When the young move away, the old stay behind in many villages and small towns.
A city in Apulia does not want to accept this - and has an enticing offer for emigrants.
"Dolce Vita" in Italy: How about if you could have that not only on vacation, but all year round?
How nice would it be to always be able to enjoy the sun, beach and sea?
This certainly sounds tempting for retirees and the daring - a town in the sunny south of the country has the right offer.
It is called Presicce and is a small municipality in Puglia.
It has made it its mission to attract new citizens and get them to settle down there.
Italian city will pay €30,000 if you move - on their terms
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Apartments in Presicce cost around 25,000 euros.
The rest of the donated money can be used for renovation work.
© Sven Gruene/Imago
For those who are not yet tempted by life in paradise, the place has an attractive offer that is hard to resist: it offers 30,000 euros to anyone who buys an apartment or house there.
Sardinia, on the other hand, only pays 15,000 euros for emigrants.
With this action, Presicce, like many other small towns in Italy, wants to do something against the rural exodus.
It would simply be a shame to let the once magnificent and historic buildings simply fall into disrepair, agrees municipal councilor Alfredo Palese in an interview with US television station
CNN
.
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However, you don't just pocket the money, instead the city has come up with something.
Those who accept the offer will get the sum in two parts.
So, on the one hand, it will go towards the down payment for the purchase of one of the old buildings and, on the other hand, to renovate it if necessary.
In a few weeks, the city will give the green light.
According to the city council, the apartments for sale should cost 25,000 euros, for example, which would leave enough money for repair work.
Rural exodus in Italy - a big problem in many places
But where does this sudden wealth of the small town come from?
Apparently, Presicce has been merged with another municipality into a larger city called Presicce-Acquarica.
A total of about 9,000 inhabitants now live there, but only half in the older part of the municipality.
And according to Italian law, it now receives more public funding, "about a million euros a year for the coming years, which we want to invest in our older part of the city to revitalize it," concludes Palese.
A few years ago, the Italian village of Sambuca di Sicilia drew attention by selling houses for as little as one euro.
The reason for this was also the rural exodus - young people are moving away and few new residents are coming.
The municipality of Cinquefrondi in the south of the country tried similar means.
List of rubrics: © Sven Gruene/Imago
