La dolce vita — and a sweet sum of money — await.
An unbelievably sweet program is using a financial incentive to encourage young people to revitalize certain towns in Italy.
Since 2021, the far-southern Italian region of Calabria has been attempting to bring fresh life to its depopulated countryside through a program called “active residence income,” and this month it retook the internet’s attention.
The program “comes with certain conditions, including moving within 90 days and either starting a business that benefits the local economy or filing job openings in the area,” explained an Instagram caption by the social media company Pubity Group, which has accrued well over 1.3 million likes since being posted three days ago.
Those who utilize the offering stand to make over $30,000.
However, “Only those who have reached the age of majority but are also not older than 40 may submit a request for admission to the program,” clarified a news site focused on local European initiatives, adding that “The candidates have to transfer their permanent residence to one of the Calabrian municipalities, adhering to the initiative — all of which count less than 2,000 inhabitants.”
The nine participating villages are all near the coast. They are Samo, Sant’Agata del Bianco, Cuccuri, Santa Severina, Aieta, Albidona, Civita and San Donato di Ninea.
The almost too-good-to-be-true offering was created to serve as an alternative to the “1-euro houses” program, another popular incentive used by Italian municipalities to get newcomers into areas in need of revitalization, which has also made many headlines over the years.
“We want to draw people to live in the region, enjoy the settings, spruce up unused town locations such as conference halls and convents with high-speed internet,” the mayor of Altomonte, Gianpietro Coppola, said in 2021 of the scheme, The Post reported at the time.
“Active residence income” is also meant to be an alternative to encouraging remote working, which while bringing individuals and their money to an area does not generally focus much on incorporating them into the community.
Those who utilize the program will instead be “south working,” a term referring to working in the south of Italy, and not just for some distant company.
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