Campania · Caserta
Letino
At 961 meters the highest commune in the province of Caserta, where in April 1877 anarchists declared a Republic of Letino in the village hall.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Letino is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione.
Subscribe and you get Letino's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 50 min from Naples
- Population
- 619
- J7°
- F9°
- M10°
- A13°
- M17°
- J23°
- J28°
- A27°
- S21°
- O17°
- N12°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Letino sits in the Matese, a mountain settlement whose elevation shapes everything else about it: thin roads up, a short growing season, a village built to a scale that stops where the rock starts. The town's parts sit on a vertical axis rather than a horizontal one. The castle occupies the high rock above the settlement, the artificial lake lies in the basin below it, and the karst river connects the two by running above ground for a stretch before vanishing underground entirely, so the visible landscape is only part of what is actually there.
The insurrection of 1877 lasted days: the group marched in during a council session, burned tax records in the square, distributed arms to peasants and ordered the lands divided before it was over. That the whole episode fit inside a handful of days, in a village this small and this high, is why the local museum still keeps it as its own subject rather than a footnote to regional history. The lake itself is not natural; it was built for a hydroelectric plant in the early twentieth century, which means the calmest-looking feature of the town is the newest and the most engineered. What Letino adds up to is a place where altitude, water and a brief political rupture all left permanent marks on a settlement too small to absorb any of them quietly.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 1 h 46 min by car.
Rome Fiumicino (FCO) is about 2 h 49 min away.
By car from the center of Naples 1 h 50 min or Salerno 2 h 15 min.
Every town within reach of Naples airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello di Letino
Castle on a rock above the village at roughly 1,200 meters, walls dating to the 1600s, hosting the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Castello.
Lago di Letino
Artificial lake (also called Lago Caùto) of 1.1 km², built in the early 1900s for the Prata Sannita hydroelectric plant.
Grotte del Caùto
Karst cave system carved by the Lete river, explored since the 1920s, with two parallel galleries averaging 89 meters apart.
Fiume Lete
The river runs above ground briefly after its source before descending into the cave system, a short visible stretch bracketed by rock on both sides.
Museo dell'Internazionalismo Anarchico
Permanent exhibition in the municipal building on the insurrection, with local documents and press of the era: the archive kept where the events themselves took place.
Living here
Could you live here?
Letino is at the end of the road.
- A village of 619. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Piedimonte Matese, is 49 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Isernia, a city of 20,529, 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 619, down 12.4% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Isernia, 1 h 1 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Piedimonte Matese, 14 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €450 to €650 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: none mapped
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 61% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 1 h 46 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Naples, 1 h 50 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
Under 1% of residents are foreign citizens, against 9% across Italy. There are 309 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 58% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Caserta province ranks 101st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Piedimonte Matese, 14 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Caserta, 42 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Caserta, 42 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 154 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is Teodoro Monticelli International School, 60 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.86% 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 0.6% to your income tax, with nothing due on income under €8,500. 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 Campania spends about €1,800 a month, €650 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €328 a year for water, on the Campania average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 11% 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
REPUBLIC OF LETINO
Anarchist insurrection of April 1877, when Malatesta, Cafiero and the Matese Band declared King Victor Emanuel II deposed in the village hall.
FIUME LETE
Karst river that rises at 1,028 meters in Campo delle Secine and disappears underground into the Grotte del Caùto cave system.
BANDIERA ARANCIONE
Touring Club Italiano Orange Flag awarded in 2014, only the fifth commune in Campania to receive the quality-of-hospitality mark.
Common questions
- What is Letino known for?
- At 961 meters the highest commune in the province of Caserta, where in April 1877 anarchists declared a Republic of Letino in the village hall.
- Where is Letino?
- Letino is a comune in the province of Caserta, in Campania.
- What is the nearest airport to Letino?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 1 h 46 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Naples to Letino?
- About 1 h 50 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Letino?
- 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 Letino?
- Faeto, Castel San Vincenzo and Roseto Valfortore.
- How many people live in Letino?
- 619 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Letino a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Letino is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Piedimonte Matese, is 49 min away. The nearest city, Isernia, is 1 h 1 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Piedimonte Matese, 14 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 61% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 961 m
- Population: 619
- Surface area: 31.59 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 Letino
What all six share with Letino: under 1,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
Faeto
Province: Foggia
both mountain-valley towns
Castel San Vincenzo
Province: Isernia
both mountain-valley towns
Roseto Valfortore
Province: Foggia
both mountain-valley towns
Pizzone
Province: Isernia
both mountain-valley towns
Celle di San Vito
Province: Foggia
both mountain-valley towns
Monteleone di Spoleto
Province: Perugia
The letter
Letino 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 Letino comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Terni, 182 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.