The Italian countryside is experiencing a post-Pentecostal renaissance

The Italian countryside is experiencing a post-Pentecostal renaissance. Until recently, the pages of newspapers filled the stories of foreigners who bought real estate in the Italian countryside for a single euro. The reason for such low prices was the desperate situation of some Italian villages and towns, which have been struggling with depopulation for years. The unfortunate trend now seems to be over. It was the Italian coronavirus lockdown that caused thousands, mostly of young people, to return there after months of involuntary isolation in the cities. The picturesque countryside of central and southern Italy has been experiencing an unfortunate trend of depopulation since the late 1960s. As agriculture, textiles, and other light industries began to fade in these areas, entire families left for work in the cities. The result of this exodus is more than two and a half thousand abandoned villages with almost two million abandoned houses. The information was provided by the Bloomberg portal. However, this trend now seems to be ringing. As a result of the worldwide covid pandemic, these previously abandoned but often extremely picturesque places have begun to revive and hundreds of thousands of Italians are returning here. Just the ones the pandemic drove out of the cities. It is mainly young people who started this renaissance of the Italian countryside. Charming villages and towns, such as the Sicilian Castelbuono, are becoming their new home in the post-Covenant Italian reality and, to some extent, a cure for their lockdown claustrophobia. The advantage for these people is now more living space and lower housing costs. Of course, the increase in the rural population could not be left out of the attention of local governments. They are now looking for the most effective ways to improve the infrastructure in these places or to break up broken family ties. With the knowledge that online teleworking has become a new reality, many municipalities are trying to bring these age-old centers closer to the reality of the twenty-first century. "The pandemic has created completely new opportunities for Italian small towns and villages," said Carla Cuocco, a 30-year-old lawyer who grew up in Castelbuon and returned here after Palermo locked its first lockdown in spring 2020. Now she has moved to her hometown with her parents. However, the exact number of people who returned to the countryside last year is not easy to find out, as many Italians have not changed their permanent residence. However, according to figures from the think tank SVIMEZ, which deals with the economic development of southern Italy, estimates estimate that it is between 80,000 and 100,000 people. Real estate agencies report that demand for real estate in this area has risen by 20 percent since last spring.