Sunday 3 May 2009

“If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.”

salemi

I have a love-hate relationship with Italy: there are tons of things I like about it, but there are also many others that I can't understand (especially politically speaking).

Mantengo una relación amor-odio con Italia; hay un montón de cosas que me encantan de ella pero también hay muchas otras que soy incapaz de entender y sobre todo políticamente hablando.

The truth is I was grately surprised when I read about Salemi, in Sicily. Its mayor, the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, has been making a revolution in the village. Fistly, he has sold 1,000 homes for a euro on the sole condition that their owners will restore them retaining its original character. In fact, he is turning the town into a place for creativity in which many artists are being settled. Isn't it great?

Lo cierto es que hace unas semanas me llevé una grata sorpresa al leer acerca de Salemi, en Sicilia. Su alcalde, el crítico de arte Vittorio Sgarbi, ha supuesto una revolución para el pueblo. Para empezar ha puesto a la venta 1.000 casas a un euro con la única condición de que sus propietarios las restauren conservando su carácter original. Además se ha propuesto convertir a la villa en un poso para la creatividad en el que ya se están asentando muchos artistas. ¿No es genial?

9 comments:

Lisa said...

That's incredible. Imagine how a move like this could revive a sleepy little town!

Pepa Xavier said...

That's really remarkable! Even more when we know that Sicily and the South in general are the poorer part of Italy.

Tamara said...

Igual hay que empezar a pensar en mudarse... ;)

Madelene said...

It's good to see you writing about this, fresh for a fashion blog.

twentythirtyforty.net said...

LOVE this post! I just had to share and tweet about it!

Marta said...

Increible. Una de esas cosas geniales que pasan una vez cada 50 anos...

joanne said...

i agree about the love-hate relationship. having visited many little towns throughout last july, though, i've grown to appreciate so much more the local efforts in preserving their culture. it also encouraged me to speak to them in my beginner's italian, rather than in english :P made the experience all the more worth while.

Charlotte said...

Qué iniciativa tan genial! Me encantaría poder hacerme con una y crear Villa-Charlotte ;)

Anonymous said...

that is fantastic! i lived in a town where all the beautiful old buildings in the city centre were being left empty to rot until a very clever guy came up with a way for artists to use the spaces as shopfronts, galleries and studios on the condition that they become caretakers for the property. it makes so much sense, but most of the time it's impossible to convince the people in charge that it's worthwhile to preserve a town's integrety and beauty

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...