Puglia · Foggia
Celle di San Vito
The smallest commune in Puglia, 142 residents at 726 meters, one of two Franco-Provençal-speaking villages in the south.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Celle di San Vito is on our list
It holds Borghi Autentici.
Subscribe and you get Celle di San Vito's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 2 h 6 min from Salerno
- Population
- 142
- J8°
- F10°
- M11°
- A14°
- M19°
- J26°
- J30°
- A29°
- S24°
- O19°
- N13°
- D10°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The commune sits in the Subappennino chain on the Campania border, fifty kilometers west of Foggia, in the Monti Dauni. Its name comes from a cenobium founded on the mountain above by Benedictine monks as a summer cell, and the settlement below grew up around it. The village lost its autonomy to the Barony of Val Maggiore in 1440 and did not recover it until the early nineteenth century, with the abolition of feudal rights.
Three kilometers up the ridge sits Faeto, the only other Franco-Provençal-speaking village in the south. The two share a dialect, Faetar-Cigliàje, descended from colonists that Charles I of Anjou settled in the Daunia after 1266, and both are recognized as a linguistic minority under Italian law 482 of 1999. A mountain cell that gave a village its name, a dialect that outlasted the empire that planted it, and a population still shrinking below the smallest count in the region: the isolation that preserved the language is the same isolation now emptying the village of speakers.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 2 h 8 min by car.
Bari (BRI) is about 2 h 12 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 2 h 6 min, Naples 2 h 12 min or Bari 2 h 16 min.
Coming by train into Foggia? Celle di San Vito is about 52 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Centro storico
A handful of streets organized around the parish church, stone construction on the ridge, said to be the smallest centro storico in Puglia.
Chiesa Madre di Sant'Andrea Apostolo
Parish church on the upper edge of the village, the religious anchor of the community, with Franco-Provençal hymns sung at festa.
Belvedere sui Monti Dauni
Panoramic edge of the village looking out over the Daunia ridges toward Roseto and Campania, beech and oak forest in every direction.
Living here
Could you live here?
Celle di San Vito is at the end of the road.
- A village of 142. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Troia, is 29 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Foggia, a city of 145,198, is 55 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 142, down 15% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Foggia, 55 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Ariano Irpino, 18 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €300 to €450 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
- Remote
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 99% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 2 h 8 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bari, 2 h 16 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
4% of residents are foreign citizens, against 9% across Italy. There are 347 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 60% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Foggia province ranks 98th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Ariano Irpino, 18 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Foggia, 37 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Benevento, 39 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 232 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is École Francaise de Naples Alexandre-Dumas, 97 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.86% 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 nothing 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 Puglia spends about €1,500 a month, €440 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €545 a year for water, on the Puglia average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 97% 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
FRANCO-PROVENÇAL
With Faeto, the only Franco-Provençal linguistic minority in southern Italy, fewer than 1,400 speakers of the Faetar dialect worldwide.
SMALLEST IN PUGLIA
142 residents in 2025, the least populated commune in the region, founded as an Angevin garrison after the Battle of Benevento in 1266.
MONTI DAUNI
726 meters on the Subappennino ridge, beech and oak forest, the cool counterpart to the Tavoliere plain below.
Common questions
- What is Celle di San Vito known for?
- Celle di San Vito is the smallest commune in Puglia, 142 residents at 726 meters, one of two Franco-Provençal-speaking villages in the south.
- Where is Celle di San Vito?
- Celle di San Vito is a comune in the province of Foggia, in Puglia.
- What is the nearest airport to Celle di San Vito?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 2 h 8 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Celle di San Vito?
- About 2 h 6 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Celle di San Vito?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 30 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Celle di San Vito?
- Faeto, Roseto Valfortore and Pizzone.
- How many people live in Celle di San Vito?
- 142 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Celle di San Vito a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Celle di San Vito is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Troia, is 29 min away. The nearest city, Foggia, is 55 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Ariano Irpino, 18 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 99% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 726 m
- Population: 142
- Surface area: 18.41 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 Celle di San Vito appears in
Similar
Towns like Celle di San Vito
What all six share with Celle di San Vito: mountain-valley towns · under 1,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
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.