Vacation homes abroad don’t scream cheap, so when I saw that the mayor of the hilltop town Salemi in Sicily was selling old stone villas for a mere euro (that’s about $1.42 at today’s exchange rate) I knew there had to be a catch. There is.
The picturesque villas were damaged in the 1968 earthquake and since then have remained unoccupied and left to deteriorate. Then again an old fixer-upper in a charming Sicilian village sort of sounds appealing. That’s Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi’s idea; he wants to get residents to restore the villas to their original character. Once you buy a villa, you have two years to restore it, complying with local architectural standards and hiring local builders, architects, decorators, etc. in order to stimulate the local economy.
Granted you’re probably going to have to factor in 100,000€ ($142,000) for the restoration process, but hey, if you have a hundred grand to spend, isn’t a fabulous vacation villa in Italy worth it?
Still tempted? Go the the mayor’s website and find out more.
[Via Intelligent Traveler]