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Rometta: 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 Rometta

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 Nazionale 1, Rometta.

Rometta, a hill town on the Peloritani and its seaside Marea

Rometta has two sides. The old town sits high on the Peloritani mountains at around five hundred and fifty metres, remembered as the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily to fall to the Arabs. Rometta Marea, the district on the Tyrrhenian coast, has grown a great deal in recent decades and is now home to much of the population.

Choosing between up and down changes everything. On the hill there are stone houses, narrow steep streets, colder winters and longer trips to shops and schools; down at the Marea there are low-rise flats and detached houses, the beach, and the railway and the Messina-Palermo motorway running along the coast. Messina is about twenty kilometres to the east and Milazzo lies to the west, and many residents work in one or the other. Declared incomes are just above the provincial average.

The population is steady. Istat, the national statistics office, counted 6,584 residents in 2023, 0.7% more than in 2011. The average age (46.8) is almost the same as the province, over-65s make up 24.4%, and households are small, 2.02 people on average. Foreign residents are 1.9%.

The Strait of Messina area still remembers the 1908 earthquake that destroyed Messina. Today 17 municipalities in the province, Rometta among them, are in seismic zone 1, the highest on the Civil Protection Department's scale, and the other 91 are in zone 2; the expected ground acceleration in the built-up area is about 0.171 g. For a flat at the Marea, ask when the building was designed and for its structural sign-off certificate; for a stone house on the hill, ask what strengthening work has been done.

Between the mountains and the sea run short, steep streams called fiumare, dry for months and able to swell within hours in heavy rain. On the Peloritani slopes the ground can slip. The report reads flood and landslide hazard for the exact address. The Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) publishes cadastral maps here, so each address can be traced to its land parcel.

Key points

  • Peloritani hill town with Rometta Marea on the coast, between Messina and Milazzo.
  • Small households, 2.02 people on average; over-65s at 24.4%.
  • Seismic zone 1, expected acceleration about 0.171 g.
  • Seasonal torrents and steep slopes: flooding and landslides by address.

Overview

Rometta is a municipality in the province of Messina, in Sicilia. At the end of 2023 it had 6,584 residents, ranked 16 of 108 municipalities in the province.

Earthquakes

For Italy's Civil Protection Department, Rometta is in seismic zone 1, the highest-risk zone, where very strong earthquakes are possible. Only 17 of 108 municipalities in the province are in zone 1.

In the built-up area, the expected ground shaking (peak ground acceleration, PGA) is about 0.171 g, a medium-high value: the level with a 10% probability of being exceeded in 50 years, on rock.

For anyone buying in Rometta, 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 number of residents is nearly unchanged. The estimated average age is 47 years, in line with the province. 24% of residents are over 65 (the regional figure is 23%). Foreign residents make up 1.9% of the population. On average, a household has 2.0 members.

Income and climate

In tax year 2024, taxpayers in Rometta declared an average taxable income of 21,502 euros, in line with the province (20,687 euros). The Italian average is 24,895 euros.

Rometta is in climate zone D, with 1,584 heating degree days: heating may be switched on from 1 November to 15 April, for up to 12 hours a day. The same table puts the town hall at 560 metres above sea level.

Services

In the official Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health lists, Rometta has 6 schools and 2 pharmacies. The Overture Maps data also lists 1 grocery shop, 3 healthcare facilities and 4 sports facilities.

There are 0.2 grocery shops and supermarkets per 1,000 residents, fewer than the province average (0.6).

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 7.4% of the land in Rometta, compared with 6.0% in the province and 6.6% in the region. In 2024 built-up land grew by 0.5 hectares.

Radon and contaminated sites

Official databases list one contaminated site, or site still under investigation, in Rometta. The report tells you whether one is close to the address.

Landslides and flooding

Landslide and flood hazard changes from one street to the next even within Rometta: 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 Rometta 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 48 inhabited census areas in Rometta. Half of the residents live in areas scoring 60 or more.

Residents by band

  • modest 3.5%
  • fair 96.5%

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 083076. The text on this page is generated automatically from the data.