Piemonte · Vercelli
Varallo
The capital of Valsesia, crowned by a forty-five-chapel devotional complex on the rock above town.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Varallo is on our list
It holds UNESCO and Bandiera Arancione.
Subscribe and you get Varallo's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 39 min from Milan
- Population
- 6,844
- J9°
- F11°
- M12°
- A15°
- M19°
- J24°
- J26°
- A27°
- S21°
- O17°
- N12°
- D9°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Varallo sits where the Mastallone joins the Sesia, the capital of Valsesia and the gateway to the high valleys under Monte Rosa. The lower town gathers along the river confluence, ordinary and administrative, while the devotional complex occupies the rock above it, reached now by cable car but originally by a path of ascent that was itself part of the pilgrimage. The chapels were conceived as a reproduction of the geography of the Passion, laid out so that walking through them retraced a landscape rather than simply viewing scenes.
The complex grew over four centuries to its present scale, with more than eight hundred statues and four thousand frescoed figures distributed across the chapels and the basilica at their center. UNESCO inscribed the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy as a single serial site in 2003. What results is a town split in function between a valley capital going about its administrative life and a hillside set apart for a single sustained act of devotional theater, the two joined by a short vertical crossing that pilgrims once made on foot.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 47 min by car.
Milan Bergamo (BGY) is about 2 h 6 min away.
By car from the center of Genoa 2 h 28 min.
Coming from Milan, Turin or Genoa?
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Sacro Monte di Varallo
Forty-five chapels and more than eight hundred life-size statues laid out on the rock above town, founded by Bernardino Caimi as a substitute Holy Land for pilgrims.
Basilica del Sacro Monte
Minor basilica at the heart of the upper complex, focal point of the chapel circuit and the pilgrim route to the painted Holy Land.
Pinacoteca di Varallo
Civic painting collection in Palazzo dei Musei, including works by Gaudenzio Ferrari and his Valsesian school of sacred painting.
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie
Late fifteenth-century church at the base of the ascent, with frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari including the great Vita di Cristo wall.
Funivia del Sacro Monte
Cable car connecting the centro storico to the summit complex above town, the main vertical link between the lower city and the chapels.
Living here
Could you live here?
Varallo meets 1 of our 2 rules for a small town.
- 6,844 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Biella, a city of 43,181, is 1 h 7 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 6,844, down 7.2% since 2015
- Nearest city Biella, 1 h 7 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Borgosesia, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €650 to €930 per m² to buy, €3.60 to €5.40 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 40% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 4, very low hazard
- Milan Malpensa airport (MXP), 1 h 14 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Turin, 1 h 47 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
8% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Morocco, Ukraine and Romania, against 9% across Italy. 48 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France, Germany and the Netherlands. There are 324 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 48% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Vercelli province ranks 60th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Borgosesia, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Varese, 43 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Varese, 43 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Como, 62 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is European School Varese, 43 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 between 0.7% and 0.8% to your income tax, depending on your income. 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.
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. 8% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 10% in a high or medium one. 3% 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
OLDEST SACRO MONTE
UNESCO Sacro Monte founded in 1491 by Bernardino Caimi, the prototype that all eight other Sacri Monti followed.
GAUDENZIO FERRARI
Valsesian painter and sculptor who produced the life-size statues and frescoes that filled the chapels until around 1529.
VALSESIA CAPITAL
Administrative and cultural anchor of the Valsesia, at the confluence of the Sesia and Mastallone under the Monte Rosa massif.
Common questions
- What is Varallo known for?
- Varallo is the capital of Valsesia at 450 meters, crowned by a forty-five-chapel devotional complex on the rock above town.
- Where is Varallo?
- Varallo is a comune in the province of Vercelli, in Piemonte.
- What is the nearest airport to Varallo?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Milan Malpensa (MXP), about 1 h 14 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Genoa to Varallo?
- About 2 h 28 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Varallo?
- Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 27 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 21 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Varallo?
- Manciano, Sassoferrato and Subiaco.
- How many people live in Varallo?
- 6,844 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Varallo a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Varallo is a small town that meets 1 of our 2 rules. The nearest city, Biella, is 1 h 7 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Borgosesia, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 40% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 450 m
- Population: 6,844
- Surface area: 88.12 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 Varallo appears in
- The best hidden towns with a World Heritage site in PiemontePiemonteWorld Heritagehidden7 towns · smallest 506 residents
- The 9 best hill towns with a World Heritage site in PiemontePiemontehill townWorld Heritage9 towns · smallest 506 residents
- The best hill towns within 90 minutes of NovaraNear Novarahill townwithin 90 min9 towns · smallest 454 residents · closest 45 min away
Similar
Towns like Varallo
What all six share with Varallo: inland, away from the coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · hill towns
The letter
Varallo 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 Varallo comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Camogli, 177 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.