Sicily · Agrigento
Realmonte
The Agrigento coast commune with the white marl cliff of the Scala dei Turchi and a salt mine carved into 5-million-year-old halite.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Realmonte is on our list
It holds Borgo dei Borghi and Città dell'Olio.
Subscribe and you get Realmonte's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 2 h 23 min from Catania
- Population
- 4,349
- J14°
- F15°
- M16°
- A19°
- M23°
- J29°
- J32°
- A32°
- S28°
- O24°
- N19°
- D16°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Realmonte sits on the southern Sicilian coast ten kilometers west of Agrigento, on a marl headland above the Mediterranean. The town's founding probably goes back to the second half of the seventeenth century; what makes it visible on a map of Sicily is older. The Scala dei Turchi, the white marl cliff a kilometer west of the center, is formed of Trubi Formation rock laid down five million years ago when the Mediterranean refilled after the Messinian salinity crisis.
Its name remembers the sixteenth-century pirate raids that used the cliff as a landing point. Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano novels and Giuseppe Tornatore's Malèna both took it for backdrop. Inland, the Realmonte salt mine runs twenty-five kilometers of tunnels a hundred meters underground, with a chapel hollowed from the salt that holds eight hundred people.
A Roman villa with marble and mosaic floors was uncovered above Punta Piccola in 1907 during railway works. The commune holds two designations: Borgo dei Borghi finalist and Città dell'Olio.
How to get there
From Catania (CTA), about 2 h 25 min by car.
By car from the center of Palermo 2 h 29 min.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Scala dei Turchi
White marl cliff of Trubi Formation rock above the sea, named for the sixteenth-century pirate raids that landed below it.
Miniera di salgemma di Realmonte
Salt mine running twenty-five kilometers of tunnels a hundred meters underground, with a chapel carved into the halite face.
Villa Romana di Durrueli
First-century AD villa discovered in 1907, with marble opus sectile rooms, mosaic floors and thermal spa overlooking the sea.
Spiaggia di Lido Rossello
Sandy beach on the eastern side of the Scala dei Turchi headland, sheltered between the cliff and Punta Grande.
Centro storico
The seventeenth-century town center on the headland, set back from the cliff above the coast.
Living here
Could you live here?
Realmonte is at the end of the road.
- A village of 4,349. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Porto Empedocle, is 18 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Agrigento, a city of 55,252, is 21 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
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 4,349, down 3.3% since 2015
- Nearest city Agrigento, 21 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Agrigento, 10 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €500 to €750 per m² to buy, €2.20 to €3.30 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 29% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Catania airport (CTA), 2 h 25 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Palermo, 2 h 29 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Germany, against 9% across Italy. 13 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany. There are 215 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 57% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Agrigento province ranks 95th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Agrigento, 10 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Caltanissetta, 52 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 92 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.04% 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 0.8% 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 Sicily spends about €1,820 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €524 a year for water, on the Sicily average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone B, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from December 1 to March 31, up to 8 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 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
SCALA DEI TURCHI
White marl cliff five million years old, formed in the Zanclean after the Messinian salinity crisis refilled the Mediterranean.
SALT MINE
Twenty-five kilometers of tunnels a hundred meters underground, with a chapel for eight hundred people carved into the salt.
VILLA DURRUELI
First-century AD Roman villa with marble and mosaic floors, uncovered in 1907 during railway construction above the coast.
PISTACCHIO DI RAFFADALI
The commune lies inside the Pistacchio di Raffadali DOP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Realmonte known for?
- Realmonte is the Agrigento coast commune with the white marl cliff of the Scala dei Turchi and a salt mine carved into 5-million-year-old halite.
- Where is Realmonte?
- Realmonte is a comune in the province of Agrigento, in Sicily, at 153 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Realmonte?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Catania (CTA), about 2 h 25 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Palermo to Realmonte?
- About 2 h 29 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Realmonte?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Realmonte?
- San Vito Lo Capo, Lampedusa e Linosa and Pantelleria.
- How many people live in Realmonte?
- 4,349 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Realmonte a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Realmonte is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Porto Empedocle, is 18 min away. The nearest city, Agrigento, is 21 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Agrigento, 10 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 29% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 153 m
- Population: 4,349
- Surface area: 20.37 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 Realmonte
What all six share with Realmonte: near sea level
San Vito Lo Capo
Province: Trapani
both on the Sicilian coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Lampedusa e Linosa
Province: Agrigento
both on the Sicilian coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Pantelleria
Province: Trapani
both on the Sicilian coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Castelvetrano
Province: Trapani
both on the Sicilian coast
Montecarlo
Province: Lucca
both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
- Written about. No. 69.
Peccioli
Province: Pisa
both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
The letter
Realmonte 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 Realmonte comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 534 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.