Lazio · Roma
Canale Monterano
A hilltop village next to the burned ghost town of Monterano, where a roofless Baroque church and fountain still stand.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Canale Monterano is on our list
It holds Spighe Verdi and Città del Pane.
The nearest town with a letter is Capranica, No. 64, 15 km away.
Subscribe and you get Canale Monterano's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 10 min from Rome
- Population
- 4,154
- J11°
- F14°
- M14°
- A17°
- M22°
- J27°
- J31°
- A31°
- S26°
- O21°
- N16°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Canale Monterano sits on a tuff hill forty-five kilometers northwest of Rome, between the Bracciano basin and the Tolfa hills. The inhabited town is small, four thousand residents, built around a working bakery tradition. Two kilometers away, on a separate tuff bluff above the confluence of the Mignone and Bicione rivers, is the reason most people make the trip: the ghost town, set on the far side of a valley the living town does not touch.
The relationship between the two places is one of distance and separation rather than continuity. Canale Monterano went on being a town; the settlement on the bluff did not, and the two kilometers between them mark the difference between a place that was rebuilt after the fire and one that never was. What is left on the bluff is masonry with the roofs and interiors gone, watched over from its highest point by the palace facade, with the fountain still running below in an otherwise empty piazza. The regional reserve now holds the whole valley, ruin and river system together, so that the abandoned village survives inside protected land rather than beside a working one.
How to get there
From Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 58 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h 14 min away.
By car from the center of Perugia 2 h 27 min or Siena 2 h 59 min.
Coming by train into Roma Termini? Canale Monterano is about 1 h 11 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Rome Fiumicino airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Ruderi di Monterano
Ghost town two kilometers from Canale, burned by French Republican troops in 1799, never rebuilt; now the centerpiece of the regional reserve.
Chiesa e Convento di San Bonaventura
Roofless, facing an open sky where the roof beams once sat. The façade and convent block still stand at the edge of the ruined village, built for the Altieri family by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Fontana Ottagonale del Leone
Still flowing through the stone lion's mouth in the middle of an otherwise empty piazza, the only thing in the ghost town that still functions as built.
Palazzo Baronale Altieri
The facade rises straight from the cliff edge of the tuff plateau, at the highest point of the ruin, overlooking the rest of the abandoned village below.
Riserva Naturale Regionale di Monterano
Protected area covering 1,084 hectares of tuff valleys, sulphurous springs, woods, and the river system of the Mignone and Bicione.
Living here
Could you live here?
Canale Monterano is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 4,154, with Manziana (7,746 people) 11 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Civitavecchia, a city of 51,582, is 45 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
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 4,154, down 2.9% since 2015
- Nearest city Civitavecchia, 45 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Bracciano, 7 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €900 to €1,300 per m² to buy, €4.30 to €6.00 per m² a month to rent
Weighing a move here? See the moving year.
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 83% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Rome Fiumicino airport (FCO), 58 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Rome, 1 h 10 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
6% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Sri Lanka and Albania, against 9% across Italy. 25 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France and the United Kingdom. There are 235 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 23% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Rome province ranks 46th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Bracciano, 7 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Rome, 41 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Rome, 41 km away. The nearest IB school is Institut Saint-Dominique, 31 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% 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. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Lazio spends about €2,270 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €647 a year for water, on the Lazio average. In Rome, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.21, a meal in a pizzeria €11.54 and a man's haircut €17.23.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 12% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
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.
Thermal baths in town: Solfatara Diosilla, Terme di Stigliano, Solfatara vecchia.
Known for
GHOST TOWN
The abandoned village of Monterano, burned in 1799 by French Republican troops and never rebuilt; used as a filming location since the 1960s.
BERNINI
The Chiesa di San Bonaventura, the octagonal fountain, and the baronial palace façade in Monterano are all attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
PANE CASARECCIO
Local bread tradition that earned the Città del Pane designation, with wood-oven loaves baked daily in the working town two kilometers from the ruins.
NOCCIOLA ROMANA
The commune lies inside the Nocciola Romana DOP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Canale Monterano known for?
- Canale Monterano is a hilltop village next to the burned ghost town of Monterano, where a roofless Baroque church and fountain still stand.
- Where is Canale Monterano?
- Canale Monterano is a comune in the province of Roma, in Lazio, at 376 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Canale Monterano?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 58 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Perugia to Canale Monterano?
- About 2 h 27 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Canale Monterano?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and December the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Canale Monterano?
- Oriolo Romano, Subiaco and Pitigliano.
- How many people live in Canale Monterano?
- 4,154 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Canale Monterano a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Canale Monterano is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Manziana, 11 min). The nearest city, Civitavecchia, is 45 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Bracciano, 7 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 83% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 376 m
- Population: 4,154
- Surface area: 36.92 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.
The ranked lists
Lists Canale Monterano appears in
- The best hot-spring towns within two hours of RomeNear Romehot springswithin 2 hours6 towns · smallest 1,396 residents · closest 31 min away
- The best hill towns in the province of RomaRoma provincehill town7 towns · smallest 217 residents
- The 9 best hidden hill towns within 90 minutes of RomeNear Romehill townwithin 90 minhidden9 towns · smallest 217 residents · closest 37 min away
- The best towns known for what they grow within 75 minutes of RomeNear Romewithin 75 minproduce zone10 towns · smallest 902 residents · closest 31 min away
Near here, with a letter
- Written about. No. 64.
Capranica
Province: Viterbo
A medieval hill town on the old Via Cassia, taken by the Anguillara family in 1305 and remembered as the place Petrarch stayed in 1337.
15 km away
- Written about. No. 67.
Cerveteri
Province: Roma
An Etruscan capital seven kilometers inland from the Tyrrhenian coast, with the Banditaccia necropolis holding 1,000 tombs in the largest ancient cemetery in the Mediterranean.
15 km away
- Written about. No. 58.
Ronciglione
Province: Viterbo
A tufa-brick borgo above Lake Vico, fortified by the Prefects of Vico and crowned Borgo dei Borghi in 2023.
19 km away
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 19 km away
Tuscia: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Tuscia guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: The land Rome took twice. 16 towns, the drive and train times, the months, where to eat and sleep.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.