Precis
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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. |
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Episode
teaser |
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00:10 |
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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, 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: |
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 |
REPORTER
Natalie Whiting
PRODUCER
Matt Henry
CAMERA
Bruno Federico
EDITOR
Bernadette Murray
FIXER
Josephine McKenna
TRANSLATIONS
Tania Caggegi
ARCHIVAL
RESEARCH
Michelle Boukheris
ASSISTANT
EDITOR
Tom Carr
PRODUCTION
CO-ORDINATOR
Victoria Allen
SENIOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Michelle Roberts
SUPERVISING
PRODUCER
Sharon O'Neill
EXECUTIVE
PRODUCER
Morag Ramsay
foreign correspondent
abc.net.au/foreign
©2024
Australian Broadcasting Corporation