Basilicata · Potenza
Terranova di Pollino
At 926 meters on the Lucanian side of the Pollino, the gateway into Italy's largest national park, home of the Sarmento red potato.
Picked by Peter Benei
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 2 h 50 min from Salerno
- Population
- 984
- J8°
- F10°
- M11°
- A14°
- M19°
- J25°
- J29°
- A28°
- S23°
- O19°
- N13°
- D10°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Terranova di Pollino sits at 926 meters on the Lucanian side of the Parco Nazionale del Pollino, Italy's largest national park at 192,000 hectares straddling Basilicata and Calabria. A thousand people live in the stone village above the Sarmento valley, in the territory locals call the gate of the park. The land around the village rises into the Bosco Magnano and the Bosco di Chiaromonte, beech and Bosnian pine forest that holds the symbolic tree of the park, the loricato pine, on the higher ridges above.
Local cuisine is mountain cuisine: hand-rolled pasta, lamb, pecorino, porcini in autumn. The patata rossa di Terranova, a red-skinned firm-fleshed variety grown at 800 meters, has Slow Food Presidium recognition and is the village's flagship product. Luna Rossa, the Michelin-listed restaurant of Federico Valicenti, has anchored the contemporary Lucanian peasant kitchen here for thirty years.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 3 h 6 min by car.
Lamezia Terme (SUF) is about 3 h 20 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 2 h 50 min, Bari 3 h or Naples 3 h 33 min.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Parco Nazionale del Pollino
Italy's largest national park at 192,000 hectares, Terranova is one of the principal Basilicata-side entrance villages with trailheads from the centro.
Serra di Crispo
Ridge above the village at 2,053 meters known as the Garden of the Gods for its stand of loricato pines, the symbol tree of the park.
Centro storico
Stone-built mountain village at 926 meters with narrow ascending lanes, organized around the Chiesa Madre and the small piazze of the upper streets.
Chiesa Madre
Mother church of the village in the centro storico, principal religious building of the Sarmento valley community.
Bosco Magnano
Beech and turkey oak forest east of the village, the most accessible deep-park walk from Terranova with marked routes to the Frido river.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Luna RossaTrattoria
Luna Rossa holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and two Gambero Rosso prawns.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Terranova di Pollino is at the end of the road.
- A village of 984. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Senise, is 53 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Corigliano-Rossano, a city of 74,332, is 2 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 984, down 19.7% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Corigliano-Rossano, 2 h 1 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Castrovillari, 19 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €510 to €610 per m² to buy, €1.70 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: none mapped
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 80% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Brindisi airport (BDS), 3 h 5 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Potenza, 2 h 44 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Albania, against 9% across Italy. There are 612 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 55% 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 Castrovillari, 19 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Sangineto, 52 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 327 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 155 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. 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 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. 30% 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
POLLINO GATEWAY
Lucanian-side entrance to Italy's largest national park, trails climbing to the loricato pines of Serra di Crispo at 2,053 meters.
PATATA ROSSA
Red-skinned firm-fleshed potato of the Sarmento valley grown at 800 meters, Slow Food Presidium, the village's flagship product.
LUNA ROSSA
Michelin-listed restaurant of Federico Valicenti, thirty-year anchor of the contemporary Lucanian peasant kitchen tradition.
Common questions
- What is Terranova di Pollino known for?
- At 926 meters on the Lucanian side of the Pollino, the gateway into Italy's largest national park, home of the Sarmento red potato.
- Where is Terranova di Pollino?
- Terranova di Pollino is a comune in the province of Potenza, in Basilicata.
- What is the nearest airport to Terranova di Pollino?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Brindisi (BDS), about 3 h 5 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Terranova di Pollino?
- About 2 h 50 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Terranova di Pollino?
- Best in May–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 29 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Terranova di Pollino?
- Fiumalbo, Aritzo and Fanano.
- How many people live in Terranova di Pollino?
- 984 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Terranova di Pollino a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Terranova di Pollino is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Senise, is 53 min away. The nearest city, Corigliano-Rossano, is 2 h 1 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Castrovillari, 19 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 80% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 926 m
- Population: 984
- Surface area: 113.07 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 Terranova di Pollino appears in
- The best mountain towns that eat well in the province of PotenzaPotenza provincemountaineats well6 towns · smallest 696 residents
- The best towns with a serious restaurant in BasilicataBasilicataserious restaurant6 towns · smallest 696 residents
- The best high-altitude villages in the province of PotenzaPotenza provinceabove 800 m7 towns · smallest 720 residents
- The 8 best towns inside a national park in the province of PotenzaPotenza provinceinside a park8 towns · smallest 720 residents
- The best towns that eat well in the province of PotenzaPotenza provinceeats well9 towns · smallest 696 residents
Similar
Towns like Terranova di Pollino
What all six share with Terranova di Pollino: mountain-valley towns · under 3,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
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