Atrani, in Campania, is the smallest municipality in Italy by area: it measures just 12 hectares and has 751 inhabitants. It is part of the Amalfi Coast, a UNESCO heritage site since 1997. Morterone is the least populous municipality.
The smallest municipality in Italy by extension is located in Campania and has a surface area of just 0.1206 km²: it is Atrani, in the province of Salerno, and overlooks the sea, along the famous Amalfi Coast, east of Amalfi. Given such a small surface area (just 12 hectares, just under 17 regular football pitches) it is not surprising that it has an extremely high population density (i.e. ratio between the number of inhabitants and the surface area): with 751 inhabitants as of 1 January 2026, it has a density of 6,227 residents per square kilometer (the highest in the province of Salerno and among the top 20 places in the ranking of the most densely populated municipalities in Italy). The least populous municipality in Italy, however, is Morterone, in the province of Lecco, Lombardy.
Atrani has conquered with its geometries Maurits Cornelis Escher, the Dutch graphic designer and engraver famous for his impossible architecture, who stayed here in 1931 and dedicated several works to the Campania municipality, its steep stairs and narrow alleys. The village appears in particular in watercolours, sketches and in the famous Metamorphosis I (1937), II (1939–1940) and III (1967–1968), a sequence of geometric figures in which a bridge also appears which does not exist in the “real” Atrani.
Below the town of Atrani, in an underground stretch, the Dragone stream flows. In 2010, during exceptional rainfall on September 9th, it overflowed, causing one victim.
According to the territorial calculations of ISTAT (as of December 2021), the total surface area of Italy amounts to approximately 302,110 km²out of what are currently 7,894 municipalities (data updated to 21 February 2026). In second place in the ranking of the smallest municipalities by extension is Miaglianoin the province of Biella (Piedmont), with a surface area of 0.6678 km²; to the third Fiorano al Serioin the province of Bergamo (Lombardy), with 1.0601 km². Many of these micro-municipalities are located in Lombardy.
Here is the ranking of the top 10:
- Atrani (Salerno, Campania): 0.1206 km²
- Miagliano (Biella, Piedmont): 0.6678 km² (535 inhabitants)
- Fiorano to Serio (Bergamo, Lombardy): 1,0601 km² (2,938 inhabitants)
- Roccafiorita (Messina, Sicily): 1.17 km² (154 inhabitants)
- Conca dei Marini (Salerno, Campania): 1.17 km² (635 inhabitants)
- Solza (Bergamo, Lombardy): 1.2277 km² (2,009 inhabitants)
- Maslianico (Como, Lombardy): 1.2884 km² (3,162 inhabitants)
- San Lorenzo al Mare (Imperia, Liguria): 1.35 km² (1,224 inhabitants)
- Crosio della Valle (Varese, Lombardy): 1.44 km² (624 inhabitants)
- Ferrera of Varese (Varese, Lombardy): 1.51 km² (694 inhabitants)
On the contrary, according to i ISTAT data referring to 1 January 2023, among the largest municipalities in Italy by surface area there are Romein very first place, with 1,288.19 km², which exceeds the sum of the municipalities in second and third place, i.e. Ravennain Emilia-Romagna, with 653.67 km², e Cerignolain the province of Foggia, Puglia, with 593.92 km². Rome is also larger than the municipal territories of Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna and Florence combined, which occupy a total of approximately 1,077 km². Compared to Atrani, Rome is well 10,700 times bigger by surface.
