Emilia-Romagna · Modena
Fanano
A 640-meter stone-working town set among Monte Cimone, Libro Aperto and the upper Frignano peaks.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Fanano is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione.
The nearest town with a letter is Abetone Cutigliano, No. 11, 40 min by car.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 26 min from Bologna
- Population
- 2,979
- J8°
- F11°
- M11°
- A14°
- M19°
- J24°
- J28°
- A27°
- S22°
- O18°
- N12°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The town sits in the upper Frignano district, fifty-five kilometers southwest of Bologna and inside the Parco del Frignano. It was founded in the eighth century by Anselmo, brother-in-law of the Lombard king Aistulf, who built the Monastero del Santissimo Salvatore and a Benedictine hospice on the trade route linking Modena and Tuscany. The Este family ruled from the eleventh century and expanded the cross-Apennine commerce that had shaped the settlement from its founding.
That commerce is bound up with the stone: Fanano is known as the città della pietra, and its sandstone workshops, still active today, grew out of a place that existed to move goods and people across the mountains rather than to sit apart from them. The centro storico, the churches, and the clock tower cluster together at 640 meters, while the territory climbs to Monte Cimone and the ridges shared with the neighbouring communes of the Modenese Apennines. A monastic foundation on a trade route became, over centuries, a stone-carving town ringed by the highest peaks of the northern Apennines.
How to get there
From Bologna (BLQ), about 1 h 23 min by car.
Pisa (PSA) is about 2 h 19 min away.
By car from the center of Florence 1 h 51 min or Parma 1 h 54 min.
Coming by train into Modena? Fanano is about 1 h 24 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Bologna airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di San Giuseppe
The interior, worked on from the early seventeenth century, carries the ornament in wood and stucco through the nave and side altars.
Chiesa di San Silvestro Papa
Romanesque parish church with a stone façade and fourteenth-century frescoes in the interior.
Museo della Pietra Scolpita
The sculptures sit directly in the streets and squares of the centro storico rather than behind walls, the result of decades of the stone symposium adding to the collection piece by piece.
Monte Cimone
The summit of the Modenese Apennines, shared with Fiumalbo, Sestola and Riolunato, with Lake Ninfa sitting at 1,500 meters on its eastern slope.
Torre dell'Orologio
Medieval clock tower next to Palazzo Lardi at the heart of the centro storico.
Living here
Could you live here?
Fanano is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,979. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Pavullo nel Frignano, is 37 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Pistoia, a city of 88,889, is 1 h 12 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 2,979, down 0.6% since 2015
- Nearest city Pistoia, 1 h 12 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Alto Reno Terme, 14 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €950 to €1,350 per m² to buy, €3.30 to €4.80 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Very remote
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 71% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Bologna airport (BLQ), 1 h 23 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bologna, 1 h 26 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
10% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and India, against 9% across Italy. 26 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France. There are 354 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 63% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Modena province ranks 12th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Alto Reno Terme, 14 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Modena, 49 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Prato, 43 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Modena, 42 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.05% 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 between 0.65% and 0.8% to your income tax, depending on your income, with nothing due on income under €15,000. 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 Modena, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.34, a meal in a pizzeria €13.47 and a man's haircut €27.27.
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, under 1% in a high or medium one. 31% 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
STONE WORKING
Long-running tradition of sandstone carving, with workshops still active and an open-air museum of more than 200 contemporary sculptures.
MONTE CIMONE
The 2,165-meter peak of the northern Apennines rises inside the municipal territory, shared with three neighbouring Modenese communes.
BAROQUE INTERIORS
The Chiesa di San Giuseppe, started in 1619, holds one of the most elaborate baroque interiors in the Modenese mountains.
PROSCIUTTO DI MODENA
The commune lies inside the Prosciutto di Modena DOP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Fanano known for?
- Fanano is a 640-meter stone-working town set among Monte Cimone, Libro Aperto and the upper Frignano peaks.
- Where is Fanano?
- Fanano is a comune in the province of Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, at 640 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Fanano?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bologna (BLQ), about 1 h 23 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Florence to Fanano?
- About 1 h 51 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Fanano?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 16 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Fanano?
- Fiumalbo, Castiglione di Sicilia and Aritzo.
- How many people live in Fanano?
- 2,979 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Fanano a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Fanano is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Pavullo nel Frignano, is 37 min away. The nearest city, Pistoia, is 1 h 12 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Alto Reno Terme, 14 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 71% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 640 m
- Population: 2,979
- Surface area: 89.91 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 Fanano appears in
- The best hidden towns inside a nature park in Emilia-RomagnaEmilia-Romagnainside a parkhidden10 towns · smallest 1,191 residents
- The best towns that cure their own meat within two hours of BolognaNear Bolognawithin 2 hourscured meat zone10 towns · smallest 2,428 residents · closest 26 min away
- The best towns that cure their own meat within two hours of ParmaNear Parmawithin 2 hourscured meat zone10 towns · smallest 244 residents · closest 38 min away
Near here, with a letter
- Written about. No. 11.
Abetone Cutigliano
Province: Pistoia
The Apennine ski pass at 1,388 meters where the Granduca's two stone pyramids of 1778 mark the old Tuscan-Modenese border.
40 min by car
- Written about. No. 1.
Barga
Province: Lucca
A medieval hilltop town at 410 meters in the Serchio valley, where Giovanni Pascoli wrote his last poems and the August festival serves fish and chips.
29 km away
Our guide
Our nearest guide, 32 km away
Apuan Alps: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Apuan Alps guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: The mountains behind Versilia. 8 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.