Piemonte · Cuneo
Chiusa di Pesio
The valley mouth town at 575 meters where the Pesio leaves the mountains, founded around a Carthusian monastery donated in 1173.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Chiusa di Pesio is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione, Spighe Verdi and Città del Castagno.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 19 min from Turin
- Population
- 3,735
- J7°
- F10°
- M12°
- A16°
- M19°
- J24°
- J28°
- A28°
- S22°
- O17°
- N11°
- D7°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The Valle Pesio runs fifteen kilometers from the town up to the French border, a wedge of the Ligurian Alps whose municipal territory climbs from 575 meters at the village to over 2,600 meters at the ridge. The town exists because of the Certosa: in 1173 the lords of Morozzo donated upper-valley lands to a Carthusian monk named Ulderich from Casale, and the charterhouse that grew from that gift became one of the great spiritual and forestry centers of medieval Piedmont. Lower-valley woods once managed by the order for chestnut production still supply the harvest that keeps the town in the Città del Castagno network today.
The valley reads as a sequence from village to summit: the settlement at the mouth, the monastery upriver at the foot of Monte Mindino, and above both the high ground of the Marguareis, where karst has hollowed the rock into one of the most extensive cave systems in the Western Alps. A wolf pack, the first stable one documented in the Italian Alps, established itself in this same corridor in the mid-1990s. The valley's history and its wildness sit on top of each other rather than side by side, a monastic economy giving way, without displacing it, to a landscape still wild enough for wolves.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 38 min by car.
Genoa (GOA) is about 1 h 50 min away.
By car from the center of Milan 2 h 40 min.
Coming by train into Torino Porta Susa? Chiusa di Pesio is about 1 h 19 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Certosa di Santa Maria in Valle Pesio
Now run by the Missionaries of the Consolata, who took over after the Carthusians left in the eighteenth century, the complex remains the cultural anchor of the upper valley.
Parco Naturale del Marguareis
Protected area of 7,900 hectares in the Ligurian Alps, holding the largest alpine karst system in Piedmont beneath its ridges.
Karst caves of the Marguareis
More than 150 kilometers of explored caves reaching 1,000 meters depth, among the most extensive cave systems in the Western Alps.
Monte Marguareis
The highest peak of the Ligurian Alps, rising above the protected area as the geographical anchor of the village's territory.
Living here
Could you live here?
Chiusa di Pesio is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 3,735, with Peveragno (5,508 people) 10 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Cuneo, a city of 55,751, is 21 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
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.
We measured every town in the region on these rules, by its drive to Turin, the city we moved to: Moving to Turin and Piedmont.
- Population 3,735, up 1.7% since 2015
- Nearest city Cuneo, 21 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Cuneo, 14 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €860 to €1,200 per m² to buy, €3.10 to €4.00 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Fibre to the street cabinet; no full fibre mapped yet
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Cuneo airport (CUF), 39 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Turin, 1 h 19 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
12% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria, against 9% across Italy. 16 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France. There are 234 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 57% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Cuneo province ranks 27th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Cuneo, 14 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest IB school is International School of Turin, 77 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1% 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 0.7% 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 Piemonte spends about €2,240 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €467 a year for water, on the Piemonte average. In Cuneo, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.34 and a meal in a pizzeria €12.38.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. 12% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 15% in a high or medium one. Under 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
CERTOSA DI PESIO
Carthusian monastery founded 1173 after the Morozzo donation, still standing at the foot of Monte Mindino.
THE WOLF PACK
First stable wolf pack documented in the Italian Alps settled in Valle Pesio in the mid-1990s.
CHESTNUTS
Member of Città del Castagno, harvested from the lower-valley woods the Carthusians once managed for the order.
Common questions
- What is Chiusa di Pesio known for?
- Chiusa di Pesio is the valley mouth town at 575 meters where the Pesio leaves the mountains, founded around a Carthusian monastery donated in 1173.
- Where is Chiusa di Pesio?
- Chiusa di Pesio is a comune in the province of Cuneo, in Piemonte.
- What is the nearest airport to Chiusa di Pesio?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Cuneo (CUF), about 39 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Milan to Chiusa di Pesio?
- About 2 h 40 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Chiusa di Pesio?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 15 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Chiusa di Pesio?
- Guarene, Castagnole delle Lanze and Neive.
- How many people live in Chiusa di Pesio?
- 3,735 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Chiusa di Pesio a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Chiusa di Pesio is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Peveragno, 10 min). The nearest city, Cuneo, is 21 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Cuneo, 14 km as the crow flies. Fibre reaches the street cabinets; no full fibre is mapped yet.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 575 m
- Population: 3,735
- Surface area: 95.02 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 Chiusa di Pesio appears in
Similar
Towns like Chiusa di Pesio
What all six share with Chiusa di Pesio: inland, away from the coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · hill towns
The letter
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