Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Calitri, Avellino

not to worry...as far as I know, there was (and is) no master plan to create a tourist village ;-) Calitri has about 6000 residents and maybe 20 or so foreign-owned homes (I'm guessing on that one - I never run into any English speakers when I'm there - a few of us foreigners keep in touch via email, so I know of those) in the older section of town.

To make a long story short (as best as I know it anyway)- people have left the old Borgo neighborhood moved into more modern homes in the newer section of town...some homes were destroyed in the horrible earthquake that hit Campania in 1980 (it caused sever damage throughout Campania)..people built new ones in the "modern" part of town and left the original ones vacant. Calitri, historically, has also had a history of immigration and homes had been left vacant over the years as people moved to America (and elsewhere.) The Calitrian owners of the home I bought, for example, now live in White Plains, NY.

so....an Italian "developer" living in London (& Rome) decided that foreigners might be interested in buying and restoring some of the older homes (as has been done in so many other parts of Italy, like Tuscany and Umbria.) They marketed and sold properties from the original owners and organised the restoration work. As far as I know, they organized the sale and restoration of about 20 houses and have since moved on to other projects in other parts of Italy and abroad. The homes were bought by English, American, German, and Australians (that I know of anyway), as well as some Italians from the cities looking for country homes. One of the American owners bought her grandmother's house - and a few others have their family roots in neighboring towns.

Around the same time (I honestly don't know the relationship, if any), the town of Calitri recieved much needed funding to restore the Castle that was partially destroyed in the earthquake and create a ceramics museum (Calitri has always been an important ceramics center.) As work was progressing in some homes being restored, locals also started opening businesses once again in the borgo - a B&B, 2 new restaurants, wine bar, cheese tasting room - all popping up in the old borgo wine "grottos" that were once deserted. I am assuming there was some funding given for small business owners to open up shop in that re-development section - I don't know details though.

There is a real estate agent in town that will also organize the restoration of older homes and is working hard to promote tourism in the town and region of Irpinia - don't know of any explicit aim though to attract tourists from the town though...although I'm thrilled if you saw something!!

We do have a tourist office (as do most Italian towns), so perhaps there is some international campaign or effort I don't know of yet! would be terrific as this really is a very unknown and fascinating region. (with fabulous food and wine, I should add)

I'm happy to answer any other questions...or at least try to.