Calabria · Cosenza
Cariati
A walled Ionian fishing town on the Saracen Coast, its ramparts among the most intact in southern Italy.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Cariati is on our list
It holds Bandiera Blu and Spighe Verdi.
Subscribe and you get Cariati's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 3 h 30 min from Salerno
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 7,590
- J14°
- F15°
- M16°
- A19°
- M24°
- J30°
- J33°
- A32°
- S28°
- O23°
- N19°
- D15°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 28° and coldest in February at 15°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Cariati stretches along the Ionian coast of northern Calabria, sixty-five kilometers east of Cosenza, split between the hill town above the sea and the marina below. The Bretti settled the territory in the fourth and third centuries BC and a Roman foundation called Paternum followed. Saracen raids and malaria forced the inhabitants up the hill in the early Middle Ages, where the present town took shape under Byzantine fortification: the wall that still rings the upper settlement dates from this period of retreat.
The cathedral sits inside those walls, a medieval foundation carried forward in a nineteenth-century neoclassical rebuilding, its dome visible from the road along the coast. Below, the marina holds the beach and the harbor, its territory also recognized with a Spighe Verdi designation, and in summer the working fleet's catch is grilled the length of the lungomare during the Sagra del Pesce Azzurro. The town's shape, an upper refuge and a lower shore settlement, still reads as the direct outcome of that flight from raiders and fever centuries ago.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 2 h 37 min by car.
Bari (BRI) is about 3 h 41 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 3 h 30 min, Bari 3 h 35 min or Naples 4 h 13 min.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Mura medievali
Eight massive towers punctuate the circuit, its stone faces worn but continuous, and Porta Pia still stands as the principal gate into the upper town.
Cattedrale di San Michele Arcangelo
Medieval foundation rebuilt in the nineteenth century in neoclassical style, with a painted majolica dome visible from the coast road.
Cariati Superiore
The walled medieval town on the hill above the sea, the original settlement that grew after the abandonment of the Roman Paternum.
Cariati Marina
Sandy Ionian beach holding the Bandiera Blu, with a wide lungomare and the working fishing harbor at its center.
Living here
Could you live here?
Cariati meets all 3 of our rules for a small town.
- 7,590 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Corigliano-Rossano, a city of 74,332, is 51 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
- A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the center.
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 7,590, down 9.4% since 2015
- Nearest city Corigliano-Rossano, 51 min drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest national health service hospital Corigliano-Rossano, 36 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €670 to €1,000 per m² to buy, €2.60 to €3.80 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: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 53% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Crotone airport (CRV), 1 h 9 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 2 h 7 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
9% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Ukraine, against 9% across Italy. 17 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany. There are 194 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 58% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Cosenza province ranks 100th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Corigliano-Rossano, 36 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Cosenza, 63 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 347 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 150 km away.
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 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 Calabria spends about €1,620 a month, €590 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €398 a year for water, on the Calabria average. In Cosenza, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.20 and a man's haircut €20.91.
Climate and risk
26% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 28% in a high or medium one. 1% 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.
Known for
MEDIEVAL WALLS
Kilometer-long city wall with eight towers and Porta Pia, among the most intact medieval fortifications in southern Italy.
PESCE AZZURRO
The summer Sagra del Pesce Azzurro celebrates the working fleet, with anchovies and sardines grilled along the lungomare.
SARACEN COAST
Bandiera Blu beach on the Costa dei Saraceni, the central stretch of the northern Calabrian Ionian shore.
PROTECTED PRODUCTS
The commune lies inside the Pecorino Crotonese DOP and Clementine di Calabria IGP production zones.
Common questions
- What is Cariati known for?
- Cariati is a walled Ionian fishing town on the Saracen Coast, its ramparts among the most intact in southern Italy.
- Where is Cariati?
- Cariati is a comune in the province of Cosenza, in Calabria, at 76 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Cariati?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Crotone (CRV), about 1 h 9 min by car.
- Can you get to Cariati without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Cariati?
- About 3 h 30 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Cariati?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 33 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Cariati?
- Trebisacce, Soverato and Maruggio.
- How many people live in Cariati?
- 7,590 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Cariati a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Cariati is a small town that meets all 3 of our rules. The nearest city, Corigliano-Rossano, is 51 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Corigliano-Rossano, 36 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 53% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 76 m
- Population: 7,590
- Surface area: 28.82 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 Cariati appears in
- The best hidden towns you can reach by train in the province of CosenzaCosenza provinceby trainhidden7 towns · smallest 1,533 residents
- The 10 best coastal towns in the province of CosenzaCosenza provincecoastal10 towns · smallest 1,883 residents
- The best hidden beach towns in CalabriaCalabriaclean beachhidden10 towns · smallest 1,281 residents
Similar
Towns like Cariati
What all six share with Cariati: between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Trebisacce
Province: Cosenza
both on the Ionian coast · both near sea level
Soverato
Province: Catanzaro
both on the Ionian coast · both near sea level
Maruggio
Province: Taranto
both on the Ionian coast · both near sea level
Rocca Imperiale
Province: Cosenza
both on the Ionian coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Nova Siri
Province: Matera
both on the Ionian coast · both have a railway station in the comune
Rosolina
Province: Rovigo
both near sea level · both have a railway station in the comune
The letter
Cariati is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Cariati comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 494 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.