Every year in Italy there is a competition between towns and villages to decide which one is the Borgo Più Bello d’Italia (the Most Beautiful Village in Italy).
This year 134,000 people voted the town of Gangi, located about 80 km southeast of Palermo. in the Madonie Mountains, as the winner. Artistic qualities, culture, local handicraft, traditions and good food were all taken into account.
Gangi has a population of less than 8,000 and a history of mass emigration at the beginning of the 20th century towards North and South America as well as Northern Europe.
Now the Council in Gangi , has come up with an original way to prevent the progressive depopulation selling the houses of the old town for only 1 € practically the cost of a cup of coffee if the buyer will restore them within 5 years. The initiative – launched by Mayor Joseph Ferrarello – has been very successful not only in Italy but also abroad thanks to the curiosity that the news has aroused in the foreign media The conditions for the purchase are very simple: once the token payment, buyers must pay a deposit of five thousand euro to ensure their budgets. The restoration work – whose total cost is around 35,000 Euros – must then be made within five years period within which the houses must be habitable in accordance with the rules laid down by law. The homes for sale are still about a dozen, mostly in ruins, but they seem to go like hot cakes: the last buyer is a well-known anesthesiologist of Italian descent, from years before transplant in the United States .
TourCrafters Blog 
! Euro – wow. They should go like hotcakes!
Yes but we can always hope that the Maire will go on the restore all the village !
I am from the states but will be receiving my British Passport. I am interested in purchasing one of these homes. Are they still available? And how do I go about doing this?
Thank you
Susan Williams
I really dont know if all houses are already been purchased.
You may try to send a request to the Mair of the Village!
let me know if you will be able to buy one!
I’m tempted. My mother was from Roccapolumba which can’t be too far away. As the oldest child. she was orphaned at 10, along with a sister, after mother, father and two younger children all died suddenly with a year. Both she and her sister were born in Tunis where her mother and father as young marrieds had sought their fortune before eventually returning to Sicily. Lucky for me she made it to America. That’s another story. I’ll be 90 years old; independent and a caregiver for my 55 year old handicapped son.
You are a real Sicilian woman! Congratulations and thanks to share your story with us
I will be persuing this. My Grandpapa was Sicilian ny Grandmama was Maltese as was my father. Our family live in the Uk and Malta and Gozo. It would be fabulous to regain a lttle piece of our heritage for my nephew Hagan and my neice who is actually called Sicily in memory of her great Grandpapa.