Abruzzo · L'Aquila
Calascio
A village of 122 people under the highest castle in the Apennines, cast as the monk's refuge in Ladyhawke.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Calascio is on our list
It holds Borghi Autentici.
Subscribe and you get Calascio's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
- By car
- 1 h 16 min from Pescara
- Population
- 122
- J5°
- F8°
- M8°
- A11°
- M16°
- J22°
- J25°
- A25°
- S20°
- O16°
- N10°
- D7°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Calascio sits at 1,200 meters in the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, the lower stone village where the shepherds who stayed after the transhumance ended made their houses. The fortress above it began around the year 1000 as a watchtower controlling the routes that ran 250 kilometers down from L'Aquila to the Tavoliere delle Puglie, and it was this wool wealth that built the village below. Wool from these flocks was prized enough that the Medici came north to buy it. The upper village beside the castle emptied when the transhumance ended in the 1850s and has been under slow restoration since, stonemasons working with original materials under the Borgo Autentici designation, while the lower village kept its 122 residents and its parish church. From the castle the view runs across Campo Imperatore, the high plateau immediately to the north, toward the Gran Sasso peaks.
The two settlements read as before and after: the upper one preserved in its abandonment, the lower one still lived in because it held the people the transhumance left behind.
How to get there
From Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 2 h 22 min by car.
Ancona (AOI) is about 2 h 54 min away.
By car from the center of Pescara 1 h 16 min or Ancona 2 h 50 min.
Coming by train into Pescara Centrale? Calascio is about 1 h 18 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Rocca Calascio
Highest fortress in the Apennines at 1,460 meters, watchtower for transhumance routes from L'Aquila to Puglia, film location for Ladyhawke and The Name of the Rose.
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pietà
Octagonal Renaissance chapel below the fortress, built on the site of a 1456 battle won by local farmers against bandits, with painted interior.
Borgo di Rocca Calascio
Partly abandoned upper village beside the castle, slowly restored by stonemasons, with the Rifugio della Rocca offering rooms in stone houses.
Centro storico di Calascio
Lower stone village at 1,200 meters, with the parish church of San Nicola di Bari and the houses of the post-transhumance shepherds who stayed.
Campo Imperatore
The high plateau immediately north of Calascio, 27 km long at 1,800 meters average, the largest pasture of central Italy, called Italy's little Tibet.
Living here
Could you live here?
Calascio is at the end of the road.
- A village of 122. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Penne, is 1 h 1 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- L'Aquila, a city of 70,425, is 1 h 3 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 122, down 3.2% since 2015
- Nearest city L'Aquila, 1 h 3 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Popoli Terme, 21 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €580 to €840 per m² to buy, €1.20 to €1.80 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- In-between
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 100% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 1, Italy's highest hazard
- Pescara airport (PSR), 1 h 18 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital L'Aquila, 1 h 3 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
10% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Ukraine, against 9% across Italy. There are 1,000 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 87% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. L'Aquila province ranks 69th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Popoli Terme, 21 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Terni, 90 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in L'Aquila, 24 km away. The nearest IB school is Acorn International School, 110 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is Canadian College Italy, 58 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.96% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Abruzzo spends about €2,120 a month, €540 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €533 a year for water, on the Abruzzo average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. They show no residents in a high landslide zone.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
ROCCA CALASCIO
Highest fortress in the Apennines at 1,460 meters, watchtower for the Abruzzo-Puglia transhumance routes, film set for Ladyhawke and The Name of the Rose.
LADYHAWKE
The 1985 Richard Donner film added crowns to the Rocca's towers; the scene where Michelle Pfeiffer falls was staged on one of them.
TRANSUMANZA
Wool capital under the transhumance, with flocks moved 250 km to Puglia every September; the wealth ended in the 1850s and the population followed.
Common questions
- What is Calascio known for?
- Calascio is a village of 122 people under the highest castle in the Apennines, cast as the monk's refuge in Ladyhawke.
- Where is Calascio?
- Calascio is a comune in the province of L'Aquila, in Abruzzo, at 1200 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Calascio?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Pescara (PSR), about 1 h 18 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Pescara to Calascio?
- About 1 h 16 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Calascio?
- Best in Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. July is the warmest month, averaging 25 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 17 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Calascio?
- Pietracamela, Santo Stefano di Sessanio and Castelvecchio Calvisio.
- How many people live in Calascio?
- 122 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Calascio a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Calascio is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Penne, is 1 h 1 min away. The nearest city, L'Aquila, is 1 h 3 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Popoli Terme, 21 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 100% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 1200 m
- Population: 122
- Surface area: 39.44 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Featured on
Calascio appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Calascio
What all six share with Calascio: high in the mountains · under 1,000 people · mountain towns above 1,000 metres
Pietracamela
Province: Teramo
1 h 45 min apart by road
Santo Stefano di Sessanio
Province: L'Aquila
11 min apart by road
Castelvecchio Calvisio
Province: L'Aquila
4 min apart by road
Castel del Monte
Province: L'Aquila
28 min apart by road
Pescopennataro
Province: Isernia
2 h 17 min apart by road
Usseaux
Province: Torino
The letter
Read a sample letter
Chioggia | Everyone is wrong about this town
It’s not an alternative to Venice
Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.