Emilia-Romagna · Parma
Corniglio
A 690-meter Parma-Apennine commune inside the Tosco-Emiliano park, with a thirteenth-century Rossi castle and the Lagdei plateau above.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Corniglio is on our list.
The nearest town with a letter is Fivizzano, No. 7, 27 km away.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 1 min from Parma
- Population
- 1,772
- J7°
- F10°
- M11°
- A14°
- M18°
- J23°
- J27°
- A26°
- S21°
- O17°
- N11°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Corniglio sits in the upper Parma valley, forty kilometers southwest of Parma. The municipality covers 165 square kilometers, mostly forest and high pasture, climbing from the village floor to the watershed ridge at Monte Sillara, 1,861 meters, on the Tuscan border. The village itself, the plateau above it, and the ridge beyond form a single climb in altitude: borgo, then Lagdei, then the peaks, each a stage further from the valley floor.
Population has fallen below 1,800, and most frazioni scattered through the municipality hold fewer than fifty residents each, a thin scatter of settlement across a large forested territory. The Prosciutto di Parma curing rooms reach this far up the valley, where the air pulls salt out of the meat in a particular way, a reminder that this high ground still answers to the plain below it even as it empties of people. What the valley adds up to is a place organized less around the village than around the ascent behind it, from settled floor to near-empty ridge.
How to get there
From Bologna (BLQ), about 2 h 2 min by car.
Pisa (PSA) is about 2 h 12 min away.
By car from the center of Parma 1 h 1 min or Pisa 2 h 3 min.
Coming by train into Parma? Corniglio is about 1 h 4 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello di Corniglio
The castle stands on the ridge above the borgo, its sandstone walls facing down the valley toward the village roofs below.
Lago Santo Parmense
Reached by trail from Lagdei, the lake sits under the ridge in a glacial basin, the water cold and still against the rock walls above it.
Monte Marmagna
1,851-meter peak on the Tuscan-Emilian watershed, the southern boundary of the municipality and a four-hour climb from Lagdei.
Lagdei
Alpine plateau at 1,250 meters, trailhead for the lake and the ridge climbs, with a rifugio and parking on the road from Bosco.
Parco Nazionale dell'Appennino Tosco-Emiliano
Most of the municipality lies inside the park, established in 2001, covering 26,000 hectares of beech, fir, and high pasture.
Living here
Could you live here?
Corniglio is at the end of the road.
- A village of 1,772. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Lesignano de' Bagni, is 37 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Parma, a city of 198,693, is 1 h 1 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
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 1,772, down 9.7% since 2015
- Nearest city Parma, 1 h 1 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Pontremoli, 18 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €400 to €530 per m² to buy, €1.10 to €1.60 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 85% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Parma airport (PMF), 1 h 15 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bologna, 2 h 7 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
4% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Ukraine and Morocco, against 9% across Italy. There are 468 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 68% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Parma province ranks 10th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Pontremoli, 18 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Parma, 40 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Parma, 40 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Modena, 66 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 Emilia-Romagna spends about €2,500 a month, €560 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €604 a year for water, on the Emilia-Romagna average. In Parma, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.41, a meal in a pizzeria €10.41 and a man's haircut €25.65.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 1% in a high or medium one. 35% 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
LAGO SANTO PARMENSE
Largest natural lake in the northern Apennines, at 1,508 meters under Monte Marmagna, glacial in origin.
ROSSI CASTLE
Sandstone castle documented from 1240, built by the Rossi family of Parma, who held the upper valley until the sixteenth century.
PROSCIUTTO ALTITUDE
The high end of the Prosciutto di Parma curing zone, where Apennine air pulls salt out of the meat in a particular way.
Common questions
- What is Corniglio known for?
- Corniglio is a 690-meter Parma-Apennine commune inside the Tosco-Emiliano park, with a thirteenth-century Rossi castle and the Lagdei plateau above.
- Where is Corniglio?
- Corniglio is a comune in the province of Parma, in Emilia-Romagna, at 690 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Corniglio?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Parma (PMF), about 1 h 15 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Parma to Corniglio?
- About 1 h 1 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Corniglio?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 27 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 18 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Corniglio?
- Pennabilli, Calvello and Introdacqua.
- How many people live in Corniglio?
- 1,772 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Corniglio a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Corniglio is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Lesignano de' Bagni, is 37 min away. The nearest city, Parma, is 1 h 1 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Pontremoli, 18 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 85% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 690 m
- Population: 1,772
- Surface area: 165.7 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 Corniglio appears in
Near here, with a letter
Similar
Towns like Corniglio
What all six share with Corniglio: under 3,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
Pennabilli
Province: Rimini
both mountain-valley towns
Calvello
Province: Potenza
both mountain-valley towns
Introdacqua
Province: L'Aquila
both mountain-valley towns
Carpegna
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
both mountain-valley towns
Ormea
Province: Cuneo
both mountain-valley towns
- Written about. No. 45.
Radicofani
Province: Siena
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 47 km away
Riviera di Levante: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Riviera di Levante guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: The coast in the shadow of five villages. 19 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.