For anyone with a single euro to spare, the medieval town of Naro in south-west Sicily is offering a chance to step onto the property ladder for the price of an espresso. The hilltop town, in the province of Agrigento, is the latest Italian destination to list abandoned homes for one euro, part of a wider push to reverse depopulation, restore crumbling buildings and draw new life and tourism to its historic centre.
The scheme has been approved by the local government, the Comune di Naro, and is open to both Italian and foreign buyers who meet the requirements for purchasing and maintaining a property. Applications go through the online Case 1 Euro Naro platform, available in several languages, which guides prospective owners through the process. The town pitches itself on its “historic centre with a strong identity,” its Baroque architecture, the Chiaramonte Castle and the surrounding inland landscapes of Agrigento.
Then come the caveats, and there are several. As with such schemes elsewhere, the price reflects the condition: every listing is marked as needing renovation, with one three-bedroom home overlooking the old town requiring inspection. Beyond the token price, buyers must cover notary fees, registration and cadastral taxes, the cost of designing and carrying out the restoration, and compliance with safety, landscape and planning rules, usually against a deadline for completing the work.
For visitors rather than buyers, Naro rewards a detour off Italy’s beaten path. After a 2005 landslide, young artists painted the facades of ruined buildings to create the MAN open-air museum, which can be explored on foot. The town has also preserved its Golden Gate, known locally as the Porta d’Oro, a pointed-arch structure with stone battlements whose history reaches back to the 13th century, when it was one of seven gates ringing the medieval city.
As across Sicily, the local kitchen is part of the draw. Naro is known for cassata, a dessert of sponge cake, ricotta cream and chocolate chips, and pasta reale, a sweet paste of finely ground almonds flavoured with vanilla and topped with candied fruit, a treat whose roots trace to Arab-era Palermo. Street food staples such as arancina and cannoli are easy to find, alongside local varieties said to exist nowhere else.
