Calabria · Catanzaro
Taverna
A hilltown at the foot of a mountain plateau, its stone core arranged around a fifteenth-century Dominican church.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Taverna is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione.
Subscribe and you get Taverna's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 4 h 17 min from Salerno
- Population
- 2,492
- J11°
- F13°
- M13°
- A16°
- M22°
- J27°
- J31°
- 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
Taverna sits at around 530 meters, the built-up core arranged around the convent complex and climbing the slope beneath the forests. The mountain rises directly behind the town: beech and pine cover the plateau, and the frazione of Villaggio Mancuso sits about 1,300 meters up, high above the centro, reached from below and used for summer escape and winter snow, a second, higher Taverna in effect, linked to the town below by altitude alone.
The painter born here in 1613 worked in Rome, Naples and finally Malta, where he died in 1699 after decorating the conventual church of the Order of St. John in Valletta. He returned to Taverna repeatedly and sent paintings home rather than settling here again, which is why his work fills a convent church in a small mountain town rather than a capital. The former Dominican convent attached to that church now holds the civic museum, so the town's two collections of his work sit inside the same walls. What Taverna adds up to is a hill settlement whose historic core was shaped by one absent painter's continued attention, standing at the foot of a plateau that the town depends on for its higher, cooler counterpart.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 1 h 3 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 5 h away.
By car from the center of Salerno 4 h 17 min, Bari 4 h 57 min or Naples 5 h.
Every town within reach of Lamezia Terme airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di San Domenico
Fifteenth-century Dominican church inside the centro storico, holding eleven works by Mattia Preti including the self-portrait and the cycle on the life of San Domenico.
Museo Civico di Taverna
Civic museum housed in the former fifteenth-century Dominican convent attached to the church, dedicated largely to Mattia Preti and the Calabrian Baroque.
Parco Nazionale della Sila
The town falls inside Sila National Park; Sila Piccola's beech and pine forests rise directly behind the centro.
Villaggio Mancuso
Mountain frazione of Taverna at nearly 1,400 meters on the Sila Piccola plateau, used for summer escape and winter snow.
Centro storico
Bandiera Arancione hilltown of stone houses arranged around the San Domenico complex, awarded for the quality of its preserved core.
Living here
Could you live here?
Taverna is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,492. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Cotronei, is 42 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Catanzaro, a city of 83,313, is 29 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 2,492, down 8.5% since 2015
- Nearest city Catanzaro, 29 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Catanzaro, 15 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €620 to €840 per m² to buy, €2.10 to €2.80 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- In-between
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 70% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Lamezia Terme airport (SUF), 1 h 3 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 29 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania and Albania, against 9% across Italy. There are 267 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 62% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Catanzaro province ranks 92nd of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Catanzaro, 15 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 298 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 211 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.76% 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 0.8% to your income tax, with nothing due on income under €7,500. 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 Calabria spends about €1,620 a month, €590 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €398 a year for water, on the Calabria average. In Catanzaro, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.08, a meal in a pizzeria €10.46 and a man's haircut €15.38.
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. 5% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. They show no residents in a high landslide zone.
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
MATTIA PRETI
Baroque painter born in Taverna in 1613, the Cavaliere Calabrese; eleven of his canvases hang in San Domenico.
BANDIERA ARANCIONE
Touring Club Italiano quality mark for the preserved centro storico and the cultural offering anchored on the town's painter.
SILA PICCOLA
The town is inside Sila National Park; the frazione of Villaggio Mancuso sits at nearly 1,400 meters on the plateau.
Common questions
- What is Taverna known for?
- Taverna is a hilltown at the foot of a mountain plateau, its stone core arranged around a fifteenth-century Dominican church.
- Where is Taverna?
- Taverna is a comune in the province of Catanzaro, in Calabria, at 530 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Taverna?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 1 h 3 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Taverna?
- About 4 h 17 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Taverna?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Taverna?
- San Benedetto Ullano, Santa Severina and Riace.
- How many people live in Taverna?
- 2,492 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Taverna a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Taverna is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Cotronei, is 42 min away. The nearest city, Catanzaro, is 29 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Catanzaro, 15 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 70% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 530 m
- Population: 2,492
- Surface area: 132.31 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 Taverna appears in
Featured on
Taverna appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Taverna
What all six share with Taverna: inland, away from the coast · under 3,000 people · hill towns
The letter
Taverna 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 Taverna comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 503 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.