Campania · Avellino
Tufo
A 250-meter Irpinia hill town on sulfur-rich limestone slopes, twenty kilometers north of Avellino.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Tufo is on our list
It holds Città del Vino.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 55 min from Salerno
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 756
- J11°
- F14°
- M15°
- A18°
- M23°
- J29°
- J33°
- A33°
- S28°
- O23°
- N17°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The name Tufo comes from the volcanic tuff stone the hill is built on, the same stone that runs through the slopes below and gives the local wine its mineral edge. The village sits on top of that stone, with the cellars at its foot and the vineyards spreading out around both. Sulfur was mined in shafts cut into the cliffs beneath the village, work that shaped the local economy for over a century before it stopped.
Most visitors are wine buyers, not tourists. They drive in for a tasting, walk the steep main street to the medieval castle on top, and leave by dinner. The village stays quiet after they go. What the stone gave the place economically it also gave it physically: a hill town built from the same rock that flavors what it grows, mined until the ground itself ran out of use.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 1 h 3 min by car.
Bari (BRI) is about 2 h 28 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 55 min, Naples 1 h 6 min or Bari 2 h 32 min.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
Coming from Naples?
Coming by train into Salerno? Tufo is about 58 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Naples airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello di Tufo
Medieval castle from the eleventh century on the volcanic rock at the top of the hill, the core the village grew around.
Cantine di Marzo
The cellars sit at the foot of the village, where Greco di Tufo has been produced commercially since the family took up winemaking here.
Ex Miniere di Zolfo
Abandoned mines in the cliffs below the village, their shafts left the rock marked with rust-colored scars after closure.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta
The mother church of the village, Santa Maria Assunta, with its adjoining oratory and the monumental fountain in front.
Vigneti del Greco
The tuff and sulfur slopes around the village that give the local wine its mineral character, walkable in spring and autumn.
Living here
Could you live here?
Tufo is at the end of the road.
- A village of 756. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Atripalda, is 20 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Avellino, a city of 51,975, is 23 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
- A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the center.
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 756, down 15.2% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Avellino, 23 min drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest national health service hospital Avellino, 11 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €580 to €680 per m² to buy, €2.10 to €2.50 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 28% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 1, Italy's highest hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 1 h 3 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Naples, 1 h 6 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
5% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania and Morocco, against 9% across Italy. There are 335 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 50% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Avellino province ranks 77th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Avellino, 11 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 217 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is École Francaise de Naples Alexandre-Dumas, 54 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% 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. 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. In Avellino, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.20, a meal in a pizzeria €16.06 and a man's haircut €15.95.
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, 6% in a high or medium one. 4% 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
GRECO DI TUFO
Campania DOCG since 2003, white wine grown on sulfur-laced tuff slopes across eight Irpinian communes named for this one. The grape descends from the Aminea Gemina praised by Roman writers, and by the 1920s Tufo was its main home.
SULFUR MINES
Sulfur found here in 1866 shaped the local economy for a century, until the mines closed in 1972 and the works in the 1990s.
DI MARZO 1647
The Di Marzo family dates its Greco di Tufo cellar to 1647.
Common questions
- What is Tufo known for?
- Tufo is a 250-meter Irpinia hill town on sulfur-rich limestone slopes, twenty kilometers north of Avellino.
- Where is Tufo?
- Tufo is a comune in the province of Avellino, in Campania, at 250 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Tufo?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 1 h 3 min by car.
- Can you get to Tufo without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Tufo?
- About 55 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Tufo?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 33 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Tufo?
- Caiazzo, Pretoro and Balsorano.
- How many people live in Tufo?
- 756 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Tufo a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Tufo is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Atripalda, is 20 min away. The nearest city, Avellino, is 23 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Avellino, 11 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 28% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 250 m
- Population: 756
- Surface area: 5.96 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 Tufo appears in
- The 6 best wine towns you can reach by train in CampaniaCampaniawineby train6 towns · smallest 756 residents
- The best wine towns within 90 minutes of NaplesNear Napleswithin 90 minwine zone7 towns · smallest 756 residents · closest 53 min away
- The 8 best wine towns within 90 minutes of SalernoNear Salernowinewithin 90 min8 towns · smallest 683 residents · closest 22 min away
- The best hill towns you can reach by train in CampaniaCampaniahill townby train8 towns · smallest 756 residents
- The best small wine towns in CampaniaCampaniawinesmall8 towns · smallest 683 residents
- The best hill towns within 75 minutes of NaplesNear Napleshill townwithin 75 min9 towns · smallest 756 residents · closest 28 min away
Similar
Towns like Tufo
What all six share with Tufo: inland, away from the coast · hill towns
Caiazzo
Province: Caserta
both have a railway station in the comune
Pretoro
Province: Chieti
both under 1,000 people
Balsorano
Province: L'Aquila
both have a railway station in the comune
Morigerati
Province: Salerno
both under 1,000 people
Perito
Province: Salerno
both under 1,000 people
Roscigno
Province: Salerno
both under 1,000 people
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