An Italian Island: The Story of a Life Changing Italian Holiday - Paperback

by Paul Wright (Author)

An Italian Island - The Story of a Life Changing Italian Holiday is an enthralling story based on four sets of circumstances that exist and are playing out in present day Italy. It is also full of irresistible Italian culture, humour and valuable treasure: As well as the secret of longevity and how to buy An Italian Home for one euro.

This novel is based on four sets of circumstances existing and playing out in present-day Italy: An ageing population, abandoned villages, one euro properties, and the capricious migrant situation. In Italy, there are around 2,500 abandoned medieval villages and hamlets, and another 3,000 that have lost up to ninety per cent of their residents, especially the young, who have moved abroad. Those left behind are the older generation, and more than likely, their villages will become 'ghost villages' before they die. What is perhaps surprising is that many of these places are nestled in spectacular locations, and they are for sale. Common examples are entire villages with as many as seventy dwellings offered for 250,000 euro, and there are other villages with individual properties for sale at the nominal sum of one euro per dwelling.

After London-born geography teacher Sarah Stevenson, returns from holidaying in sunny Crete with her fast-food-loving Anglo-American boyfriend, she seriously considers upping sticks and moving there. However, it is a further three years until they can have another budget holiday, this time on a beautiful but failing Italian island that is set in the sumptuous Tyrrhenian Sea close to the coast of Naples that is about to change the course of both their young lives. When Sarah hears from the mayor that the island will be a 'ghost island' within ten years because its population is diminishing rapidly, she resigns from her teaching job to help save it. Despite a group of inhospitable locals on her back, who protest vigorously when she tells them she intends selling hundreds of abandoned properties to foreigners for the token price of one euro per dwelling, and importing migrant labour to do the restoration work, she eventually wins through.