Precis

For many people, living in an historic town in Italy seems like an unaffordable dream.

But thanks to an ambitious social experiment you can live la dolce vita in Sicily for just one euro!

This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Natalie Whiting travels to the Sicilian towns where people are arriving from all over the world to snap up abandoned houses for virtually nothing. 

And their arrival is helping to solve one of Italy’s biggest problems.  

The country has the oldest population in Europe with deaths now far outstripping births and huge numbers of young people are leaving for better work opportunities.

The one-euro house scheme aims to fix the vanishing population problem by enticing new residents to reinvigorate the struggling towns.  

Natalie meets the newcomers with ambitious plans of turning their rundown purchases into Italian dream homes, she talks to the locals, some of whom are still not sure about their new neighbours.

And she meets the optimists who are confident an affordable real estate boom can not only breathe new life into these old towns but create a new community and forge new friendships. 

Episode teaser

00:10

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: From its sun-soaked shores to its rugged peaks, Sicily is a dream. For thousands of years people have been drawn to this Mediterranean isle.

00:14

"Buongiorno."

00:35

CAKE VENDOR: Sicily is heaven on earth. Sea, sun, food. Everything's beautiful, everything's good.

00:37

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: "It's very good."

00:45

It's hard to imagine here in the heart of the capital Palermo, but there are actually parts of Sicily that are now desperate to attract people.  Italy has the oldest population in Europe.  In the last decade it's fallen by over a million people, and in the next decade they're expecting the same again. Sicily's iconic hilltop towns are feeling the pinch.

00:49

MAN: There were laneways full of people, now there's no one left.

01:20

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: But the locals have a plan they hope is irresistible -- selling abandoned houses for just one euro.

01:33

COLOGERO: There was a boom, which I think was even bigger than people expected.

01:42

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: It's not just about renovating houses, it's a grand social experiment to try to breathe new life into these old towns. People are coming from all over the world to snap up these cheap houses, but what's life like after you've signed on the dotted line? Can the foreigners make a home for themselves here? And what do the locals think of their new neighbours? There's a rebirth happening, but is it enough to rescue these towns? 

01:50

Title: ITALY'S ONE EURO HOUSE DREAM

Music

02:22

All Saints Day procession

Band music

02:31

Super: MUSSOMELI, SICILY

02:34

All Saints Day procession

02:42

Natalie watches procession. Super:
Natalie Whiting

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: I'm in Mussomeli and it feels like I've stepped back in time. This procession is as old as the streets its winding down. The people are marking All Saints Day with a march to the cemetery.

02:50

PRIEST:  "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you."

03:08

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Perched on a hill in the middle of the Sicilian hinterland, there's a timeless charm to this place. But some fear the town could be on its own slow march to the grave.

03:11

Procession at cemetery

Across Italy, deaths far outstrip births, and people are moving overseas to find work. There used to be over 15,000 people living here in Mussomeli. Now there are just 10,000 and a lot of empty houses.

03:28

PRIEST:  "Dearest brothers and sisters, we find ourselves here as every year to honour our dearly departed in this place."

03:50

Natalie to camera in cemetery

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Down here, it is just so clear that tradition and family runs deep in the town of Mussomeli. There are generations of people buried here and their families are coming today to pay respect to them. The concern for the town is making sure that there are more generations in the future to keep carrying on these traditions. 

04:04

Cemetery statuary/Mussomeli GVs

Music

04:24

Natalie walks with Toti to abandoned house

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: This is Mussomeli's deputy mayor Toti Nigrelli. The 37-year-old father of two was born and bred here. He thinks the one euro house program is the key to fixing the town's problem.

04:2

TOTI NIGRELLI:  This is one of our one euro houses, this is on the market also.

04:56

Toti interview outside house

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Right, so I could buy this one for one euro?

TOTI NIGRELLI: One euro, yeah.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: One euro is very cheap – what's the catch?

05:00

TOTI NIGRELLI: Catch is you are obliged to renew the house in two to three years.

05:09

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter:  If you don't start renovating work in three years, you give the house back?

TOTI NIGRELLI: No. But you have to pay 5000 penalty to the municipality of Mussomeli. Only this.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: So you've just got to get work started in time. Well, shall we have a look?

TOTI NIGRELLI: Yeah, go.

05:13

Natalie and Toti at front door

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Towns all over Italy have been doing this for years, and it's made international headlines. Mussomeli started its program six years ago to try to revitalise the town.

05:32

TOTI NIGRELLI: You want to come in first?

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Sure. So fixing the door might be the first step.

05:55

Toti and Natalie in house

TOTI NIGRELLI: This is the first floor. 

05:59

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Looks like this one's got a bit of water damage up here.

TOTI NIGRELLI: Yeah, this house needs some work, obviously.

06:05

Damaged house

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: This place needs a new roof, among other things. Toti thinks the renovations would set you back about 30,000 euro…

06:13

Toti and Natalie in upstairs room

Is 30,000 about average about what most people would spend or does it vary between the houses? 

TOTI NIGRELLI: Starts from 10,000 to, depends. 100,000, 200,000. Depends the dimension of the house. 

06:23

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Many of the owners of these old houses have died, and the relatives who inherit them don't want them.

06:38

Toti interview

TOTI NIGRELLI: In Italy, if you have more than one house, you have to pay a lot of taxes, because you're considered "rich", and people here in Mussomeli, they prefer to leave the house for free, and not pay the taxes.

06:47

Municipal office, Toti at desk

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Back in Toti's office his inbox is groaning with enquiries; so many it crashed his server. More than 300,000 people from around the world have emailed, including many from Australia.

07:04

TOTI NIGRELLI: We have 74,000 people from Australia that visited our website.

07:20

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Normally you can only come to Italy for three months at a time.  If you want to stay longer, you'll have to tackle the Italian bureaucracy.

TOTI NIGRELLI: A lot of people ask us how to obtain visa, and we have some lawyer that give these services.

07:25

Drone shot over Mussomeli

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The scheme had to pause during COVID, but it's ramping back up now. They've sold 400 houses so far, and Toti expects to sell a hundred more this year.

07:43

Mussomeli GVs

Not all of them go for one euro.  You can spend a little more – around 15,000 euro – and get something in better shape.

07:57

TOTI NIGRELLI: For us, it's important to repopulate our town with people from all parts of the world.

08:06

Natalie driving through old streets

Music

08:15

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter:  I think driving on these little streets would take some getting used to if you bought a house here. These historic neighbourhoods are beautiful, but they're not exactly convenient. "Oh… shit."

08:20

Part of the problem here in Mussomeli and in other towns is that the locals that are here have moved out of these old parts of town, favouring some of the more modern areas where the homes are a bit easier. 

08:41

New apartments

While many locals prefer these new apartments on the outskirts of town. I'm about to meet someone who has

09:00

Old Mussomeli

fallen in love with the cobblestone streets at Mussomeli's heart.

09:07

Natalie visits Rubia

Ah hello, Rubia?

RUBIA: Natalie, nice to meet you. 

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me over. 

RUBIA: You are welcome. So this is the 1 Euro house.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: This is it.

RUBIA:  This is it.  

09:14

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: What state was it in when you bought it? 

RUBIA: Fully collapsed.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Right. That's quite the low starting point.

09:27

Rubia opens shutters

Rubia Daniels was among the first one euro home buyers in Mussomeli. She bought three, and has been managing the renovations from her home in California.

09:34

Rubia shows photos of renovation in progress

How did you go fixing the roof?

RUBIA:  I brought five suitcases with tools. I brought a generator all from California. I flew my brother in law from Brazil. I hired local people. And I was like, we're doing this.

09:46

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: And that's the roof?

RUBIA: Yeah.  And that's the sunlight coming through.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Oh yes. Okay. So that's the hole clear through. Wow.

10:02

Rubia shows kitchen and bathroom

RUBIA: This is my new kitchen. It's one of those traditional Italian kitchens. Over here we have the bathroom. And I have shower tower, which gives me five different types of water including waterfall.

10:13

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: What more can you ask for?

10:29

Rubia and Natalie upstairs

Upstairs, it's still a construction site. Rubia plans to retire here.

10:32

RUBIA:  I feel like the house is a living thing. I have feeling for the house; everything that is done here is done purposely to bring the house back alive. It's amazing. I just love the house.

10:38

View from Rubia's house. Natalie and Rubia on balcony

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: So was it the view that sort of sold you on the house?

RUBIA: Definitely. The feeling of the street itself is almost like we stop. We are just back in history and past and it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous place.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: So what's it been like sort of managing this big project remotely?

10:55

RUBIA: People are reliable and capable to do the work. You just need to manage your expectations. I don't have California expectations. After all, this is an island. They are on island time and this is Sicily.

11:14

View of countryside

Music

11:29

Cologero working on Rubia's house

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Cologero Lanzalaco is a local builder working on Rubia's house.

11:33

COLOGERO: We have a good relationship. We have respect for these people and treat them like friends. Not as clients, as friends.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: he's been on the job for almost a year, but just met her for the first time this week.

11:40

COLOGERO: We send updates of our work on WhatsApp and photos of the entire process. We're constantly keeping people overseas up to date, so they know what we're doing and how we're doing it.

11:56

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The foreigners love these old houses, but sometimes their expectations need to be managed.

12:13

COLOGERO:  The strange thing is that they want the best without spending much, and sometimes it's not possible given how old these houses are. Sometimes we laugh about it but we always come back to, how do we fix these houses in the safest way? 

12:20

Drone shot over Mussomeli

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The one euro scheme has created a boom  for the local building industry.

12:40

Rubio and Cologero in car

Today, Cologero is taking Rubia on a shopping expedition.

12:48

Rubio and Cologero shop for tiles

COLOGERO:  I think this one is too dark. This one is much more beautiful, in my opinion.

RUBIA: This is nice.

13:00

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: This tile shop has been in the same family for three generations.

SANTINO: This is Sicilian life from the Arab point of view and this one from the Spanish point of view. I think this is a wonderful initiative.

13:07

Santino interview

Every day we have one or two people coming here who have bought a house and intend to renovate it.

13:24

Man selling fruit and veg from truck

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Some of the locals are still sceptical.

FRUIT SELLER:   Mussomeli is dying. It's a slow, slow agony.

13:35

The older people are dying, which is only natural, and young people are leaving because there's no work. I don't see any prospects for the future. The town can't be reborn with this alone. We need something else.

13:52

Mussomeli GVs/Natalie to camera

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The scale of the problem is really hard to ignore.  While parts of the town are getting a new lease on life, but there are other areas like this one where hundreds of homes are still sitting empty and abandoned. 

14:05

Danny opening kitchen

But many of the new arrivals are trying to help the town, and do more than just fund a renovation. One of the best-known foreigners is Danny McCubbin. The Aussie expat worked in London on celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's community food projects.

14:28

DANNY MCCUBBIN:  I always pictured myself in Italy.  I came to Mussomeli first in May 2019. I'd heard about the one Euro houses.  I ended up buying a house that a lot of other foreigners bypassed, which I always just pictured it would either be a community kitchen or a place that has social value for the town.

14:48

Natalie and Danny in kitchen

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Danny got a refund on his one euro house when it was damaged by water pouring in from a derelict house next door. But he didn't leave, and he set up his community kitchen in the main piazza.

15:13

Danny preparing vegetables

DANNY MCCUBBIN: So the Good Kitchen is a communal space in the heart of the town here in Mussomeli, where we every week rescue food from the supermarkets. And then we use that food for good. So we deliver fresh food parcels to families. And today, being Sunday, we do a Sunday lunch. And that lunch is just for anyone.

15:27

Food parcels for delivery

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: There are about 20 food parcels to be delivered first, to local families that are struggling.

15:46

Danny packing pastries into food parcel

DANNY MCCUBBIN: I really think about each person, the food that I'm putting into that parcel for them. Give them a bit of joy.

15:53

Cologera getting out of car

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The kitchen is staffed by volunteers, including local nonna Cologera Lanzalaco.

DANNY MCCUBBIN: She teaches me how to cook Sicilian food.

16:01

Cologera arrives at kitchen

She is really the heart and soul of the Good Kitchen. 

16:10

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: I think this is the woman you're speaking about! 

DANNY MCCUBBIN: Cologera, Cologera. Come here. Cologera is, as I said, my right-hand person in the kitchen. She's incredible. The kitchen wouldn't exist without Cologera… I'm saying good things about you.

COLOGERA:  Thank you

16:13

Cologera prepares vegetables

I'm a reserved person, I've always been shy. I used to find it difficult to be around people. I wasn't comfortable speaking. But since I met Danny, I've slowly opened up and made many acquaintances and friendships. So now it's no longer 'home and church', as they say in Mussomeli. Now it's 'home and kitchen'.

16:36

Cologera delivers meals with young woman

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: This morning, Cologera is heading out to deliver meals around town.

COLOGERA:  It's something that gives you so much satisfaction because there are lonely people who can probably afford to buy a meal, but they're just waiting for  someone to come and visit them.

17:04

YOUNG WOMAN [delivering food]: Here it is.

COLOGERA: And give them a hug. So it's nice for me too.  

17:29

YOUNG WOMAN [delivering food]: Here it is. One and two.

MAN: Thank you, thank you

17:36

Danny preparing pasta

DANNY MCCUBBIN: Ciao Mico, come stai? 

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Back at the Good Kitchen, there's a growing army of hungry mouths to feed.

17:44

Cologera preparing vegetables at outside table/ Danny preparing nuggets

DANNY MCCUBBIN: Because we've got a lot of kids today, every now and then we do like a healthy chicken nuggets. Like a shnitty.

17:52

Residents at lunch

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: It's not just locals in need of a meal or some company. The good kitchen has also become a social hub for the growing community of 1 euro house buyers. 

18:02

DANNY MCCUBBIN: Sunday lunch is incredibly important to Italians… And it's just grown into these moments where you get me as an Aussie to sit with my friend Vera from Ukraine, and then there might be somebody from Argentina or somebody from America who's come to bought a house and you just get this cross-pollination of breaking bread on a Sunday.

18:15

Natalie to camera

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: There's been people coming in and out all morning, locals, new arrivals, there is a real sense of community here. It's a classic Italian Sunday lunch, but with a bit of a twist.  

18:41

Residents at lunch/Danny interview h

DANNY MCCUBBIN:  The one euro house program has been fantastic for Mussomeli. It's been a catalyst. It's almost like the hook that brings people to Mussomeli. I think now though, this town has more to offer than a one euro house. 

18:51

Patrons outside kitchen

PATRONS: "Cheese!"

19:09

Natalie walks to visit Erica

19:14

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Danny's not the only one who came for a house and found a town in need. I'm meeting another foreigner who some people say has pulled off a miracle, battling Italy's notorious bureaucracy to help save the local hospital. Erica Moscatello's been in town for a two years now, and she's mastered the warm Sicilian welcome.  Erica's an Argentine with Italian roots. 

19:20

Natalie inside Erica's home. Erica makes coffee

She opted to pay a little more for her house, but the place still needed work.

ERICA: We renovated it from scratch. The house was basically collapsed. We moved to Mussomeli because we truly believed we'd find the Sicilian way of life here. A slower way of living.

19:58

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: But after arriving she was horrified to find out that the hospital was at risk of closing because of staff shortages.

20:27

Erica interview

ERICA: I couldn't believe it. I've just moved to a town with no hospital!. Imagine what you'd do with your child if there's an emergency, what do you do? I had two options: I could leave, or lend a hand.

20:37

Erica at computer

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Erica came up with a scheme to bring in doctors from Argentina, where over half the population claim Italian heritage. But first she had to take on the system.

20:53

Erica interview

ERICA: I told Giuseppe, the mayor, that he had to sort out the legal questions. Everybody knows that Italy has an appalling bureaucracy. And so we started this crusade. There was nothing and now there's a hospital which remains open with doctors of a high standard, the highest quality.  

21:07

Natalie walks to hospital to meet with Luciano

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: There are now nine Argentine doctors working in Mussomeli, including Luciano Verrone.

21:29

DR LUCIANO: Patients, when we visit them, they are crying because they were waiting for us. They were waiting for people who saved the hospital.  

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: How did it feel getting that kind of a response from the patients?

21:39

DR LUCIANO: I feel great, because I think I'm helping people. That's why I was made for. So I really love it.  

21:48

Erica on balcony/Mussomeli GVs

 NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Erica has now helped place dozens of doctors in hospitals all over Italy.  From her balcony overlooking the square, she believes Mussomeli's revival is just beginning.

ERICA: There are more than 5,000 houses in the historic centre of Mussomeli, so real change will begin, I believe, with the passage of time. But yes, we are seeing progress. It's really happening.

22:00

Music

22:36

Natalie to camera, driving

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Mussomeli isn't the only town in this part of Sicily that's selling houses on the cheap. I'm driving to the neighbouring town of Cammarata, it's also selling 1 euro houses, but interestingly, it's not the local council that's running the scheme. It's actually a group of young professionals who moved overseas for work opportunities, but they've decided to come back to try to revive their town.

22:41

Drone shot over country road

Italy has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of young Italians have packed up and moved overseas for work.

23:09

Cammarata GV. Super:
CAMMARATA, SICILY

So I'm keen to meet this group who's bucking the trend.

23:20

Natalie meets Martina and Jon Luca at café

Martina Giracello and her fiancé Jon Luca are running Cammarata's 1 euro house scheme. They grew up here, but like so many young people, after high school they moved overseas.

23:30

MARTINA:  We had a really nice and free childhood here. At some point you have to leave town if you want to go to university or if you want to have different experiences. But then I realised I like more my town. Having this contact with the people here, it's something that I couldn't have in a huge city.

2349

Martina at computer

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Martina's an architect and got a job at a local firm. Jon Luca is a graphic designer.

24:12

Jon Luca interview at café

JON LUCA: Since I am doing freelance stuff, I can work from wherever I want to, so.

24:18

Men playing cards

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: it was their parents' generation who abandoned Cammarata's cramped and crumbling old town.

24:24

MARTINA: Young people decided to come back to the old town. They decided to renovate their grandparents' home and live there. 

24:33

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: It mystifies some of the locals.

MAN: I wouldn't buy one. It's not that I don't like the place, the place is wonderful. There is no one left, so perhaps you would find yourself with a renovated house without anyone around.

24:42

Martina and Jon Luca walk with Natalie

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The couple formed a not-for-profit called 'Street To' with some other young locals, and took over management of Cammarata's 1 euro scheme...

25:06

Previously the local council had been advertising the one Euro houses? 

MARTINA: Yeah, they started actually the project in 2014. But because there wasn't a good office taking care about the project, they couldn't manage it properly. 

25:16

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: So what was it like when you first sort of took it over from the council? 

25:32

JON LUCA: It's a funny story actually, because when we took they project from the municipality, they gave us what they had so far, and they had thousands of emails, but for some reason they decided to print all the emails and give us the tons of papers with emails. And I filled my own cars with thousands of emails of people who wanted to buy that.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: So just in the boot full of paper? 

25:36

JON LUCA: Yeah. Yeah.  

26:06

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: They're keen to find buyers who want to put down roots.

26:09

MARTINA: Basically, people that want to stay here and be part of the community.

26:12

Martina and Natalie

If you can stay more than the two weeks just for your vacation home, it will be nice.

26:16

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Two new arrivals here are already making inroads in this fledgling community. 

26:24

Natalie meets with Krastina and Stefan, Martina and Jon Luca

Krastina and Stefan recently bought this one euro house through the Street To group…

26:29

Did you look at a few places before deciding on this one?

KRASTINA:  Yes, we looked at a few. But here the town is the best one… and the people in the town, they are too.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Is that what sold you on Cammarata, the people? The locals?

KRASTINA:  Yes, for sure. 

JON LUCA: You can be honest. It was the food. 

KRASTINA:   No, they are amazing. The people, the food, the city, the views, a lot of things -- and just the spirit. 

26:39

Krastina, Stefan and Natalie into house

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Krastina and Stefan are originally from Bulgaria. More recently they've been living in the UK. They were in Sicily on holiday with their children when they decided to stay.

27:09

STEFAN: This is one of the reasons to choose.

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Yeah that's a pretty good reason.  What an amazing view.

27:22

Krastina and Stefan look at view

KRASTINA:  The life in the UK is very stressful. Everything is about the money.   We were there seven years, we didn't make one friend.

27:29

And here for two months we have more than 10 new friends.

27:39

Krastina, Stefan and children head for park

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: The family are renting while they renovate. Today, they're headed to the park for a play date with some local friends.

27:46

KRASTINA: Our son, he's eight years old and he's in school here. And daughter, she's four years old and she's in kindergarten. And I think they like here, the life, they can go outside when they want, doesn't matter if I have work and I cannot go with them, they just say ciao Mama I am going out and I say, okay, ciao. 

27:58

Gloria and Krastina in park with children

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: Krastina met Gloria through Street To. Having kids of a similar age sealed the friendship. They muddle through in a mix of languages.  

28:23

GLORIA:  Krastina speaks English well and I understand quite well. But they have to learn Italian if they want to live here and so we are also trying to help them understand Italian.  The entire community benefits when young people of other nationalities move here. People that my children can spend time with, as well as the other residents. 

28:34

Krastina interview

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: What's it like being part of this movement to revitalise the old town?  

29:11

KRASTINA: Oh, I'm very proud. And I already have some plans, what we can do more for the city.  I'm very happy that I can help in this way.

29:17

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: I think a lot of people when they go on vacation, daydream about moving to the place, but you actually did it. So how does the dream compare to reality? 

29:28

KRASTINA: For us, the dream is reality and the reality is the dream. 

29:38

Natalie on balcony looking over town/Recap of people

NATALIE WHITING, Reporter: These houses were deemed worthless, but it seems their value can't be so easily measured. I've found so much more than renovations here.  People are building a community, a lifestyle, a shared hope for the future.  The streets in the old neighbourhoods are still pretty quiet, but every now and then, life peeks through. Perhaps a sign of things to come.

29:45

Credits [see below]

30:21

Outpoint

30:42