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the town is not located in some far off land
Pratola Peligna is a drive away from some of Italy's best ski resorts and national parks
with 250 of them available for less than the cost of a McDonald’s burger
nor do you need to be a resident of the country to apply
you do need to have a plan to renovate the home within six months of purchasing
You will have to cough up a fine of €10,000 (Rs8,70,000)
The region has suffered from a dwindling population
with the numbers decreasing to almost half in the past many years
It is now home to a little over 7,000 people
especially a 2009 event that destroyed L’Aquila
"Our goal is to make them all shine again and recover the beauty of the old center
even if that may take a while," local councilor Paolo Di Bacco told CNN
The Hermitage of Sant'Onofrio in Morrone overlooking the Peligna Valley.
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Mario G. DiCristofaro, who owned and operated an auto collision shop in Buffalo, died December 12, 2021, at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Amherst from complications due to covid-19. He was 89.
Born in Pratola Peligna in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, DiCristofaro’s boyhood memories from WWII included diving into ditches for shelter as low-flying German airplanes sprayed machine gun rounds and dropped bombs on innocent, hard-working Italian men and women cultivating the farms and vineyards.
The family hid his father, Antonio DiCristofaro, from German troops who were rounding up local men for work camps, coercing them to work hard-labor tasks or face dire consequences of imprisonment, physical torture, and even execution for resisting the German oppressive demands.
After his town of Pratola was liberated, DiCristofaro began working as a mechanic at the age of 12 for his father, who established a trucking business with surplus vehicles he bought from the U.S. Army. Young DiCristofaro was imparted with business acumen by Antonio, a forward-thinking entrepreneur and visionary in his small town.
When he was 16, DiCristofaro went to Caracus, Venezuela with his father and brother, Aldo. They returned to Italy a couple of years later. He trained as a helicopter mechanic and was employed by oil companies. He received several awards for his work. “They wouldn’t fly a helicopter unless they knew Mario had fixed it,” his son-in-law Joseph Ciminelli said.
DiCristofaro returned to his hometown in Italy in 1959 and worked again for his father’s trucking company, but he did not stay long. A young woman from a neighboring town, Rose Sticca, who was working for New Era Cap in Buffalo, heard about him. “One of her aunts showed her his picture,” Ciminelli said. “She went back and they met.” It was love at first sight, and it was a match made in Heaven.
They were married in Pratola Peligna. Afterwards, she returned to Buffalo, while DiCristofaro waited in Italy for six months until his American citizenship papers were finalized. When he was able to join her in Buffalo in 1960, Ciminelli said, “There was a big party, a couple hundred people. The aunts did all the cooking.”
DiCristofaro worked for six years for Laura Collision. Then, he opened his own shop, Metropolitan Collision Service, located on Military Road near Kenmore Avenue in Buffalo in 1966. He brought his brother, Bruno, over from Italy to assist him and teamed up with his brother-in-law, Frank Sticca, to handle business matters.
“He took us back to Italy in the mid-1990s,” Ciminelli said, “an old, old man sees him and says, ‘This guy’s a magician. He can fix anything. Somebody would throw out a riding lawnmower, and the next day he’d have it fixed up.’”
DiCristofaro also bought damaged limousines, Ciminelli added, repaired them and sold them to a local limousine service. He kept one of them, a Mercedes-Benz limousine van he acquired in Las Vegas, and used it to take his extended family on excursions. “That’s when he was happiest,” Ciminelli said, “when we would all pile into the van and go out.”
His son, Mario Jr., took over the operations in the repair shop after he retired in 1997, but he continued to work there, filling in for a sick employee as recently as last summer.
Dominic Buccilli, Mario’s first cousin and an Italian immigrant as well, remembers growing up with the older Mario in their small town of Pratola Peligna during the early 1950s and beyond. “He was always a very active guy, full of energy. Mario was incredibly passionate about his mechanical craft and very much wanted to be a success [in America]. He worked well into his late 80s, but he just wouldn’t slow down.”
Bruno DiCristofaro, Mario’s younger brother who came over from Italy in 1966, praised Mario, saying: “I thank Mario for providing me and my family an opportunity for a better life in America. Mario showed a lot of courage, coming over to America and starting a collision business by himself. He is sorely missed by his family and friends.”
DiCristofaro was a member of the Pratola Peligna Italian Club, the Lake Erie Italian Club, and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. He built a bocce ball court behind his home in East Amherst.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include two daughters, Susan Ciminelli and Lisa Rastelli; a sister, Josephine D’Andrea; his brother, Bruno; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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As many as 250 abandoned houses are up for sale
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Another Italian town is selling off its empty homes for just €1 – this time within striking distance of a number of ski resorts
Pratola Peligna, located in the Apennine Mountains, is the first place in the region of Abruzzo to offer the popular €1 homes scheme
the town provides access to winter sports in the nearby resorts of Roccaraso and Pescasserol
up to 250 of which could be sold under the scheme
Pratola Peligna is giving potential owners a timeframe in which to renovate their new property
it is imposing a €10,000 fine should new homeowners fail to comply - they must file renovation plans within six months
“This is really in a worst-case scenario,” local councillor Paolo Di Bacco told CNN Travel
“We just want to make sure buyers actually follow through on their commitment and don't simply purchase for €1 and then disappear.”
Owners are also being encouraged to complete refurbishments within three years
The idea is to encourage new residents to move to the town – which, like other places in Italy
with the number of locals having shrunk from 13,000 to around 7,000 – alongside restoring the abandoned stone homes in Pratola Peligna’s historical district
“Our goal is to make them all shine again and recover the beauty of the old center
even if that may take a while,” said Di Bacco
Available properties can be viewed on the town’s website
The €1 homes schemes in Italy have become increasingly popular over the last few years.
As young Italians increasingly migrate to the city and choose cosmopolitan jobs over rural and community vocations, many of Italy’s prettiest remote villages are becoming abandoned, with tiny, ageing populations that are beginning to die off.
Some elderly Italians have found themselves with no one to leave their house to, bequeathing it instead to the local authorities, who have to decide what to do with it, while some younger citizens have inherited properties in areas they have no intention of moving to.
Having a second home in Italy means paying taxes, so selling these unused houses off cheaply can be more lucrative than keeping them.
Around 25 Italian municipalities have been making prospective homeowners an offer they can’t refuse - a house for the symbolic price of €1.
The idea is that having these homes improved and occupied in the next few years is worth more to the towns than selling them off at full price.
“We do not need new constructions and new overbuilding. The strategy to improve the housing environment and reclaim our cultural identity is to revive the small abandoned centres or to redevelop buildings in a state of abandonment, with a story that is our history,” reads a statement by the team at 1eurohouses.com.
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Mario Lucente was a pillar of the Italian community during an early wave of immigration to Brantford.
Born in Pratola Peligna in central Italy, he emigrated to Canada in 1951. It wasn't long before he was helping other newcomers get settled in the city, offering them a place to stay until they got on their feet.
Hard working and gregarious by nature, Mr. Lucente seemed to know everyone and had an ability for "wheeling and dealing" that got things done, said his son, Wally.
He was a founding member of the Maria S.S. Della Libera Society, and helped establish, in 1958, a religious ceremony and procession through the city streets around St. Mary's Church, a tradition which continues today. This year's Madonna festival will be held May 27.
"He was very determined," said Wally. "He taught us to be driven and work hard. He would push it to the limit and then go a little bit further."
Born in 1925, Mr. Lucente grew up in Pratola, a small rural community in Abruzzo region. Gifted with a strong voice, as a boy he sang in the church choir.
After the Second World War and the completion of mandatory military service, Mr. Lucente went to France, where workers were needed to repair the railroads. During rest periods from the arduous labour, he would sing.
After returning to Italy, Mr. Lucente married Antonina Colaiacovo and, a few years later, the couple came to Brantford. Singing continued to be an important part of Mr. Lucente's life and he joined choirs, first at St. Basil's Church and then at St. Mary's.
Wally said his dad liked to tell the story of how a wealthy aunt from Ohio, impressed with Mr. Lucente's voice, convinced him to make a record in 1953, which she took to a New York City producer.
"They sent him train tickets to come for an audition," said Wally.
But Antonina was pregnant - they would have four sons - and Mr. Lucente decided not to go.
"He was always singing," said Wally. "Ave Maria became his signature song and he would perform it at weddings and funerals."
Mr. Lucente worked at KeepRite for more than 30 years but Wally said his father was constantly busy, doing construction and farm work on the side.
He became a leader among the growing Italian population in Brantford and newcomers would come to his home with letters so he could read them and help them through the baffling legalities of a strange country. He also helped many of them find jobs.
Motivated by what he said was a series of dreams during which the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Pratola Peligna, asked him to "spread her veneration among the people of Brantford," Mr. Lucente spearheaded the formation of a committee, which in 1958, established the celebrations in honour of Maria S.S. Della Libera.
The organizers, led by Mr. Lucente, dreamed of having a statue of the Madonna and, in 1961, the committee, helped by members of Brantford's Italian community who raised about $1,000, arranged to have a statue constructed in Italy and shipped to Canada.
The statue was delivered in time for the celebrations in 1962.
"I remember going to the train station to get the statue, which was packed in a crate," said Wally. "It was important to my father that Italian culture be preserved in this festival. He insisted that the celebrations all be free."
Wally said his father also "kept the Italian ways in the neighbourhood." Their backyard was bursting with vegetable gardens, fruit trees and grape vines where visitors would gather to talk, sing and drink wine. He was also involved in organizing one of the first Italian villages in the city's International Villages Cultural Festival.
Mr. Lucente is survived by Antonina, his wife of 69 years, sons Raffaele (Lorraine), Leo (Jayne), Wally (Carmen), and Mario Jr. (Peggy), nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Dennis Toll Funeral Home on Charing Cross Street. Funeral mass will be at St. Mary's Parish Hall on Murray Street on Thursday at 11 a.m.
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