Italy has numbers of abandoned villages, emptied by earthquakes, landslides or economic losses, and some of them are now being brought back to life as resorts, artists’ colonies and more.
A recent article on TheLocal.it gave some examples, including a town once considered the “jewel of the Tiber Valley, Civita di Bagnoregio, (above) atop a stark hill overlooking the valley. In the 1600s, the town went down rapidly and literally, as earthquakes and erosion sent numbers of buildings crumbling to the bottom of the hill. Residents relocated to nearby towns, and eventually the town was abandoned.
Local authorities have asked for it to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. But possibilities are limited without serious funding and international help. Access to the town is only by the walkway seen in the picture, and local residents say “such a small community cannot prevent the collapse of the town,” whose condition worsens each year.
If the situation seems grim, it’s certainly not hopeless, considering the different fate of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a town abandoned in the 1800s when its wool trade died. In 2004, an entrepreneur bought up many of the abandoned properties, and created an “alb ergo diffuso” or “spread-out hotel” with guest rooms (all equipped with WiFi and underfloor heating) scattered among the different buildings. It’s become a fashionable spot, and numbers of other buildings have been bought as weekend homes.
Others have become artist colonies, and other uses…but if you’re a mind to, it’s not too late to own your own village. Patariccia, in Tuscany is for sale. Listed on E-bay at €2.5 million by its owners, believed to be a monastic order, it appears not to have been sold yet, perhaps because potential owners are put off by the fact that the nearest road is 800 meters away.
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