Calabria · Reggio Calabria
Gerace
A 470-meter conglomerate rock above the Locride, holding Calabria's largest cathedral.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Gerace is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia, Bandiera Arancione and Città dell'Olio.
Subscribe and you get Gerace's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 4 h 59 min from Salerno
- Population
- 2,309
- J11°
- F12°
- M13°
- A16°
- M21°
- J27°
- J30°
- A30°
- S26°
- O21°
- N17°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Gerace sits ten kilometers inland from the coast, on the Ionian flank of the Aspromonte. The name comes from the Greek hierax, sparrowhawk, said to have led the founding survivors to the site after they abandoned the shore to Saracen raids. The rock itself is older than any of that history: conglomerate built from sea fossils sixty million years old, narrow enough at the top that the centro storico had to grow along it rather than around it.
The town that resulted splits along a simple line: a fortified upper rock, once carrying the Norman-Swabian castle, and a lower spread of alleys and squares where the churches accumulated, more than a hundred of them by the old count, alongside the crypt columns pulled from ruined temples down on the plain. Upper and lower are the same settlement answering two different needs, one for defense, one for the accumulated business of a holy city. What survives now, cathedral, castle ruin, and the fossil rock beneath both, reads as the layered result of people repeatedly choosing this height for reasons that changed over a span of centuries: first safety, then faith, now simply what is left standing.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 1 h 45 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 5 h 43 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 4 h 59 min, Bari 5 h 41 min or Naples 5 h 43 min.
Coming by train into Reggio Calabria Centrale? Gerace is about 1 h 20 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Lamezia Terme airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Cattedrale di Gerace
1,690 square meters of Norman-period church, its crypt lined with columns of different stones and capitals, salvaged from the Magna Graecia temples of Locri Epizefiri.
Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi
Late thirteenth-century church commissioned by Charles II of Anjou in 1294, with a Gothic portal and a marble high altar of the early seventeenth century.
Castello Normanno-Svevo
Norman-Swabian castle on the upper rock, restructured around the eleventh century on a likely seventh-century foundation, partly in ruin since 1783.
Borgo medievale di Gerace
Narrow alleys and unexpected squares hold the memory of more than a hundred churches once recorded within the walls.
Belvedere sulla Locride
Cliff viewpoint over the Ionian plain and the site of Locri Epizefiri, on rock formed sixty million years ago from sea-fossil conglomerate.
Living here
Could you live here?
Gerace is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 2,309, with Locri (11,870 people) 11 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Vibo Valentia, a city of 30,906, is 1 h 20 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 2,309, down 14.2% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Vibo Valentia, 1 h 20 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Locri, 4 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €560 to €830 per m² to buy, €2.10 to €3.10 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 76% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 1, Italy's highest hazard
- Reggio Calabria airport (REG), 1 h 26 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 1 h 55 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from India, against 9% across Italy. There are 227 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 49% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Reggio Calabria province ranks 107th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Locri, 4 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Reggio di Calabria, 47 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 251 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.96% 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 0.75% 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 Reggio Calabria, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.20, a meal in a pizzeria €9.47 and a man's haircut €14.73.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 12% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 8% 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
THE CATHEDRAL
Calabria's largest cathedral, Norman 1100, with twenty-six mismatched Roman columns in the crypt taken from the temples of Locri Epizefiri.
THE HOLY CITY
Founded in the tenth century by Locri refugees, the centro storico held more than a hundred churches and remains a Borgo più bello d'Italia.
FOSSIL ROCK
470-meter spur of conglomerate made from sea fossils sixty million years old, with the centro storico balanced on its narrow upper plateau.
Common questions
- What is Gerace known for?
- Gerace is a 470-meter conglomerate rock above the Locride, holding Calabria's largest cathedral.
- Where is Gerace?
- Gerace is a comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria, at 470 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Gerace?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Reggio Calabria (REG), about 1 h 26 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Gerace?
- About 4 h 59 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Gerace?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 30 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Gerace?
- Vernasca, Tocco da Casauria and Controguerra.
- How many people live in Gerace?
- 2,309 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Gerace a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Gerace is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Locri, 11 min). The nearest city, Vibo Valentia, is 1 h 20 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Locri, 4 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 76% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 470 m
- Population: 2,309
- Surface area: 28.99 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 Gerace appears in
Featured on
Gerace appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Gerace
What all six share with Gerace: inland, away from the coast · under 3,000 people · hill towns
The letter
Gerace 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 Gerace comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 542 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.