A while back I was watching the visit of Pope Francis and the adoration of thousands of people that came to see him. Some where so far away they could not see anything but the sea of people in front. They came because they needed something to help them deal with a void in their lives.
I always felt I had a dual personality. The real me and the one that coped with the World. But I also knew I had a personal special place in me that at times needed to be filled.
No matter who we are tall, short, thin, endowed, single, married, young or old we all have that special space. There comes a time in our lives that it needs to be filled with something that makes us feel special and strong enough to cope with the outside world.
I know that this is why I am so bewitched by three young men and their great gift of making their music the special something that my special space needs.
I love to see them sing on the many videos, but the surroundings during the shows are somewhat distracting. I stopped anything I was doing and just closed my eyes and let the music take over. It was the magic that I needed.
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Italians rally to save ‘ghost village’ with a population of 10
The 1200-year-old Civita di Bagnoregio, just north of Rome, is one of many Italian villages in danger of extinction. But Italians are in the midst of a campaign to save it.
Not many people would dispute the jaw-dropping beauty of Italy’s Civita di Bagnoregio village. The Medieval settlement 74 miles north of Rome has a population of just 10 people, who live amid twisting stone paths and centuries-old houses that are perched atop sheer cliffs overlooking deep ravines to the sea beyond. And if that were not enough, one detail separates it from almost every other town: It is reachable only by way of a footbridge suspended at great height over the valley.
“We can say this place is really astonishing,” Alessio Pagliara, who runs the village tourism office, tells Fortune. “It is 1,200 years old, very well preserved, and it has a panoramic view.”
Yet all that might not be enough to save the tiny gem that has been dubbed “the dying city.” Built on volcanic ash, the original Etruscan residents chose to build hilltop villages in Italy, in order to escape the malaria-ridden lowlands. But 21st-century Civita di Bagnoregio faces bigger perils: Landslides and rockfalls that could render it uninhabitable forever. “Every year is different from the next,” says Pagliara, who is bracing for whatever disaster this coming winter might bring. “Any year could be very damaging.”
A family on vacation foutside the San Donato Church in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy, Sept. 3, 2015. (Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York Times) Now Italians have begun campaigning to save the village from being lost forever. After a landslide last May, local authorities petitioned the U.N.’s cultural organization UNESCO to add it to its global list of World Heritage sites. The president of the local Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, argued that the village “is one of the most beautiful places in the world,” well worth preserving for future generations. Thousands of Italians signed the petition, including several famous cultural figures like the filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci and the playwright Dario Fo, and the former Italian president Giorgio Napoletano. The World Heritage designation would ensure a continued flow of funds to the village to reinforce its foundations and ensure its conservation, and it would almost certainly put it more firmly on tourist itineraries.
Yet winning that status is far from certain. And even if Civita di Bagnoregio makes it on to the list, the decision could take years to come.
Locals cannot afford to wait. In 2013 they began charging visitors €1.50 (about $1.67) to enter the village, helping it to raise maintenance funds. Pagliara says about 43,000 people visited in August, with tour guides running day trips from Rome. And in early September, Lazio president Zangaretti told reporters that the region was investing €1.2 million (about $1.34 million) to protect the village against landslides, which she said “threatens its very survival.” In the meantime, Pagliara describes it as “a ghost town in the middle of nowhere.”
Italy’s ‘ghost’ villages for sale
In that, Civita di Bagnoregio is far from unique. Italy has a dizzying 20,000 or so ghost villages, whose inhabitants have steadily upped and left over the centuries, driven out by the lack of water and electricity, or by earthquakes and floods—as well by a large exodus of émigrés to the U.S. during the last century. Add to that Italy’s low birth rate, along with people, especially youths, tendency to move to urban areas to work or study. Left behind are countless gems, villages whose stone houses, tiny cafés and 13th-century churches capture the finest artisanry of a bygone Italy.
With the country still emerging from recession and the European economic crisis, officials are hunting for a fresh infusion of people—foreigners in search of Italian vacation homes, or those keen to reconnect with their Italian ancestry—to take over crumbling old houses and breathe life into their communities.
The price? Close to free. Take, for example, Gangi, a Sicilian village whose population has halved to 7,000 over the past 60 years. Earlier this year Gangi’s officials put several houses on the market for €1 each—less than a cup of coffee in a café in Rome. The offer came with the condition that buyers repair the houses within four years.
The footbridge that leads to Civita di Bagnoregio, (Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York Times)
Mixed response
One would-be buyer from Australia told a journalist that when she arrived in Gangi she discovered that the houses available “were all terrible and needed to be knocked down and rebuilt,” and that permits for renovating one of the houses cost about $17,000. For those who prefer to avoid the headaches of an extreme fixer-upper, habitable houses in Gangi are on offer for prices that seem ludicrously low by European standards. This month’s listings include a four-bedroom house for €75,000, with”panoramic views” of the Sicilian countryside from its two balconies, according to the realtor’s listing.
Indeed, there is plenty of choice all over Italy—and if you want the whole village, that is possible too.
In 2012 a Medieval village in Tuscany put itself on sale on eBay for €2.5 million (about $3 million at the time), offering all 25 of its stone houses and eight acres of grazing land. And last year, the good folk of Borgata Calsazio, a village set in the foothills of the Gran Paradiso mountain in the Italian Alps auctioned its 14 houses on eBay too, for a piddling €245,000 (about $268,000). Under the category “condition” in the eBay listing, the sellers describe the village—with great understatement—as “used.”
Competing with Alpine peaks and Tuscan scenery will not be easy for the handful of people still living in Civita di Bagnoregio. The town’s celebrity survival campaign has not yet assured it a future. “In the last year some people have come from abroad to buy some houses,” says the local tourist official Pagliara. “Houses are easy to find,” he says. “But of course, they are in bad condition.”
FROM ITALY MAGAZINE
“IL VOLO” Flight Crew” needs to raise funds and buy one of the houses in Sicily as “The Italian” headquarters and rent it out to the fans visiting Sicily and Italy. Dreaming is free.
Gina! Great idea! But why don’t we fund raise, buy one of those small, abandoned VILLAGES! We could restore it for Il Volo as a bolt hole! The more famous they get the more they will need a sanctuary from the craziness. Anonymity guaranteed! A tennis court for Piero. Beach access for Gianluca. And a place for Ignazio’s horses. Their family and friends could come to stay. And guess who would be running the operation?!! The Flight Crew, of course! What better way to spend time with The Guys! All to ourselves! A recording studio? All the amenities. They would never leave except to go on tour! What do you think, Crew?!! What a dream!!
I’ll share in that dream!!! I like the way you think, Lynn!
Thanks for your thoughts Gina. They fill a space in my life too.
As soon as I win the lottery we will go with your plan. So far I have only won a carnival stuffed bear.
Gina, I, also, have a dual personality–the one that lives in the real world and the one who dwells in Il Volo land. Dwelling there has given me so much pleasure–watching our boys grow up and reaching maturity so beautifully….filling my days with their glorious music—going around the world with them on their travels….and having all of the Flight Crew with whom to share our devotion. Il Volo land–what a meraviglioso place!!
Gina, I truly believe God blessed these three men with angelic voices and wonderful personalities and put them together as Il Volo because He knew the joy they would bring to so many people who needed laughter and joy in their lives! My husband and I love them as if they were biological family!!
No other singing group has impacted so many lives in such positive ways as our guys! They are amazing!
Thank you so much for your post and I, too, feel like a grandmother to these young men!! They certainly have a lot of family!😍
I agree with you 100%. They are angels like family. I adopted them a long time ago even though my family wonders about me. lol
Gina, your words hit home here. IL VOLO allows me the most beautiful escape, with my eyes open or closed. Their voices send me to a paradise not found here on earth.
Love the idea of a village JUST for IL VOLO run by the Flight Crew, of course. I think Marie would have to be the gate keeper! I’ll sign up for being the Nonna who tucks them in each night and wishes them sweet dreams!
I wholeheartedly accept the position! No one besides the Flight Crew gets in! We may have to have a discussion about the Boys getting out though.
Jane, you would have a lot of competition for the Nonna role. I wouldn’t want to have to get rough, and there would be Allene and many others to deal with….good thing that in our dreams we can each claim that job.
Dreams??? You mean we’re not really going to do it?
In the meantime please VOTE. Even if this is not an award event the boys need to know we are always out there supporting them.
Thank you for voting!
“Heroes” by Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden) 54.22%
“Grande Amore” by Il Volo (Italy) 44.1%
“Rhythm Inside” by Loïc Nottet (Belgium) 0.88%
“A Million Voices” by Polina Gagarina (Russia) 0.54%
“Tonight Again” by Guy Sebastian (Australia) 0.26%
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Gina, very beautiful and truthfully written,every person has his thirteenth chamber of dreams, desires, place where his soul is hidden ,and protected from the outside world….When I close my eyes and dive into silence of my true Self. I can be close to God, angels, I am in the spiritual world, I am in another dimension,, where my imagination can fly – create my own beautiful world,visit many places, real and fictional,experience the incredible variety of adventures and to meet with who I want – and I can meditate in peace until I go back to the real world. In my imagination, anything is possible (Lynn’s idea is very interesting and good, suitable thing for dreaming) and it is nice when my companion in these moments is divine music of Il Volo ! <3 Richness and emotionality of their voices fulfills our sometimes sad and melancholy souls.and heals them. Splendid harmony of their voices brings us our own inner balance.In recent years, many difficult and sad moments …I am glad that I got to know also the beautiful things as is awesome music of three angelic singers 🙂 I love song La Vita (Life) and its lyrics (when I'm in a bad mood, so I listen to it and then I feel better) :So many empty days,so many sad days in over lives.So many unuseful passion in life.How many times have we said stop. You've despised this life.We not even once think of what this life brings us.Life,is there anything realer in the world and we almost never notice it,almost never, almost never.Sometimes we have a sort of fear of life.Even if there are many things that aren't ok in life.What do we demand to, what do we expect from life ? No, it's impossible to waste this life in vain ! Life, nothing's as wonderful as life and maybe many people don't know. Life,is there anything realer in the world and we almost never notice it, almost never, almost never.
On one trip to Italy, we went to my friend’s uncle’s home in a hilltop in Abruzzo. The roads were winding and as we went further up, we passed a beautiful wine store I called ‘The Secret of Vittorio” and we could see Switzerland from there! When we finally got there, the town was only about 3 blocks long and all the young people were moving to the city. As we sat and ate our dinner at the table, a song was playing on the radio called “La Prima Cosa Bella.” It was a beautiful song and one very old lady was sitting there crying. She had only left the town once to go to Rome. It was unforgetable. My friend’s uncle had greeting us wearing a suit! That year Italy was on strike and we had to hire a taxi to take us anywhere in the country. I don’t know if that town is still there.
Ann, what a wonderful memory! It all sounds so Italian. If only I could have shared that table!
Ann this is a lovely story. During the few years that we were stationed in Germany and took some trips to other countries the best memories are from accidental discoveries of some special places and special people.
Gina, you said in words exactly what I have been feeling for so long for our boys and never really been able to explain it. Thank you so much for your beautiful words. Piero, Ignazio, and Gianluca fill a place in my heart with love. And Mary B. you are right about me getting in line to be a nonna for these young men. I have felt for a very long time that they are my Italian grandsons. There will be quite a bunch of us tucking them in at night,
I love that plan Gina. I’m in. I am like all of you in regards to our boys. I think I have said it here before, that my day starts around 4-5 am. The night before, both iPads are charged for my morning ritual. Get my first cup of Java, my two recharged iPads, get back into my bed, ear pods connected to the first iPad and begin searching for news of our guys. I have two iPads ’cause after a few hours, the first one needs recharging but I have a spare waiting so I don’t have to wait. I go to my gmail for the “Flight CREW”. Then to ” Twitter”, “Tumbler” “Facebook” and last but not least, “You Tube”. I have a playlist of so many of ” IL VOLO’S ” songs and videos which keeps me entertained for hours.
My family, well, they just smile and tolerate me when I start babbling about our wonderful guys. They do love their songs but they think I’m a FANATIC. Isn’t that what FAN means?. Silly people. They just don’t understand us. Never mind. My one world is filled with music by three beautiful Italians and the other world is my reality world. My children just tell me to enjoy the boys and have a great time. “You’ll see them soon enough in LAS VEGAS”.