Showing An Italian Island: The Story of a Life Changing Italian Holiday by Paul Wright

"You may have the universe if I may have Italy." — Giuseppe Verdi

An Italian Island is based on four sets of circumstances existing and playing out in present day Italy: An ageing population; abandoned villages; one euro properties; and the migrant situation. In Italy there are around 2,500 abandoned medieval towns, villages and hamlets, and another 3,000 have lost up to ninety per cent of their residents, especially the young, who have moved abroad. Those left behind are the older generation, and more than likely their villages will become ‘ghost’ villages before they die. What is perhaps surprising is that a lot of these places are nestled in spectacular locations and they are for sale. Common examples are entire villages of as many as seventy dwellings offered for two hundred and fifty thousand euro. And there are other villages with individual properties for sale at the nominal sum of one euro per dwelling.
After London born geography teacher Sarah Stevenson returns from holidaying in sunny Crete with her fast food loving Anglo-American boyfriend, she seriously considers upping sticks and moving there. However, it is a further three years until they can have another holiday, this time to a beautiful but failing Italian island, and this is to change the course of both their young lives. When Sarah hears from the mayor that the island will be a ‘ghost’ island within ten years because its population is diminishing rapidly, she resigns from her teaching job to help save it. Despite a group of inhospitable locals on her back, who protest vigorously when she tells them she intends selling hundreds of abandoned properties to foreigners for the token price of one euro per dwelling, and importing migrant labour to do the restoration work, she eventually wins through.