Campania · Salerno
Perito
A Cilento ridge town above the Alento valley, once a center of black-powder production for hunting, defense and brigands.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Perito is on our list
It holds Cittaslow.
Subscribe and you get Perito's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 23 min from Salerno
- Population
- 785
- J11°
- F13°
- M14°
- A17°
- M22°
- J27°
- J30°
- A30°
- S26°
- O21°
- N16°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Perito sits on a hill above the Alento river valley, inside the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park. The local historian Emilio Gatto traced the founders to refugees from ancient Velia, the Greek polis below the coast, hiding from Saracen raids; the Codex diplomaticus Cavensis records the village between the tenth century and 1137. In the middle ages it served as a fortified outpost over the valleys below.
From 1801 to 1860 it was a hamlet of Orria, then a separate commune from 1850. Perito made its name through polvere nera, black powder, ground from local sulphur and saltpetre with sandstone mortars and wooden pestles, used for hunting, defense and, in the nineteenth century, by Bourbon-era brigands. The Chiesa di San Nicola di Bari, built around 1550 and inaugurated in February 1563, rises behind a bell tower reused from an Angevin watch tower. The commune is a Cittaslow member.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 2 h 7 min by car.
Bari (BRI) is about 4 h away.
By car from the center of Salerno 1 h 23 min, Naples 2 h 7 min or Bari 4 h 3 min.
Coming by train into Salerno? Perito is about 1 h 26 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di San Nicola di Bari
Parish church built around 1550, inaugurated 17 February 1563, with a monumental bell tower converted from an Angevin watch tower.
Centro storico
Stone-built ridge village above the Alento valley, with narrow lanes and the bell tower of San Nicola visible from the access road.
Parco Nazionale del Cilento
Surrounding park with paths into the Alento basin and toward the Cittaslow neighbors of Gioi and Stio.
Frazione Ostigliano
Hamlet of Perito with its own medieval core, separated from the main center in 1850 when Perito became an autonomous commune.
Living here
Could you live here?
Perito is at the end of the road.
- A village of 785. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Casal Velino, is 25 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Salerno, a city of 126,000, is 1 h 23 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 785, down 18.8% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Salerno, 1 h 23 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Vallo della Lucania, 12 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €560 to €710 per m² to buy, €1.60 to €1.90 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 94% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 2 h 7 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Naples, 2 h 7 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
5% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Ukraine, Romania and Venezuela, against 9% across Italy. There are 371 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. Salerno province ranks 90th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Vallo della Lucania, 12 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Salerno, 50 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 284 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is École Francaise de Naples Alexandre-Dumas, 97 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.91% 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 0.4% 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 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 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. 2% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 2% in a high or medium one. 1% 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
POLVERE NERA
Black powder for hunting and defense ground here from local sulphur and saltpetre with sandstone mortars, a Cilento specialty until the late 1800s.
CITTASLOW
Member of the international Cittaslow network for sustainable small-town living and slow food.
PARCO DEL CILENTO
Inside the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and National Park, with the Alento valley basin and the neighbouring Cittaslow villages within walking distance.
Common questions
- What is Perito known for?
- Perito is a Cilento ridge town at 480 meters above the Alento valley, once a center of black-powder production for hunting, defense and brigands.
- Where is Perito?
- Perito is a comune in the province of Salerno, in Campania.
- What is the nearest airport to Perito?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 2 h 7 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Perito?
- About 1 h 23 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Perito?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 30 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 15 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Perito?
- Castelvecchio Subequo, Premilcuore and Craco.
- How many people live in Perito?
- 785 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Perito a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Perito is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Casal Velino, is 25 min away. The nearest city, Salerno, is 1 h 23 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Vallo della Lucania, 12 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 94% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 480 m
- Population: 785
- Surface area: 24 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 Perito appears in
- The 8 best hill towns inside a national park in CampaniaCampaniahill towninside a park8 towns · smallest 573 residents
- The best hill towns within 90 minutes of SalernoNear Salernohill townwithin 90 min9 towns · smallest 576 residents · closest 49 min away
- The best small towns inside a national park in the province of SalernoSalerno provinceinside a parksmall9 towns · smallest 573 residents
Similar
Towns like Perito
What all six share with Perito: inland, away from the coast · under 1,000 people
The letter
Perito 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 Perito comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 317 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.