Who Will Save These Dying Italian Towns?
Near-empty villages try to hold on to an endangered way of life — and some of the country’s most important artisanal traditions.
'THE FIRST THING that must be said about the ancient town of Civita di Bagnoregio, just two hours away from Rome and Florence, is that it is beautiful. From a distance, it looks literally otherworldly: The town sits so high atop a perilously steep pinnacle of eroding volcanic rock that it seems as if it’s perched upon clouds rather than tethered to the earth. Its very sediment is strafed with 2,500 years of architectural history: Etruscan caves, ancient remains, medieval dwellings and Renaissance villas.
Originally a center along ancient trade routes, Civita di Bagnoregio was prosperous from Roman times through the late Middle Ages. But after a devastating earthquake in 1695, most residents fled for lower ground, and so began the city’s long decline. By the end of World War II, nearly all of its inhabitants had left in search of work in cities or abroad. For the last half century, its population has hovered around 10 or so full-time residents.
Because the erosion of the hill is so severe (houses have been tumbling off its sides since the 1700s), Civita di Bagnoregio will eventually be reclaimed by the landscape. Residents and visitors alike must park at the base and ascend a steep footbridge to enter through a huge Gothic archway. Past the backless facade of a Renaissance house, with several of its windows open to the sky like a stage set, lies a small, dusty piazza with a church, a fine seventh-century medieval tower, a small bar and not much else. There is no pharmacy or school, no hospital, none of the necessities that somehow serve to make a place a place. There are only a couple of inns, and a few restaurants. Civita is real without being actual, if that makes any sense. . .
But though these towns may represent the essence of Italian history and the country’s artisanal tradition, the government has done little to help preserve them, aside from declaring 2017 ‘‘The Year of the Villages’’ in hopes of boosting tourism. It has therefore fallen to locals — citizens and mayors — to try to change their fates, often through inventive, sometimes ingenious, methods that mingle humor with a deep sorrow and desperation. One picturesque medieval hamlet in Tuscany, Pratariccia, sold itself on eBay for $3.1 million several years ago. Another, Calsazio, tried to follow, offering itself for only $333,000, listing the item’s condition as ‘‘used.’’ In Calabria, the mayor of Sellia (population 530) signed a decree banning death and illness in his town, and recently opened an adventure park with a giant zip line he thought would lure visitors. Most recently, the mayor of Bormida in Liguria floated a provisional offer on his Facebook page: $2,100 to anyone who moved there in order to keep it populated. (There was so much interest that he had to delete the post.)'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/t-magazine/abandoned-italian-towns.html?
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