Pnrr, fiber and widespread hotels: how marginality becomes a value

In the beginning they were pioneering initiatives by enlightened administrators or passionate entrepreneurs. Then there was the boom of one-euro houses . Now, when the fight against depopulation of internal areas has imposed itself in all its urgency, organic paths of public-private collaboration prevail. Thus widespread hotels, community cooperatives, recovery of ruined buildings, as in ancient traditions, have become potential levers to inject new life into the economic and social life of the villages and reverse the trend of departures, through projects based on smart working and highly digitalized initiatives. Two strategic assists, fiber and the Pnrr funds , to transform marginality into added value. The conditional is however a must while waiting for feedback that can only be assessed in the long term.

To dream of working with the world while admiring mountains and sheep tracks, digital infrastructure is essential. To date, Open Fiber has announced that it has reached 5,560 municipalities with fiber optics out of the 6,000 foreseen by the national plan, equal to 94% (there are 7,884 Italian municipalities), with 5.4 million real estate units equipped with fiber optics among homes, businesses and public offices. But there has been no turning point, because in towns where mostly elderly people live, only 8% of homes are connected (34% in large cities), so much so that to encourage activation by private individuals the company has launched a voucher plan.

Fiber has also arrived in Castel Del Giudice , a small town in Molise with 300 inhabitants, which has gone from a record depopulation compared to the times when it had a thousand inhabitants to having an "arrivals and returns" office, says Mayor Lino Gentile proudly, telling the stories of the 40 new inhabitants in 7-8 years: "migrants, descendants of families who emigrated abroad and citizens of neighboring areas, attracted by the professional opportunities we are creating and by a process of regeneration of uninhabited homes: the nurses of the retirement home, for example, are Italian-Venezuelan". The primary schools are 3 km away and the post office is open only 3 days a week, but there is optimism about the effects of the projects started thanks to the Pnrr-borghi (see IlSole24ore of July 2): Castel Del Giudice is in fact one of the 21 municipalities receiving 20 million each for sustainable, replicable projects capable of making the entire territory sprout.

Investments in the recovery of the historical and cultural heritage are being made in Gerace , in Calabria, as in Cunziria , in the Catania area, in the name of Giovanni Verga or in Borgo Castello , in Friuli Venezia Giulia. In Basilicata - amidst political controversy - the focus is on Monticchio Bagni for the creation, among other things, of start-up incubators and research activities in the perspective of the so-called south smart smoking . Sport, natural and cultural heritage and hospitality are the axes of the projects - among others - of Ulassai, in the Nuoro area, or of Sanza , in the Cilento area, around a widespread hotel.

Examples from the past have set a precedent, such as the experiment in Santo Stefano di Sessanio , on the edge of the Gran Sasso National Park in Abruzzo, where the "preserved identity" of the village, due to progressive abandonment, was noticed by the Milanese entrepreneur Daniele Khilgren , the driving force behind a conservative restoration that led to the creation of what the Times has included among the most beautiful hotels in the world. "Many foreign guests, with an economic spin-off that has generated 23 other accommodation facilities and given rise to 55 VAT numbers. Thirty years ago - he says - the village seemed to be dying".