Piemonte · Torino
Usseaux
A Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Usseaux is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia and Bandiera Arancione.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
- By car
- 1 h 32 min from Turin
- Population
- 174
- J2°
- F6°
- M6°
- A9°
- M14°
- J19°
- J23°
- A23°
- S17°
- O14°
- N8°
- D3°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Usseaux sits at 1,416 meters in the upper Val Chisone, fifty-five kilometers west of Torino on the road that climbs toward the Colle delle Finestre. The commune holds 174 residents across the capoluogo and four high hamlets: Balboutet, Laux, Fraisse and Pourrieres, each with its own parish and its own dialect inflection. In 1343 these communities joined the autonomous Escartons Republic, a federation of alpine villages that bought their freedom from the Dauphin and self-governed in Occitan for four hundred years until Napoleon dissolved them.
The Waldensian Reformation reached the valley in the sixteenth century and left a network of temples on the slopes below. The contemporary signature of Usseaux is the murales project: more than forty paintings on house walls showing alpine work, animals and peasant scenes, layered over stone facades that already carry sundials and carved lintels. Balboutet faces south and reads its hours from those dials. Laux holds a small lake at the foot of the meadows above the village.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 41 min by car.
Genoa (GOA) is about 3 h 2 min away.
By car from the center of Milan 3 h 2 min.
Coming by train into Torino Porta Susa? Usseaux is about 1 h 25 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
I Murales
More than forty painted murals across stone facades in the capoluogo and the borgate, depicting alpine work, peasant scenes and forest animals.
Balboutet
South-facing hamlet known for the sundials painted and carved across the facades of its stone houses, marking time in alpine tradition.
Lago del Laux
Small alpine lake on the meadows above the hamlet of Laux, a short walk from the village and ringed by fishing huts.
Fraisse
Borgata characterised by wooden sculptures and panels installed along its streets and in the woods surrounding the houses.
Parco Orsiera-Rocciavrè
Regional alpine park covering the slopes above Usseaux, with marked trails through larch forests and pastures to the ridgeline.
Living here
Could you live here?
Usseaux is at the end of the road.
- A village of 174. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Pinerolo, is 57 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Moncalieri, a city of 55,439, is 1 h 23 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.
We measured every town in the region on these rules, by its drive to Turin, the city we moved to: Moving to Turin and Piedmont.
- Population 174, down 11.7% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Moncalieri, 1 h 23 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Susa, 10 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €680 to €1,000 per m² to buy, €3.00 to €4.50 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- Nearest high school over ~30 minutes away
- Full fibre reaches 56% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Turin airport (TRN), 1 h 41 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Turin, 1 h 32 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, against 9% across Italy. There are 414 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 86% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Turin province ranks 57th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Susa, 10 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Turin, 51 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Ciriè, 48 km away. The nearest IB school is World International School of Torino, 48 km as the crow flies.
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, with nothing due on income under €7,500. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Piemonte spends about €2,240 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €467 a year for water, on the Piemonte average. In Turin, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.38, a meal in a pizzeria €12.25 and a man's haircut €24.17.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. 10% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 18% in a high or medium one. 66% 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
MURALES
More than forty wall paintings turn the four borgate into an open-air alpine gallery of peasant life and forest scenes.
ESCARTONS
Joined the autonomous Escartons Republic in 1343, a four-hundred-year Occitan-speaking federation of alpine villages dissolved by Napoleon.
FOUR BORGATE
Balboutet, Laux, Fraisse and Pourrieres, each with its own parish, dialect inflection and place in the valley above 1,400 meters.
Common questions
- What is Usseaux known for?
- Usseaux is a Val Chisone village at 1,416 meters with four scattered borgate and more than forty murals painted across the stone facades.
- Where is Usseaux?
- Usseaux is a comune in the province of Torino, in Piemonte, at 1416 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Usseaux?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Turin (TRN), about 1 h 41 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Milan to Usseaux?
- About 3 h 2 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Usseaux?
- Best in Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. July is the warmest month, averaging 23 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 21 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Usseaux?
- Fenestrelle, Gressoney-Saint-Jean and La Thuile.
- How many people live in Usseaux?
- 174 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Usseaux a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Usseaux is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Pinerolo, is 57 min away. The nearest city, Moncalieri, is 1 h 23 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Susa, 10 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 56% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 1416 m
- Population: 174
- Surface area: 37.97 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 Usseaux appears in
- The best small towns inside a nature park in PiemontePiemonteinside a parksmall6 towns · smallest 174 residents
- The best mountain towns in PiemontePiemontemountain10 towns · smallest 87 residents
- The best mountain towns within two hours of TurinNear Turinmountainwithin 2 hours10 towns · smallest 87 residents · closest 88 min away
- The best towns inside a nature park in PiemontePiemonteinside a park10 towns · smallest 174 residents
Featured on
Usseaux appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Usseaux
What all six share with Usseaux: under 1,000 people · mountain towns above 1,000 metres
Fenestrelle
Province: Torino
both high in the mountains
Gressoney-Saint-Jean
Province: Aosta Valley
both high in the mountains
La Thuile
Province: Aosta Valley
both high in the mountains
Macugnaga
Province: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
both high in the mountains
Luserna
Province: Trento
both high in the mountains
Ostana
Province: Cuneo
1 h 47 min apart by road
The letter
Usseaux 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 Usseaux comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Camogli, 185 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.