All things you need to know about living in Vernasca
Vernasca, in the province of Piacenza, is home to 5 Britons: 0.25% of its 2,017 residents.
That is the 250th-highest concentration of Britons among the 5,872 Italian comuni with at least 1,000 residents.
Within Emilia-Romagna it ranks 5th.
ISTAT counts 104 residents with a foreign citizenship in Vernasca, 5.16% of the population. The largest groups among the nationalities we follow most closely are Britons (5), Australians (3), French nationals (3).
On ISTAT's well-being measures, the province of Piacenza scores in the top quarter of Italian provinces for employment rate (20-64 years old) and intentional homicide rate.
It scores in the bottom quarter for burglaries reported and density and importance of museums' heritage.
These figures describe the province, not the town. A comune can sit some way from its province's average.
Summers average a high of 27.8°C (82°F) and winters a low of -0.6°C (31°F), measured over 2015 to 2024.
Vernasca sees about 14 days a year above 30°C (86°F).
It gets about 1,097mm of rain a year, spread across roughly 118 days.
These come from ERA5-Land reanalysis at the comune itself, not from the nearest weather station.
OMI puts residential purchase prices in Vernasca at about €635 per square meter in the second half of 2025.
At those figures, buying costs about 25 years of renting the same property.
Vernasca population over time
By nationality
| Nationality | Citizens | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 16 | 0.79% |
| Ukraine | 7 | 0.35% |
| United Kingdom | 5 | 0.25% |
| Australia | 3 | 0.15% |
| France | 3 | 0.15% |
| Poland | 3 | 0.15% |
| Albania | 2 | 0.10% |
| Lithuania | 2 | 0.10% |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 0.05% |
| Brazil | 1 | 0.05% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 0.05% |
| Germany | 1 | 0.05% |
| Denmark | 1 | 0.05% |
| Russia | 1 | 0.05% |
| United States | 1 | 0.05% |
| Venezuela | 1 | 0.05% |
| Argentina | 0 | 0.00% |
| Austria | 0 | 0.00% |
| Belgium | 0 | 0.00% |
| Canada | 0 | 0.00% |
| Cyprus | 0 | 0.00% |
| Czechia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Estonia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Spain | 0 | 0.00% |
| Finland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Greece | 0 | 0.00% |
| Croatia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Hungary | 0 | 0.00% |
| Ireland | 0 | 0.00% |
| Japan | 0 | 0.00% |
| South Korea | 0 | 0.00% |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 0.00% |
| Latvia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Malta | 0 | 0.00% |
| Mexico | 0 | 0.00% |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0.00% |
| Norway | 0 | 0.00% |
| Portugal | 0 | 0.00% |
| Sweden | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovenia | 0 | 0.00% |
| Slovakia | 0 | 0.00% |
Country of birth
| Group | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Born in Italy | 1,804 | 89.44% |
| Born elsewhere in the EU | 38 | 1.88% |
| Born outside the EU | 175 | 8.68% |
Britons over time
Quality of life in Piacenza
Full BES profile for Piacenza →Piacenza on cost vs quality of life (province-level) →
Property prices
Buying in Vernasca is well below the Piacenza average of €952/m². Averaged across 2 OMI micro-zones, which can differ substantially within the same town.
25 years of rent here equal the purchase price — above the national median of 22.2 years.
A ratio between two OMI prices, not a return on investment. It leaves out purchase taxes, IMU, maintenance, financing and the months a place sits empty — all of which push the real figure up. Useful for the question it does answer: whether this town looks expensive to buy relative to what renting in it costs.
A detached house here averages €793/m², against €635 for an apartment.
Compared street for street — houses and flats priced in the same neighborhood — a house costs 25% more per square meter.
OMI prices “Ville e Villini” separately from the apartments every other figure on this page describes. Nationally a house costs about 14% more per square meter, but in 450 comuni it costs less — worth checking rather than assuming.
Seismic zone
Vernasca is in seismic zone 3. Of the four zones, zone 1 is the highest hazard and zone 4 the lowest. The Department of Civil Protection describes zone 3 as a zone where strong earthquakes are less likely than in zones 1 and 2.
This is the legal classification the Region gave the comune, used for planning and for control of building works. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the building you are looking at: since the 2018 building code the design load of a new building comes from site-specific hazard, not from the zone. Have any specific property checked by a qualified engineer.
Not to be confused with the “seismic” routes of the 7% pensioner regime. Those turn on whether the comune was in the 2009 L’Aquila or 2016–17 central-Italy earthquake areas, not on its zone, and being in zone 1 does not make anyone eligible for that regime, or for any tax treatment.
See every comune on the map →Hospital, airport and daily-needs distance
Nearest hospital: Ospedale Fiorenzuola D'Arda, about 20.1 km / 20 minutes by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Nearest emergency department: Ospedale Fidenza (DEA level I), about 26.3 km / 26 minutes by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Nearest airport: Parma Airport (PMF), about 46.7 km / 42 minutes by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Nearest supermarket (OpenStreetMap): Coop, about 4.9 km / 4 minutes by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Nearest pharmacy: Farmacia di Vernasca SNC di Colombini I. e Quetti M., about 0.3 km / 1 minute by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Nearest railway station (OpenStreetMap): Fiorenzuola, about 19.8 km / 20 minutes by road from Vernasca (the main town).
Measured by road from the main town of the comune (its OpenStreetMap place point; the geographic center for the few comuni with none), at free-flow speeds with no traffic. It is approximate. For Vernasca, a trip from your own address can take longer or shorter. Drive the route before you rely on it, and ask the local health authority which hospital serves the town. Shops, pharmacies and stations are the nearest to the main town, not to your address.
Nearby comuni
← See Vernasca on the interactive map
This page, as data
Every figure above sits behind the page as a value with its source, its date and its coverage attached. Your assistant reads the same record, gaps included.