalago511 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoA 930-meter village above three lakes, named for the nine that once filled the valley, with a hermit's cave on the water's edge.
  52. 57.Macugnaga514 residentsVerbano-Cusio-Ossola · PiedmontA Walser village at 1,327 meters at the foot of the east wall of Monte Rosa, founded in the 13th century by colonists from Valais.
  53. 58.Moresco516 residentsFermo · MarcheA 516-person hill borgo at 405 meters above the Aso valley, with a 25-meter seven-sided tower unique in Europe.
  54. 59.Guardia Perticara517 residentsPotenza · BasilicataThe stone village at 678 meters above the Sauro valley, rebuilt block by block in Gorgoglione sandstone after the 1980 earthquake.
  55. 60.Serralunga d'Alba527 residentsCuneo · PiedmontA 527-inhabitant Barolo cru village at 414 meters on a Langhe ridge, crowned by a 14th-century French-style donjon castle of the Falletti.

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