For many people living in an historic town in Italy seems like an unaffordable dream. But thanks to an ambitious social experiment you can live la dolce vita in Sicily for just one euro! In this Foreign Correspondent, reporter Natalie Whiting travels to the Sicilian towns where people are arriving from all over the world to snap up abandoned houses for virtually nothing.

And their arrival is helping to solve one of Italy’s biggest problems. The country has the oldest population in Europe with deaths now far outstripping births and huge numbers of young people are leaving for better work opportunities. The one-euro house scheme aims to fix the vanishing population problem by enticing new residents to reinvigorate the struggling towns.

Natalie meets the newcomers with ambitious plans of turning their rundown purchases into Italian dream homes, she talks to the locals, some of whom are still not sure about their new neighbours. And she meets the optimists who are confident an affordable real estate boom can not only breathe new life into these old towns but create a new community and forge new friendships.

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Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.

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