Islands
Italy's island towns
Italian towns reachable only by ferry: the islands. 18 towns shown, drawn from our ferry-only routing list (Pontine, Tremiti, Ischia, Capri, Aeolian, Egadi, Pelagie, Tuscan archipelago, and the Sardinian small islands).
Table no. 3 · Ranked by residents · 18 towns
A ferry ticket is a filter. It removes the day-trip crowd, the coach tours, and everyone whose itinerary cannot absorb a missed sailing. What remains on the far side of the crossing are these comuni, from the Tremiti to the Pelagie.
Island time is real and administratively enforced: shops close when the last boat leaves, restaurants cook what the morning boat brought. Book the return leg loosely and let the schedule win.
- 1.Anacapri6,835 residentsNapoli · CampaniaThe upper half of Capri, 150 meters above its famous twin.
- 2.Calasetta2,775 residentsSud Sardegna · SardiniaThe Ligurian town founded by Tabarka exiles in 1770 on the northwest tip of Sant'Antioco, where Tabarchino is still spoken in the streets.
- 3.Capraia Isola370 residentsLivorno · Tuscany
- 4.Capri6,804 residentsNapoli · CampaniaThe 142-meter Tyrrhenian island town where Tiberius governed Rome for a decade from twelve villas above limestone cliffs.
- 5.Carloforte5,925 residentsSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Ligurian-speaking fishing town on the Isola di San Pietro, founded in 1738 by coral fishers returning from Tunisian Tabarka.
- 6.Casamicciola Terme7,614 residentsNapoli · CampaniaIschia's thermal town on the flank of Monte Epomeo, levelled by the 1883 earthquake and again in 2017, rebuilt on the Gurgitello springs.
- 7.Favignana4,525 residentsTrapani · SicilyThe largest of the Egadi Islands off western Sicily, ringed by calcarenite cliffs and flooded quarries in place of beaches, with a 19th-century tuna fishery at its center.
- 8.Forio17,437 residentsNapoli · CampaniaThe largest Ischia commune by area, a Tyrrhenian coastal town facing the island's only sunset.
- 9.Isola del Giglio1,330 residentsGrosseto · TuscanyA granite island in the Tyrrhenian Archipelago, walled village on the ridge, port below, where the Costa Concordia ran aground in January 2012.
- 10.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.
FOUR OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN CAMPANIA
- 11.La Maddalena10,592 residents · SASSARI
- 12.Lampedusa e Linosa6,505 residents · AGRIGENTO
- 13.Lipari12,565 residents · MESSINA
- 14.Pantelleria7,352 residents · TRAPANI
- 15.Ponza3,289 residents · LATINA
- 16.Procida10,092 residents · NAPOLI
- 17.Ustica1,311 residents · PALERMO
- 18.Ventotene704 residents · LATINA
The slow-trip planner
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