The "7% solution" is a formula to stop the depopulation of historic villages in the heart of Italy: a flat tax reduced to the bare minimum for pensioners who decide to relocate to the "crater" affected by the 2016 earthquake. Will it work? "Here in Norcia people haven’t fled. But when I visit other towns in the area, I see that the situation is bleak: empty homes, still damaged, construction sites everywhere, uncertainty about the future," says Giuliano Boccanera, the mayor of the town where Saint Benedict, the patron saint of Europe, was born.

What happens when it's not just remote, mountain areas that are depopulating, but communities that are the very soul of Italy - rich in history and art - that risk being abandoned?