Elevation
Italy's highest towns
The highest comuni in our catalogue, ranked by official ISTAT elevation. 60 towns shown, each above 800 m.
Table no. 2 · Ranked by m · 60 towns
Above 800 meters the Italian town changes shape. Streets shorten, walls thicken, the piazza contracts to something you can cross in twenty steps. These are the highest comuni in the catalogue, ranked by the official elevation of the municipal seat.
The height is not scenery, it is history: most of these towns sit where they sit because someone needed to watch a pass, guard a border, or summer the herds. Pack for weather that ignores the season you left at sea level.
- 1.Livigno1,816 mSondrio · LombardyAt 1,816 meters in the Italian Alps near the Swiss border, a duty-free ski valley that drains north into the Black Sea, not the Mediterranean.
- 2.Ayas1,710 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyA scattered upper-valley commune of three villages, where Walser settlers and Romance-speaking herders share the slopes below Castor and Pollux.
- 3.Corvara in Badia1,568 mBolzano · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolThe Ladin centre of Alta Badia at 1,568 metres, at the foot of the Sassongher, on the four-pass Sellaronda ski circuit.
- 4.Madesimo1,550 mSondrio · LombardyA ski village at 1,550 meters at the head of Valle Spluga, with lifts to 2,880 meters and an off-piste descent rated among the hardest marked lines in the Italian Alps.
- 5.Cogne1,534 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyThe mining town turned capital of the Gran Paradiso, the Aosta Valley's largest commune with 95 percent of its land inside Italy's oldest park.
- 6.Valtournenche1,524 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyThe valley under the Cervino, home of the guides who raced Whymper up the mountain in 1865.
- 7.Canazei1,465 mTrento · Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolA Ladin village at 1,465 metres at the head of Val di Fassa, ringed by Marmolada, Sella and Sassolungo and the Sellaronda circuit.
- 8.La Thuile1,441 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyItaly's gateway to the Petit Saint-Bernard pass: a 1,441m alpine village under Mont Blanc, with the Rutor glacier and its tiered waterfalls behind it and a Roman-Salassi history that goes back two millennia.
- 9.Capracotta1,421 mIsernia · MoliseAt 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.
- 10.Usseaux1,416 mTorino · PiedmontA Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
FOUR OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN AOSTA VALLEY
- 11.Pescocostanzo1,395 m · L'AQUILA
- 12.Abetone Cutigliano1,388 m · PISTOIA
- 13.Gressoney-Saint-Jean1,385 m · AOSTA VALLEY
- 14.Ovindoli1,375 m · L'AQUILA
- 15.Castel del Monte1,346 m · L'AQUILA
- 16.Luserna1,333 m · TRENTO
- 17.Macugnaga1,327 m · VERBANO-CUSIO-OSSOLA
- 18.Rivisondoli1,320 m · L'AQUILA
- 19.Ostana1,280 m · CUNEO
- 20.Etroubles1,280 m · AOSTA VALLEY
- 21.Ponte di Legno1,257 m · BRESCIA
- 22.Toblach1,256 m · BOLZANO
- 23.Santo Stefano di Sessanio1,250 m · L'AQUILA
- 24.Sappada1,250 m · UDINE
- 25.Roccaraso1,236 m · L'AQUILA
- 26.St. Ulrich1,236 m · BOLZANO
- 27.Bormio1,225 m · SONDRIO
- 28.Courmayeur1,224 m · AOSTA VALLEY
- 29.Cortina d'Ampezzo1,224 m · BELLUNO
- 30.Sauris1,212 m · UDINE
- 31.Calascio1,200 m · L'AQUILA
- 32.Alagna Valsesia1,191 m · VERCELLI
- 33.Pescopennataro1,190 m · ISERNIA
- 34.Moena1,184 m · TRENTO
- 35.Innichen1,175 m · BOLZANO
- 36.Lavarone1,172 m · TRENTO
- 37.Pescasseroli1,167 m · L'AQUILA
- 38.Fenestrelle1,154 m · TORINO
- 39.Falcade1,148 m · BELLUNO
- 40.Petralia Soprana1,147 m · PALERMO
- 41.Rocca Pietore1,143 m · BELLUNO
- 42.Civitella Alfedena1,123 m · L'AQUILA
- 43.Troina1,121 m · ENNA
- 44.Cappadocia1,102 m · L'AQUILA
- 45.Pietrapertosa1,088 m · POTENZA
- 46.Geraci Siculo1,077 m · PALERMO
- 47.Castelvecchio Calvisio1,067 m · L'AQUILA
- 48.Barrea1,066 m · L'AQUILA
- 49.Campo di Giove1,064 m · L'AQUILA
- 50.Kastelruth1,060 m · BOLZANO
- 51.Scanno1,057 m · L'AQUILA
- 52.San Giovanni in Fiore1,049 m · COSENZA
- 53.Alessandria del Carretto1,043 m · COSENZA
- 54.Andalo1,042 m · TRENTO
- 55.Scontrone1,038 m · L'AQUILA
- 56.Sestola1,020 m · MODENA
- 57.Santo Stefano d'Aveto1,012 m · GENOVA
- 58.Gangi1,011 m · PALERMO
- 59.San Vito di Cadore1,011 m · BELLUNO
- 60.Pietracamela1,005 m · TERAMO
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