In March 2024, Bianca Fontana got on a plane from Australia to spend three weeks in Sardinia. During the trip, she did some radical life reconsideration. Fontana bought a house, completed a chunk of paperwork, and laid the foundation for her relocation halfway across the world to the Italian island. Sardinia’s hinterland, like many rural areas of Italy, is suffering a severe demographic decline.
In the last few years, its remote communities have launched various schemes in the hope of bolstering their dwindling populations and sagging economies. Here’s how one foreigner started a new life in a village of 2,500 inhabitants, and the projects that are still open for those tempted to follow in her footsteps.
