Italian villages aging, facing extinction

(Reuters) - Gorreto, population: 105, was always small, but now the tiny village, nestled in a river valley in northern Italy, is on the brink of extinction.

Most of the remaining residents are over 60 and the primary school attended by Mayor Sergio Capelli, 72, closed about 30 years ago - a stark example of the nationwide demographic decline as Italians live longer and have fewer babies.

"To witness the slow death of the valley makes me sad," says Capelli, a retired railway engineer who hopes to attract people to the town by organizing cultural events. "I am trying to save all these villages," he says.

All along the Trebbia river valley, where tiny villages are dominated by the snow-topped Alpine foothills, the picture is the same.

In six villages near Gorreto all the schools have closed and harsh snowy winters prompt most of the elderly residents to spend the season with relatives in the milder climes of the city of Genoa, on the Ligurian coast.

The Val Trebbia area is an extreme example of the demographic problem in Italy, whose median age of 44.2 is the world's fourth highest, after Monaco, Japan and Germany, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Longer life expectancy and falling fertility rates have meant Italy's population has been steadily ageing for decades. But the longest and harshest economic crisis since World War Two has made matters worse.

As unemployment has risen to a record 12.7 percent, much higher among younger people, immigration has fallen by a third since 2007. At the same time, emigration, of mainly young highly-educated Italians, has doubled.

"Undoubtedly, it is thanks to immigration that Italy has avoided over the last 10-15 years a demographic collapse," said Antonio Golini, interim head of national statistics institute
ISTAT.

"To counter its low fertility rate, Italy would need prolonged mass immigration. But given it is grappling with high unemployment and an economic crisis, it cannot afford it."

BigAndy9 wrote:If people are sad about it and they think those places are beautiful, why don't they move there?

Why don't 100 people get together and move there?

Beekeeper wrote: 

IN THAT CASE, Ben...

More of those lazy italians should learn to speak English !!!

(Or Spanish, or Russian..).

  

eddie wrote:"Undoubtedly, it is thanks to immigration that Italy has avoided over the last 10-15 years a demographic collapse," said Antonio Golini”

Speaking of Antonio Golini, I had a boy in my school of that name, he always brought pasta for his lunch so we started calling him Antonio Ravioli. He was Italian and also said things about Italy much like the man in the article.  
I don’t think they’re the same person though, these two Antonio’s.

Or maybe they are.

Vintage wrote:I'm suprised rich folks aren't snaping these up for holiday/weekend homes, they'd surely get them cheap. There are villages all over Britain that hardly have a permanent population just second home owners.