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It’s no secret Italy is facing a population crisis: between the low birth rate, aging population, and brain drain, Italy is on the road to a demographic disaster without some serious practical efforts to bolster numbers. The 1 Euro Home concept was launched in Italy as the first big push to bring life back to ‘dying towns’, and to encourage foreign...

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Hamid Zeighami’s lifelong love of Italy culminated in buying a home in Florence last year—and he wasn’t the only international buyer to choose Tuscany for a vacation home. Last year, international inquiries into purchasing Italian homes rose 126.65%, compared with the prepandemic 2019 figures, according to gate-away.com, a property platform for ove...

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If there's one thing not lacking in Italy, it's affordable real estate. Thousands of stunningly picturesque towns and villages — in the mountains, hilltops and seaside — sit half-empty, as the country's declining birth rate and prolonged economic crisis have led to an exodus of people from non-urban areas, and young people from Italy itself. There...

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The tiny village of Ollolai on Sardinia is a charming sort of place. Known for its gorgeous water features and historic churches, it’s also smack-bang in the middle of tonnes of unspoiled nature and just over an hour’s drive to several of the Italian island’s most brilliant beaches. If you dream of moving to a place just like Ollolai, well, it just...

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Chances are you’ve seen the stories promising that you can move to Italy, live la Dolce Vita, and get paid to do it. Thanks to incentivized moves, ex-pats have been reviving depopulated villages across Italy, living amid sheep-grazing fields, olive groves, and charming hamlets. Whether lured by the promise of cheap rentals, not paying property taxe...

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This 15th century castle set in the Tuscan countryside has an enduring place in the history of Florence, Italy. The Cavalcanti Castle was constructed around 1427 by a descendant of Guido Cavalcanti, a renowned poet and friend of writer-philosopher Dante Alighieri. When the castle was built there were no notable figures within the still-prominent fa...

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Sicily, Italy’s biggest island, oozes the dolce vita of sunny seaside days and sumptuous food. And now another small town is making the dream of living there a possibility. Petralia Soprana, located southeast of the capital Palermo, is offering cash incentives for new residents. The town council hopes the scheme will boost the dwindling population...

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A woman has bought three houses in Italy for just one euro each and intends to retire to the Mediterranean country. Rubia Daniels flew out to Mussomeli, Sicily, within days of hearing about the "one euro home" scheme, launched to help fill up abandoned properties, in 2019. The 49-year-old bought three run-down historic fixer-uppers and paid just €3...

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If you’ve ever aspired to live in a 15th-century palazzo befit for a famed polymath, have I got news for you. According to a new report from Travel + Leisure, a historic, three-story property in the Italian city of Bologna has just hit the market. The kicker? It’s rumored to have been Leonardo da Vinci’s last home in Italy before he moved to France...

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It’s often hard to imagine those who moulded the world into what we know now as humans who ate, slept and… er, you know. Take Leonardo da Vinci. The original Renaissance man, this Italian polymath changed the worlds of art, engineering, science and architecture during his 67 years on Earth. Guy painted the damn Mona Lisa, for crying out loud. But w...

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