Skip to content
Vicinalia
Italiano Sign up

Floresta: what to know before buying a home

A municipality in the province of Messina, Sicilia. Official data on earthquakes, population, services and transport.

Liveability index free for any address

Search for an address in Floresta

The report looks at the exact point: landslide and flood risk, seismic zone, price per square metre for the area, services and nearby stops.

For example: Via Umberto Primo 1, Floresta.

Floresta, a village above a thousand metres in the Nebrodi

Above a thousand metres, deep in the Nebrodi mountains, Floresta has a climate that surprises anyone who thinks of Sicily only as sea and heat: climate zone F, with snowy, frosty winters and cool summers. The village lies inside the Nebrodi Park, among pastures, woods and livestock farms, in the province of Messina.

Buying a house here means reckoning with the cold. Before you buy, ask for the real heating costs, look at the thickness of the walls and the condition of the windows, and find out whether the roof copes well with the weight of snow. Mountain roads lengthen the journey to the coast and to the larger towns, where the hospital and secondary schools are.

In 2023 Floresta had 468 residents, 9.3% fewer than in 2011. The average age of 50.2 is above that of the province (46.7) and over-65s make up 30.6%. Foreign residents account for 7.5%, and households are small, with 1.55 people on average. Declared incomes are below the average for the province of Messina.

On the national scale kept by the Civil Protection Department, 17 municipalities in the province of Messina are in seismic zone 1 and 91 in zone 2; Floresta is in zone 2. Expected ground acceleration in the built-up area is about 0.193 g. For a house built before modern seismic standards, it is important to know whether structural work has been done and to have the paperwork for it.

The Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) cadastral maps cover Floresta, so the report finds the land parcel from the address. In mountain terrain like this, landslide hazard is assessed for the individual plot, and the report reads it from the official maps.

Key points

  • Mountain village in the Nebrodi Park, above a thousand metres.
  • Climate zone F: snowy winters, so budget for heating.
  • 468 residents, down 9.3% since 2011.
  • Seismic zone 2, expected acceleration about 0.193 g.

Overview

Floresta is a municipality in the province of Messina, in Sicilia. At the end of 2023 it had 468 residents, among the smallest in the province (106 of 108).

Earthquakes

For Italy's Civil Protection Department, Floresta is in seismic zone 2, a zone where strong earthquakes are possible. Most municipalities in the province (91 of 108) are in the same zone.

In the built-up area, the expected ground shaking (peak ground acceleration, PGA) is about 0.193 g, a medium-high value: the level with a 10% probability of being exceeded in 50 years, on rock.

For anyone buying in Floresta, the building matters a great deal: ask for the design year, whether it met the 2008 seismic standards, and whether any seismic retrofit has been carried out.

Population

Compared with the 2011 census, the resident population has fallen by 9.3%. The estimated average age is 50 years, higher than the province average (47). 31% of residents are over 65 (the regional figure is 23%). Foreign residents make up 7.5% of the population. On average, a household has 1.6 members.

Income and climate

In tax year 2024, taxpayers in Floresta declared an average taxable income of 17,125 euros, below the provincial average (20,687 euros). The Italian average is 24,895 euros.

Floresta is in climate zone F, with 3,309 heating degree days, with no limits on when heating may be used. The same table puts the town hall at 1,275 metres above sea level.

Services

In the official Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health lists, Floresta has 2 schools and 1 pharmacy. The Overture Maps data also lists 1 grocery shop.

The data shows no healthcare facilities within the municipality, against a provincial average of 0.8 per 1,000 residents.

Public transport

We do not yet have open public transport timetables for this municipality: the report says so explicitly, without inventing distances.

How built-up it is

Buildings, roads, car parks and other sealed surfaces cover 1.2% of the land in Floresta, compared with 6.0% in the province and 6.6% in the region. In 2024 built-up land stayed almost the same.

Radon and contaminated sites

Official databases list no contaminated sites in Floresta.

Landslides and flooding

Landslide and flood hazard changes from one street to the next even within Floresta: the report checks the address against the ISPRA maps.

House prices

The Revenue Agency's price ranges per square metre (OMI) apply to zones, not to whole municipalities: the report gives the range for the address's zone.

Land registry

The cadastral maps for Floresta are public: from the address the report finds the sheet and parcel number.

Liveability area by area

The Vicinalia liveability index runs from 0 to 100 and looks at the place, not the people who live there: services within walking distance, transport, green space, natural hazards, air, quiet, buildings and connection. Here it is worked out at the centre of each of the 9 inhabited census areas in Floresta. Half of the residents live in areas scoring 74 or more.

Residents by band

  • fair 6.2%
  • good 93.8%

Vicinalia index by census area, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Data: IdroGEO ISPRA (2026), Istat, INGV, EEA, AGCOM, Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.

The colour is the value at the centre of the area. For an exact address, search for it above: the free check looks at that exact point. How the index is worked out

Data sources

ISTAT code 083022. The text on this page is generated automatically from the data.