Molise · Campobasso
Ripalimosani
A sandstone-ridge village at 640 meters above the Biferno valley, the historic land of the funai rope makers and a Tintilia wine commune.
Known for
FUNAI
Historic rope-maker town: between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a small industry of hemp cordage worked the ridge.
TINTILIA
One of the surviving Molise communes for Tintilia, the region's only indigenous red grape, DOC since 2011.
CONVENTO CELESTINO
Celestine convent on the edge of the borgo, the local trace of Pope Celestine V's hermit order in inner Molise.
When to visit
Best · May–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: Michele, 29 September
Why come
Ripalimosani sits at 640 meters on a sandstone ridge above the Biferno valley, six kilometers north of Campobasso. The village is historically defined as la terra dei funai, the land of the rope makers: between the nineteenth century and the early twentieth a small industry of hemp cordage flourished here, the long ropewalks laid out along the ridge above the valley. The Tintilia grape, the only indigenous red grape of Molise and a DOC since 2011, has its surviving vineyards in the hills around Campobasso, Ferrazzano, Cercemaggiore and Ripalimosani; one of the region's organic Tintilia producers, Agricola Vinica, works the slopes below the village.
The centro storico is stone, the mother church is Santa Maria Assunta, and the Convento di San Pietro Celestino sits on the edge of the borgo. Ripalimosani holds Borghi Autentici and Città del Vino at once, a combination it shares with few of its size in Molise.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Ripalimosani’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
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What to see
Centro storico
Stone village on a sandstone ridge above the Biferno, with the historic ropewalks of the funai still legible in the long, narrow back streets.
Chiesa Madre Santa Maria Assunta
Mother church of the village, central piazza, the historic parish around which the borgo grew through the nineteenth century.
Convento di San Pietro Celestino
Celestine convent on the edge of the borgo, named for the hermit pope and a quiet survival of the order's Molise presence.
Vigne di Tintilia
Surviving vineyards of Molise's only indigenous red grape, worked on the slopes below the village by organic producer Agricola Vinica.
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Living here
- Population 3,019
- Commuter belti
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest airport Naples / Salerno, 2 h 29 min drive
- Regional capital Campobasso, 13 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 640 m
- Population: 3,019
- Surface area: 33.83 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
More towns near Ripalimosani
Campobasso
Province: Campobasso
Molise's regional capital and the smallest in Italy — 47,000 residents at 701m on a wooded Apennine ridge, with the Castello Monforte on the summit, the Sagra dei Misteri (a UNESCO-recognised Corpus Domini procession of 24 child-borne aerial 'mysteries' since 1740), and a centro storico that climbs the hillside in stone-paved switchbacks.
Ferrazzano
Province: Campobasso
A hilltop borgo at 872 meters above Campobasso, called the Sentinel of Molise, where Robert De Niro's great-grandparents lived before sailing in 1887.
Oratino
Province: Campobasso
A stonemason borgo at 780 meters above the Biferno, with a square tower on a limestone spur that an earthquake in 1456 left standing alone.
Civitacampomarano
Province: Campobasso
The 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.
Sepino
Province: Campobasso
A hilltop borgo at 698 meters at the foot of the Matese, two kilometers above the Roman Saepinum, the open-air city the sheep tracks built.
💎 Borghi Autentici
More Borghi Autentici towns in Molise
Capracotta
Province: Isernia
At 1,421 meters the second-highest commune in central Italy, holder of the world record for snowfall in 24 hours: 2.56 meters on 5 March 2015.
Castel del Giudice
Province: Isernia
Italy'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.
Macchiagodena
Province: Isernia
Molise's white truffle capital — a 1,648-resident hilltop borgo at 868m in the Apennine middle Molise, with the Castello dei Pignatelli on the summit, intact medieval streets, and 30+ active truffle hunters working the surrounding oak forests with the local Molise white truffle harvest October-December.
Pescopennataro
Province: Isernia
An Alto Molise stone village at 1,190 meters, the paese della pietra e degli abeti, above a rare high-altitude white-fir forest.
Pizzone
Province: Isernia
A 313-person Mainarde village at 724 meters in the Molise sector of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, above the Volturno springs.