Villages in Italy

About Villages in Italy

FOR ALL THE ANCIENT Italian hill towns and villages that delight the traveler — the San Gimignanos, Montepulcianos and Fiesoles — there are scores of others (many equally or more beautiful) where few venture and in which very few reside today. According to a 2016 Italian environmental association report, there are nearly 2,500 rural Italian villages that are perilously depopulated, some semi-abandoned and others virtual ghost towns. A primary narrative of Italy in the 20th century has been what followed the collision of poverty, urbanization, mass emigration and natural disaster, a confluence of events that has devastated many towns that had otherwise managed to thrive, or at least get by, for centuries. These towns, most of which are in the historically impoverished south, had already lost tens of millions of inhabitants in the great waves of migration from the late 19th century to the mid 1970s; in the last 25 years, they lost another 15 percent. Now, houses and schools sit empty and fields fallow; shops are unattended.

Publisher

Jan E.

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

20 Mar 2021

Latest episode

15 Jun 2021

Latest episodes

3 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Jun 2021

   Letino

   Letino is a comune and small village in the province of Caserta, in Campania, southern Italy. Subscribe to Villages+ to listen to the entire episode. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

2. 

   10 Jun 2021

   Sutera

   Sutera is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Palermo and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Caltanissetta. Subscribe to Villages+ to listen to the entire episode. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

3. 

   20 Mar 2021

   Bagnoregio

   Bagnoregio is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region of Lazio, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) northwest of Rome and about 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Viterbo. Subscribe to Villages+ to listen to the entire episode. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.