I’ll take a coffee and a hillside home in Sicily, thank you

‘Tis the season for dreams to come true, and if your specific dream is to own an affordable home in Italy, happy holidays to you.  

 

In the small hillside hamlet of Gangi, Sicily, village officials faced with a quickly depleting population are offering 20 empty properties for the attractive price tag of €1 ($1.25) each. Like much of Italy, Gangi finds itself deep in the throws of an economic crisis and is using the initiative to create opportunity where it no longer exists.  

 

Potential investors from all over the world including the U.S., Australia, France and Brazil have descended on the village of 7,000 residents to pitch their development ideas for diversifying the properties.  Gangi fell on hard times in the early 20th century when Sicilians emigrated en masse to other parts of the world in search of work.  

 

Shortly there after, in the 1920’s, Gangi was on the receiving end of a major mafia crackdown led by Cesare Mori, which also added to the towns continuing economic woes.  Now, a century later, Gangi is looking for investors willing to open B&Bs, a cooking school or even a film set to expand and enliven the struggling 12th century village. 

 

Gangi is located about an hours drive inland from Palermo and enjoys year-round fresh mountain air, views of mount Etna, as well as popular traditional dishes such as peppered goat cheese and of course fresh pastas. There is no lack of beauty as Gangi was the recipient of first prize in a nationwide completion for most beautiful historic hamlet.

 

 Of course, with any too good to be true offer, there is some fine print.  Any investor will be faced with a €6000 ($7,500) buyers fee and around €30.000 ($37,500) in renovation costs, still a considerable bargain.

 

If successful, the experiment with Gangi could lead other impoverished, historic areas to embark upon a similar adventure.  Tourism is one of Italy’s strongest commodities and there are literally thousands of richly historical hamlets like Gangi that could benefit from such incentives.  Sounds like an offer you can’t refuse, no?