300块钱租别墅?意大利这座小城花钱请人住!
Has the razza del ratto (rat race) got you down? Is life too febbrile (hectic) where you live? But are you worried you don’t have enough contanti (cash) to live a more peaceful life? Then you might be interested in the Italian hillside village of Bormida, which is about to offer a payment of €2,000 ($2,175) and rents as low as $50 a month to reverse its declining population. Bormida, located in the mountainous Liguria region – Genoa, had declined to 390 residents in 2014, when the current mayor, Daniele Galliano, took office, according to the local newspaper. Spurred by visions of a ghost town, Galliano began measures to reverse the decay. But with only four people added, he decided more-enticing measures were needed, hence the subsidies, which also include a $130-a-month rent for larger homes. "We couldn't rent them at market value, so we chose a symbolic number and the requests abounded: the important thing was to repopulate the village," Galliano said. According to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, details of the offer still needed to be settled and approved by the local council, Galliano wrote on his Facebook page. But if the proposal is passed, anyone who moves to Bormida will be given €2,000. According to Cosmopolitan magazine, the village has one main street, four restaurants (hey, this is Italy), a bed and breakfast and a post office that opens only three days a week. Much of the architecture dates back to 1200s. “There is nothing much to do here,” Oddone Giuseppe, manager of one of the restaurants, told the Guardian. “But life is so simple and natural, we have forests, goats, the church, and plenty of good food. Life would definitely be free of stress.” |