Calabria · Catanzaro
Cicala
A village of 841 people at 829 meters, founded in 1616 by farmers asking for land.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Cicala is on our list
It holds Borghi Autentici.
Subscribe and you get Cicala's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 3 h 51 min from Salerno
- Population
- 841
- J9°
- F11°
- M11°
- A14°
- M19°
- J24°
- J28°
- A27°
- S23°
- O19°
- N14°
- D11°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Cicala sits in the Reventino mountain community, in the northern Catanzaro province, on foothills closer in feel to the Sila than to the Catanzaro coast thirty kilometers south. Neolithic finds in the surrounding territory predate the modern village by thousands of years, but the settlement as it stands today dates to when the men of the locality of Trempa di Castagna asked the count for permission to start a hamlet. The new village took his surname, slightly altered, first Cigala and then Cicala.
The commune divides by function more than by geography: the centro storico holds the stone houses and the parish church at its highest point, while the woods on the eastern side supply the chestnuts and grazing that still shape the small economy of agriculture and livestock. The village is part of Borghi Autentici d'Italia. A place whose name records a land grant, whose economy still runs on the woods that grant opened up, and whose recent recognition for dementia care marks one of the few modern additions to an otherwise old and unchanged pattern of life.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 50 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 4 h 36 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 3 h 51 min, Bari 4 h 33 min or Naples 4 h 36 min.
Every town within reach of Lamezia Terme airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Centro storico
Small mountain borgo of stone houses and stepped alleys, largely preserved in its original grid.
Chiesa parrocchiale
Parish church of the village, at the highest point of the centro storico.
Monte Reventino
Mountain rising to 1,417 meters behind the village, the high point of the Reventino range that separates Cicala from the Tyrrhenian.
Sila Piccola foothills
Chestnut and beech woods on the eastern side of the commune, the agricultural and gathering territory of Cicala's residents.
Living here
Could you live here?
Cicala is at the end of the road.
- A village of 841. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Catanzaro, is 35 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Catanzaro, a city of 83,313, is 36 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 841, down 14.1% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Catanzaro, 36 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Soveria Mannelli, 10 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €520 to €620 per m² to buy, €1.80 to €2.10 per m² a month to rent
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 100% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Lamezia Terme airport (SUF), 50 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 36 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
Under 1% of residents are foreign citizens, against 9% across Italy. There are 300 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 55% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Catanzaro province ranks 92nd of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Soveria Mannelli, 10 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Catanzaro, 18 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 290 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 216 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 at the 2025 rate, 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 Catanzaro, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.08, a meal in a pizzeria €10.46 and a man's haircut €15.38.
Climate and risk
1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 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
FOUNDED 1616
The village took its name from Count Cigala, who in 1616 granted land at Trempa di Castagna to local farmers.
DEMENZE
Recognized as a Borgo Amico delle Demenze for the 2018 opening of the Centro Diurno Antonio Doria, an Alzheimer's and Parkinson's day center.
SILA PICCOLA
At 829 meters on the western foothills of the Sila Piccola, with the Reventino range rising directly behind the village.
Common questions
- What is Cicala known for?
- Cicala is a village of 841 people at 829 meters, founded in 1616 by farmers asking for land.
- Where is Cicala?
- Cicala is a comune in the province of Catanzaro, in Calabria.
- What is the nearest airport to Cicala?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 50 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Cicala?
- About 3 h 51 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Cicala?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Cicala?
- Pieve Tesino, Faeto and Monteverde.
- How many people live in Cicala?
- 841 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Cicala a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Cicala is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Catanzaro, is 35 min away. The nearest city, Catanzaro, is 36 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Soveria Mannelli, 10 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 100% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 829 m
- Population: 841
- Surface area: 9.28 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
Cicala appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Cicala
What all six share with Cicala: under 1,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
Pieve Tesino
Province: Trento
both mountain-valley towns
Faeto
Province: Foggia
both mountain-valley towns
Monteverde
Province: Avellino
both mountain-valley towns
Roseto Valfortore
Province: Foggia
both mountain-valley towns
Visso
Province: Macerata
both mountain-valley towns
Bova
Province: Reggio Calabria
3 h 10 min apart by road
The letter
Cicala 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 Cicala comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 497 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.