The knoll above the centre
Pill
Pihl in the Sappada dialectHamlet of Sappada
Pill, Pihl in Plodarisch, is a small cluster of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century timber houses on a knoll between Palù and Bach, at 1,251 m, off the regional road. It is the old hamlet closest to the town hall and, according to our calculation, the one that receives most sun on 21 December. The drawbacks belong in the same sentence: the slope is steep, the houses are few and almost all protected, and finding one for sale is rare.
The sun here
Where the sun reaches Pill from, and when
The ridge line you see is the real one, calculated from the centre of the hamlet. Above it are the sun's paths on the days that matter: where the line is solid the sun is in view, where it is dashed the sun has risen but is still behind the mountain.
On 21 December the sun reaches Pill at about 9:45 and leaves at about 15:15: about 5 h 30 min of direct sun, under a clear sky.
Move your mouse or finger over the panorama, or use the slider beside it: you can read the direction, the height of the ridge, the peak, and the time the sun passes that way.
In words: from Pill the highest stretch of ridge lies to the north-west, 26.6° above the horizon; the lowest to the east, 2.9°. To the south the ridge stands at 16.5°, and at midday on 21 December the sun climbs to 20°. At midday on that day the sun is in view. On 21 December it arrives at about 9:45 and leaves at about 15:15; on 21 June it stays in view from roughly 6:00 to 20:00.
Hours of direct sun, month by month
On the 21st of each month, under a clear sky, at the centre of the hamlet. The pale band is the day as it would be without mountains: the difference is what the ridge takes away.
- direct sun in Pill
- the day without mountains
- average of the hamlets
The same figures as a table
| Day | Direct sun | First light | Last light | Without mountains | Average of the hamlets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 January | 5 h 45 min | 9:50 | 15:35 | 9 h 08 min | 5 h 15 min |
| 21 February | 7 h 25 min | 9:35 | 16:55 | 10 h 36 min | 8 h 05 min |
| 21 March | 10 h 30 min | 6:35 | 17:05 | 12 h 08 min | 10 h 25 min |
| 21 April | 12 h 40 min | 6:40 | 19:15 | 13 h 49 min | 12 h 25 min |
| 21 May | 13 h 30 min | 6:15 | 19:45 | 15 h 10 min | 13 h 10 min |
| 21 June | 14 h | 6:00 | 20:00 | 15 h 46 min | 13 h 35 min |
| 21 July | 13 h 30 min | 6:25 | 19:55 | 15 h 13 min | 13 h 15 min |
| 21 August | 12 h 40 min | 6:45 | 19:25 | 13 h 52 min | 12 h 25 min |
| 21 September | 10 h 35 min | 7:20 | 17:55 | 12 h 12 min | 10 h 30 min |
| 21 October | 7 h 15 min | 10:05 | 17:20 | 10 h 35 min | 8 h |
| 21 November | 5 h 45 min | 9:25 | 15:10 | 9 h 08 min | 5 h 15 min |
| 21 December | 5 h 30 min | 9:45 | 15:15 | 8 h 30 min | 3 h 45 min |
21 December, the shortest day
- First light
- 9:45at about
- Last light
- 15:15at about
- Direct sun
- 5 h 30 minabout
- Without mountains the day would last 8 h 30 min: the ridge takes away 3 h.
- Across the 69 mapped buildings of the hamlet, direct sun ranges from 5 h 25 min to 5 h 35 min; the mid-point is 5 h 30 min.
- At midday the sun is in view all year round.
- What hides it longest is the ridge to the south-east, where Monte Siera stands: about 1 h 55 min.
The peaks in view from Pill
According to the calculation: at least twenty metres of summit above the terrain in between. A wood or a nearby house can still hide them.
The list of peaks in view
| Peak | Direction | Distance | Altitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monte Tuglia | E · 90° | 6.4 km | 1,945 m |
| Monte Cimon | E · 105° | 6.4 km | 2,415 m |
| Monte Siera | SE · 131° | 2.9 km | 2,443 m |
| Creton di Clap Grande | S · 192° | 4.3 km | 2,487 m |
| Terza Piccola | W · 261° | 4.5 km | 2,336 m |
| Monte del Ferro | NW · 330° | 2.2 km | 2,347 m |
Names and altitudes are those of OpenStreetMap. Peaks beyond the basin are left out: they are long lines of sight that need checking on the spot before we state them.
MethodA calculation, not a measurement: terrain model at 10 m, clear sky, the centre of the hamlet with the eye 6 m above the ground. Trees and buildings are not counted; times are rounded to five minutes and, where the sun skims a ridge, they can shift by ten to twenty.
Sources and details of the calculation
Times are Italian local time (summer time from late March to late October), calculated for the year 2027; the sun counts as present when the centre of its disc is above the ridge. On 21 September the sun's path is almost the same as on 21 March, an hour later by the clock. Calculated on 7 October 2026.
- Tarquini S., I. Isola, M. Favalli, A. Battistini, G. Dotta (2023). TINITALY, a digital elevation model of Italy with a 10 meters cell size (Version 1.1). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). doi.org/10.13127/tinitaly/1.1
- produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved
- Borgate e cime: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0 — www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
- Posizione del sole: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Solar Calculator (gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/), da J. Meeus, «Astronomical Algorithms»
What Pill is like
What kind of place it is
Pihl is the hill. The hamlet stands on a rise overlooking the western part of the village, just above the old road; regional road 355 passes a little further down without touching it. The twentieth-century growth that filled the centre along the regional road with buildings hardly reached here: Pill has remained a compact cluster, detached from Palù and Bach although a few minutes from both.
It really is small: a few dozen buildings and a few hundred metres of lanes in all. It has two crucifixes on the old road and no chapel of its own, one of the two exceptions among the hamlets. Some sources count it as part of Sappada Vecchia, others mention it separately: there is no official boundary.
The sun: what the calculation says
On 21 December, according to our calculation, the hamlet's map point receives about 5 h 30 min of direct sun, without a break, from roughly 9:45 to 15:15: it is the highest value among the fifteen hamlets on that date. Monte Siera, which further east keeps the mornings in shade, covers only the first part of the day from here. The result is also stable: moving the point by a hundred metres or so changes little. On 21 March the figure is about 10 h 30 min, on 21 June about 14 h.
The view follows the sun: the whole arc from Siera, to the south-east, to the Clap group and the Terze, to the south-west. Opposite, across the Piave, is the shaded slope with the ski runs.
It is a calculation on the terrain model, under a clear sky, without trees or buildings: it says what the mountains do, not what the neighbour's house does. And it does not entitle anyone to call Pill “the sunniest”: from February onwards other hamlets overtake it.
The houses, and what comes up for sale
Timber houses in Blockbau, that is, horizontal logs notched at the corners on a stone plinth, mostly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with some examples of houses extended sideways over time. What comes on to the market, when it does, are portions of a historic house.
Anyone buying here buys the rules as well. The old hamlets are a historic zone in the land-use plan: as a rule nothing new is built, every building has a protection grade from one to 7 that decides what can be done, and around protected buildings no additional volume may be built, not even an outbuilding, unless underground: so no garage above ground. Before signing, ask the municipality for the zone and grade of the building.
For the Italian Revenue Agency Pill is in the “central” zone, valued between €2,000/m2 and €3,000/m2 for standard homes (OMI, normal condition, gross floor area). It is a range based on sales in the masonry-built centre: for a historic timber house it says little.
On foot from here
The town hall, post office, pharmacy and shops of Bach are a few minutes away, downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back. The Campetti, the drag lifts of the nursery slopes, are a little further. The bus stop is on the regional road, below the hamlet. For the chairlifts of Sappada 2000 and Monte Siera you need the ski bus or the car.
1,251 mSource 3OpenStreetMap, the hamlet's node, with the altitude from the EU-DEM 25 m model (OpenTopoData); data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 6 October 2026
Altitude of the hamlet
The hamlet's point on OpenStreetMap; the houses stand between 1,228 m and 1,263 m.
Direct sun on 21 December
The highest value among the fifteen hamlets on that date. Calculated on the terrain model, under a clear sky: trees and buildings are not taken into account.
On foot from here
- the town hall, post office and pharmacy, in Bach
- the shops of Palù and Bach
- the Campetti, the drag lifts of the nursery slopes
- the bus stop, on the regional road
The drawback
According to our estimate on the terrain model it is the steepest slope among the hamlets: access, parking space and snow have to be looked at house by house, in winter.
Who it suits
Who Pill suits, and who it does not
It suits you if
- Anyone who wants historic timber, winter sun and the centre on foot, all together.
- Anyone prepared to wait: the houses are few and rarely sold.
- Anyone looking for a house off the regional road but not far from services.
Look elsewhere if
- Anyone who wants to extend, add a garage or rebuild freely: the constraints do not allow it.
- Anyone who struggles with slopes or wants to drive up to the door in every season.
- Anyone looking for a new apartment.
The drawbacks, stated
- Steep slope: access, parking and snow clearance have to be checked house by house.
- Very few houses in all: supply is rare.
- Protection constraints on almost everything: no additional volume, and a covered parking space is hard to come by.
- No shop in the hamlet: you go down to Bach or Palù.
Prices
How the Italian Revenue Agency values this area
Pill falls within the zone that the property market observatory (OMI) calls “central”. For homes in the “abitazioni civili” category, in normal condition, the official value (second half of 2025) runs from €2,000/m2Source 1Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026 to €3,000/m2Source 2Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026 of gross floor area. It is a range that applies to the whole zone: it is not the price of a house, and it is not an asking price from the listings.
Questions about Pill
Is Pill part of Sappada Vecchia?
It depends on who is counting. The most widespread list, that of the nine hamlets, includes it; the municipality's itinerary mentions it separately; the entry of I Borghi più belli d'Italia does not name it among its hamlets. What is certain is that it is a historic timber hamlet on the old road, the first you meet coming from the west.
Is it really the hamlet with the most sun?
On 21 December, yes, according to our calculation: about 5 h 30 min for the hamlet's map point. Not all year round: from February other hamlets receive more. And the calculation sees neither trees nor houses: it holds for the mountains, not for a window.
Can I build a garage next to a historic house?
As a rule, no. Around protected buildings in the historic zones the land-use plan allows no new volume, not even an outbuilding, unless underground. An existing parking space should be verified and written into the deed.
Sources
Facts checked against the sources on 6 October 2026.
- I Borghi più belli d'Italia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, “Le Borgate di Sappada” (entry for Pill)
- Comune di Sappada/Plodn, Piano Regolatore Generale Comunale, variante n. 3: norme tecniche di attuazione
- Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, property values database
- OpenStreetMap, nodes for hamlets, roads, lifts and services (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)
- OpenStreetMap, the hamlet's node, with the altitude from the EU-DEM 25 m model (OpenTopoData); data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 6 October 2026
- Our calculation, not a measurement, on the 10-metre terrain model (TINITALY, INGV) in the basin and the 30-metre model (Copernicus) beyond, under a clear sky, trees and buildings not considered; times and durations rounded to five minutes · 7 October 2026
- Comune di Sappada/Plodn, municipal land-use plan (Piano Regolatore Generale Comunale), amendment no. 3: consolidated implementing rules: protection grades of the buildings · 6 October 2026
- Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026
- Our calculation: altitude of the hamlet's OpenStreetMap buildings on the EU-DEM 25 m model (median, 10th and 90th percentile) · 6 October 2026