The idea of packing up and moving to Italy to live out your own Eat, Pray, Love seems like fiction for anyone not named Elizabeth Gilbert. But if one tiny Italian town has its way, you'll be moving there soon—and you'll even get paid $2,100 for your troubles.
Update 5/11/17: Mayor Daniele Galliano's proposal of paying people $2,100 to move to his town of Bormida is actually too good to be true. As The Local reports, Galliano has since deleted the original Facebook post about the proposal, which received 17,000 inquiries. The town's website released a new statement to clarify that the bonus was simply a proposal to the Ligurian regional government, and not a confirmed measure, but that it hopes to enact the bonus in 2018.
Galliano also wrote a new post on his Facebook page, saying, "This will be my last post and I hope to be able to provide clarity. It was just an idea I proposed to the region of Liguria, which I am in contact with. The news was incorrectly reported and has reached a worldwide audience. Italy is a beautiful country, but like others, is in an economic crisis. Unfortunately it's not really possible to find help for all. Thank you for your interest."
Facebook content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
The original story continues below.
The village of Bormida, in northwestern Italy, proposed a program that offers €2,000 ($2,100) to anyone willing to move there to stave off the town's shrinking population. Idyllic in the most Italian Alpine way, Bormida had only 390 residents when Mayor Daniele Galliano took office in 2014, as Il Secolo XIX notes. Since then, 54 residents have either passed away or moved to other places, with only four births to counteract the losses. To combat that downsizing, Galliano began renting out municipal houses for $50 a month for small homes, and up to $130 for larger homes to attract people to move to his small town. And the move worked.
"Instead of seeing a heavy demographic deficit, the situation is stable thanks to the initiatives of the municipal administration to encourage those who, by necessity or pleasure, wish to live in a small mountain community like ours," Galliano told Il Vostro Giornale
Now Bormida has 394 residents, despite having only one main street and four restaurants. Its relocation offer might get even sweeter, too: Galliano has proposed an initiative to give $2,100 to any new resident who buys or rents a home in Bormida. While the government hasn't settled paperwork on the proposal, once the outside world caught wind through an article in The Guardian, Galliano's Facebook posts about the moving bonus garnered plenty of attention—to the tune of 3,700 reactions and 2,600 comments on one post alone.
While the response has been overwhelming, Galliano appeared to take the outpouring in stride, saying, "Thank you all for your concern about our country. I've seen the great number of requests about coming to live at Bormida, and in just two days we have reached our goal. If you are interested in similar initiatives, you will find the necessary information on our website."
As for what life looks like in an Italian village with fewer than 400 residents, well, suffice it to say you'd get plenty of clean, mountain air, but not a lot of action.
"There is nothing much to do here," the manager of Oddone Giuseppe, one of the town’s 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.”
That doesn't sound so bad—with or without a $2,100 bonus.
