Basilicata · Potenza
Rivello
A 479-meter ridge above the Noce valley where Lombards and Byzantines lived side by side, holding Latin and Greek rites until the seventeenth century.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Rivello is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia.
Subscribe and you get Rivello's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 28 min from Salerno
- Population
- 2,460
- J10°
- F11°
- M12°
- A14°
- M19°
- J23°
- J26°
- A27°
- S24°
- O19°
- N15°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Rivello sits on a ridge above the Noce valley, twenty kilometers inland from Maratea and the Tyrrhenian. The town was disputed between Lombards and Byzantines after the fall of Velia, and its name is read by some as Re-Velia, the place where Velian refugees regrouped. Both peoples settled here and never fully separated: the ridge organized itself into an upper town and a lower town, and for centuries each pole kept its own church, its own clergy, and its own rite, meeting at the market but not at the altar.
The eighteenth century was Rivello's prosperous moment, judging from the parish archives and the stone houses that climb the ridge from that period, including the Baroque work layered onto older Greek-rite foundations in the lower town. The Pollino park boundary runs nearby, and the belvedere at Passo la Colla looks down on the Gulf of Policastro, a reminder that the ridge, for all its inland feel, sits a short distance from the coast it once helped populate. What the town amounts to is a single street holding two histories that ran side by side for the better part of a millennium before finally merging.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 2 h 12 min by car.
Lamezia Terme (SUF) is about 2 h 38 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 1 h 28 min, Naples 2 h 12 min or Bari 3 h 21 min.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Convento di Sant'Antonio da Padova
Sixteenth-century Franciscan complex built around a cloister, its frescoes by Giovanni Todisco and Giovanni De Gregorio covering the cloister walls and refectory.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore
Upper-town church, plainer in its stonework than its lower-town counterpart, standing at the pole of the ridge that held the Latin congregation.
Chiesa di San Nicola dei Greci
Lower-town church with Byzantine architectural elements still legible beneath an eighteenth-century reorganisation of the interior.
Chiesa di Santa Maria del Poggio
A tenth-century Greek-rite foundation set above the lower town, its original core wrapped in an eighteenth-century Baroque expansion.
Passo la Colla belvedere
Viewpoint west of the village over the Gulf of Policastro and the Tyrrhenian, marking the western edge of the commune.
Living here
Could you live here?
Rivello is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,460. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Lauria, is 32 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Potenza, a city of 63,864, is 1 h 24 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 2,460, down 11.9% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Potenza, 1 h 24 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Lagonegro, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €530 to €760 per m² to buy, €1.60 to €2.20 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Very remote
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 92% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 2 h 12 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Potenza, 1 h 24 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
5% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Brazil and Egypt, against 9% across Italy. There are 293 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 45% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Potenza province ranks 84th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Lagonegro, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Sangineto, 54 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 300 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is École Francaise de Naples Alexandre-Dumas, 154 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. 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. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 6% 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
TWO RITES
Latin and Greek liturgies practised in parallel until the seventeenth century in two separate parish churches on the same ridge.
TODISCO FRESCOES
The Convento di Sant'Antonio preserves a sixteenth-century cycle by Giovanni Todisco, including a 1559 Last Supper, still in situ.
SALUMI
Rivello's cured pork tradition, soppressata and capocollo, is a fixture of Lucanian charcuterie and locally produced in family workshops.
CANESTRATO DI MOLITERNO
The commune lies inside the Canestrato di Moliterno IGP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Rivello known for?
- Rivello is a 479-meter ridge above the Noce valley where Lombards and Byzantines lived side by side, holding Latin and Greek rites until the seventeenth century.
- Where is Rivello?
- Rivello is a comune in the province of Potenza, in Basilicata, at 479 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Rivello?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 2 h 12 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Rivello?
- About 1 h 28 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Rivello?
- Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 27 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Rivello?
- Laino Borgo, Sant'Angelo Le Fratte and Taurasi.
- How many people live in Rivello?
- 2,460 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Rivello a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Rivello is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Lauria, is 32 min away. The nearest city, Potenza, is 1 h 24 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Lagonegro, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 92% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 479 m
- Population: 2,460
- Surface area: 69.58 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 Rivello appears in
- The 7 prettiest villages in the province of PotenzaPotenza provinceprettiest villages7 towns · smallest 508 residents
- The best cheese towns within 90 minutes of SalernoNear Salernowithin 90 mincheese zone7 towns · smallest 720 residents · closest 55 min away
- The 8 best towns inside a national park in the province of PotenzaPotenza provinceinside a park8 towns · smallest 720 residents
- The 8 prettiest small villages in BasilicataBasilicataprettiest villagessmall8 towns · smallest 508 residents
- The best hill towns within 90 minutes of SalernoNear Salernohill townwithin 90 min9 towns · smallest 576 residents · closest 49 min away
- The 10 best hidden hill towns in BasilicataBasilicatahill townhidden10 towns · smallest 587 residents
Similar
Towns like Rivello
What all six share with Rivello: inland, away from the coast · under 3,000 people · hill towns
The letter
Rivello 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 Rivello comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 374 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.