Basilicata · Matera
Grottole
A hilltop borgo between the Bradano and Basento, where six hundred empty houses outnumber residents in the centro storico.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Grottole is on our list
It holds Borghi Autentici and Città del Miele.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 33 min from Bari
- Population
- 1,958
- J11°
- F13°
- M14°
- A18°
- M23°
- J30°
- J34°
- A33°
- S27°
- O22°
- N16°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Grottole sits on a hill between the Bradano and Basento rivers, seventeen kilometers from Matera. The current population is around two thousand on paper, but the centro storico has roughly three hundred residents and six hundred empty houses. At its center stands the Chiesa Diruta, the medieval church of Saints Luke and Julian, roofless since the seventeenth century and photographed more often than it is prayed in.
The Norman-era Castello di Grottole, with a central watchtower, sits on the high point. The town drew international attention in 2019 when Airbnb and the NGO Wonder Grottole launched the Italian Sabbatical, a three-month volunteer program offering five people the chance to live in the village free, in partnership with Fondazione Matera 2019. Around 280,000 people applied for the five slots.
The point of the experiment was not tourism but repopulation. Honey, anchored by the Città del Miele designation, comes from the surrounding scrub and pastures and is the village's signature product.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 1 h 30 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h 3 min away.
By car from the center of Bari 1 h 33 min, Salerno 2 h 20 min or Naples 3 h 3 min.
Every town within reach of Bari airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa Diruta
Medieval church of Saints Luke and Julian, roofless since the seventeenth century, the most photographed ruin in the centro storico.
Castello di Grottole
Norman-era fortress on the hilltop with a central watchtower, the high point of the village and the orientation marker visible from the surrounding valleys.
Centro storico
Stone village with around six hundred empty houses and three hundred residents, the Wonder Grottole program working to restore and repopulate it house by house.
Chiesa Madre dei Santi Luca e Giuliano
Active mother church near the Diruta, holding services and the parish records for the small remaining residential community.
Living here
Could you live here?
Grottole is at the end of the road.
- A village of 1,958. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Matera, is 33 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Matera, a city of 59,628, is 33 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 1,958, down 15.2% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Matera, 33 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Matera, 18 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €530 to €790 per m² to buy, €1.20 to €1.80 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 81% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Bari airport (BRI), 1 h 30 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Potenza, 1 h 12 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
4% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Morocco, Pakistan and Romania, against 9% across Italy. There are 312 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 51% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Matera province ranks 79th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Matera, 18 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Potenza, 49 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 355 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 130 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.88% 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 0.3% 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 Basilicata spends about €1,890 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €459 a year for water, on the Basilicata average.
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. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 5% 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
EMPTY CENTRO
Six hundred empty houses and around three hundred residents in the centro storico, the visible signature of inland Lucanian depopulation.
ITALIAN SABBATICAL
Airbnb and Wonder Grottole's 2019 three-month volunteer program drew about 280,000 applications for five spots in the village.
HONEY
Wildflower and millefiori varieties from apiaries in the surrounding pasture and scrub, anchor of the Città del Miele designation.
Common questions
- What is Grottole known for?
- Grottole is a hilltop borgo at 481 meters between the Bradano and Basento, where six hundred empty houses outnumber residents in the centro storico.
- Where is Grottole?
- Grottole is a comune in the province of Matera, in Basilicata.
- What is the nearest airport to Grottole?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bari (BRI), about 1 h 30 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Bari to Grottole?
- About 1 h 33 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Grottole?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Grottole?
- Miglionico, San Mauro Forte and Poggiorsini.
- How many people live in Grottole?
- 1,958 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Grottole a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Grottole is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Matera, is 33 min away. The nearest city, Matera, is 33 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Matera, 18 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 81% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 481 m
- Population: 1,958
- Surface area: 117.15 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.
Similar
Towns like Grottole
What all six share with Grottole: inland, away from the coast · under 3,000 people · hill towns
The letter
Grottole 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 Grottole comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Scheggino, 377 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.