I stayed in one of Italy's ghost towns that's selling off homes for $1, and I was treated like royalty

Tom Murray

October 5, 2019 11:05 AM

Tom Murray / Business Insider

This is Sambuca di Sicilia, a small, historic town located in southeastern Sicily. It really is as picturesque as it looks in this photo.

In June, I traveled to Sicily to visit some of the towns that are selling off homes to foreigners for as little as 1 ($1) to see what they were really like.
In particular, I stayed in Sambuca, whose scheme has received some of the most widespread media coverage.
While the town was unsurprisingly quiet, I was bowled over by the hospitality I received.
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Italy's rural towns just don't have enough people in them.

That's why so many of them have launched last-ditch schemes in a bid to resuscitate their economies.

Most recently, the entire region of Molise offered visitors 25,000 ($27,500) to move there , provided they set up a business in one of the towns with less than 2,000 residents.

The most common tactic, though, has been offering abandoned homes for as little as one euro ($1.11).

There's always a catch, of course the homes have often been left untouched for years and are in a dilapidated state, and you must commit to spending a certain amount on renovations.

In June, I traveled to Sicily to visit some of the towns that had employed these schemes to see what they were really like.

In particular, I stayed in Sambuca, a charming town that has received the most widespread media coverage after CNN Travel happened upon it in January.

While the town was even quieter than I anticipated, I was bowled over by the hospitality of its inhabitants who treated me like royalty.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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