Elevation
Italy's highest towns
Ten towns at the top of the list: what each is best for, what a home costs, and the catch. A square meter runs from €620 in Capracotta to €8,400 in Livigno.
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 · LombardiaBest for walks in a national park. Part of the comune lies in a national park.2 h 32 min from Bolzano · homes €7,000 to €8,400 a m² in the center · 6,726 peopleAt 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.The catch: The nearest airport, Milan Bergamo, is 3 h 20 min away by road.
- 2.Ayas1,710 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyBest for a small town. 1,358 people live here.1 h 38 min from Turin · homes €3,800 to €5,600 a m² in the center · 1,358 peopleA scattered upper-valley commune of three villages, where Walser settlers and Romance-speaking herders share the slopes below Castor and Pollux.The catch: January nights average 8 degrees below zero.
- 3.Corvara in Badia1,568 mBolzano · Trentino-Alto AdigeBest for a small town. 1,446 people live here.1 h 15 min from Bolzano · homes €4,200 to €8,300 a m² in the center · 1,446 peopleThe Ladin center of Alta Badia at 1,568 meters, at the foot of the Sassongher, on the four-pass Sellaronda ski circuit.The catch: January nights average 10 degrees below zero.
- 4.Madesimo1,550 mSondrio · LombardiaBest for a long lunch. A food guide lists Il Cantinone here.2 h 10 min from Monza · homes €3,800 to €4,600 a m² in the center · 507 peopleA ski village at 1,550 meters at the head of Valle Spluga, with lifts to 2,880 meters and the Canalone, an off-piste descent counted among the most demanding in the Alps.The catch: January nights average 9 degrees below zero.
- 5.Cogne1,534 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyBest for everyday life on foot. Eight of the ten everyday services we look for are mapped within 500 meters of the center.2 h 1 min from Turin · homes €2,400 to €3,500 a m² in the center · 1,327 peopleThe 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.The catch: January nights average 7 degrees below zero.
- 6.Valtournenche1,524 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyBest for a long lunch. Food guides list three tables here.1 h 34 min from Turin · homes €2,600 to €3,900 a m² in the center · 2,189 peopleThe valley under the Cervino, home of the guides who raced Whymper up the mountain in 1865.The catch: January nights average 6 degrees below zero.
- 7.Canazei1,465 mTrento · Trentino-Alto AdigeBest for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.1 h 4 min from Bolzano · homes €4,400 to €5,300 a m² in the center · 1,915 peopleA Ladin village at 1,465 meters at the head of Val di Fassa, ringed by Marmolada, Sella and Sassolungo and the Sellaronda circuit.The catch: The nearest airport, Venice Marco Polo, is 2 h 35 min away by road.
- 8.La Thuile1,441 mAosta Valley · Aosta ValleyBest for a ski week. There is a mapped ski area in the comune.2 h 10 min from Turin · homes €3,800 to €5,500 a m² in the center · 774 peopleItaly'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.The catch: January nights average 8 degrees below zero.
- 9.Capracotta1,421 mIsernia · Molise1 h 55 min from Pescara · homes €620 to €930 a m² in the center · 749 peopleAt 1,421 meters one of the highest communes of the Apennines, where a reported 2.56 meters of snow fell in about 18 hours in March 2015.The catch: It has lost 18% of its people since 2015.
- 10.Usseaux1,416 mTorino · PiemonteBest for a slow weekend. The Touring Club gives it its orange flag for small inland towns.1 h 32 min from Turin · homes €680 to €1,000 a m² in the center · 174 peopleA Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.The catch: January nights average 7 degrees below zero.
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.Troina1,121 m · ENNA
- 43.Cappadocia1,102 m · L'AQUILA
- 44.Pietrapertosa1,088 m · POTENZA
- 45.Geraci Siculo1,077 m · PALERMO
- 46.Castelvecchio Calvisio1,067 m · L'AQUILA
- 47.Barrea1,066 m · L'AQUILA
- 48.Campo di Giove1,064 m · L'AQUILA
- 49.Kastelruth1,060 m · BOLZANO
- 50.Scanno1,057 m · L'AQUILA
- 51.San Giovanni in Fiore1,049 m · COSENZA
- 52.Alessandria del Carretto1,043 m · COSENZA
- 53.Andalo1,042 m · TRENTO
- 54.Scontrone1,038 m · L'AQUILA
- 55.Sestola1,020 m · MODENA
- 56.Santo Stefano d'Aveto1,012 m · GENOVA
- 57.Gangi1,011 m · PALERMO
- 58.San Vito di Cadore1,011 m · BELLUNO
- 59.Pietracamela1,005 m · TERAMO
- 60.Ossana1,003 m · TRENTO
We write letters from the Italian towns we visit: the town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
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