Compound
The towns under 1,000 people, above 500 meters, with a train station
Three filters at once: fewer than 1,000 residents, 500 meters or higher, an active railway station. The catalogue holds 7 such towns, all shown.
Table no. 48 · Ranked by residents · 7 towns
Three filters, applied at once, that almost nothing survives: fewer than a thousand residents, five hundred meters of altitude, a working railway station. The catalogue holds only a handful of such towns.
They exist mostly where mountain lines were built through country that later emptied. The train arrives anyway, which is the whole romance of them.
- 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.Anversa degli Abruzzi312 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 604 meters above the Sagittario Gorges, a cliff village built around a Norman castle rebuilt by the Counts of Sangro.
- 3.Goriano Sicoli511 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 720 meters in the Subequana valley, a medieval village drawn by M.C. Escher in 1929 keeps a May ritual folklorists trace to Demeter.
- 4.Campo di Giove748 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 1,064 meters under the southwestern Maiella, the highest village in the park, named for a Roman temple to Jupiter.
- 5.Sadali837 residentsSud Sardegna · SardiniaA Barbagia di Seulo borgo at 750 meters with the only waterfall in Sardegna that drops through the inhabited centre.
- 6.Civita d'Antino913 residentsL'Aquila · AbruzzoAt 904 meters above the Roveto valley, the ancient Marsi town that became a Danish painters' colony from 1883 until the 1915 earthquake.
- 7.Glurns937 residentsBolzano · Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
FOUR OF THE TOP SEVEN ARE IN ABRUZZO
The slow-trip planner
Plan a slow trip across the towns travelers skip.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Every Sunday we send one letter. The week's town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.
Keep browsing
