Italy takes to battlements to save its dying hamlets

The streets are silent and cats hunt in abandoned houses, but the view from the battlements of Calascio's castle is spectacular; good enough perhaps to save this dying Italian hamlet.

Local officials have put restoring the ruins and attracting tourists at the heart of their bid to revive the village, which has won 20 million euros ($22 million) in EU post-pandemic funds.

Surrounded by Abruzzo's snowcapped peaks, Calascio is one of 21 dying or deserted villages awarded an equal share of a 420-million-euro pot by the Italian government.

Critics question how equipped the tiny councils are to spend such vast sums of money, which translates to almost 154,000 euros per person in Calascio.

The nationwide project has soured relations in several regions between winning villages and those that have lost out, and prompted warnings over potential fraud and waste.

But Calascio's mayor Paolo Baldi, a former mountain guide originally from Rome, is undaunted.

"We want to bring the hamlet back to life," said Baldi, who did up one of its ruined houses in 1993 and moved in with his young family.

Once a bustling and wealthy wool center, Calascio shrunk from over 2,000 residents at the start of the 1900s to just 130 now, almost all of them elderly. In the winter months, only 70 or so people remain.

Just three children have been born here in 12 years. It has no grocer's shops, school or doctor's surgery.

What the hamlet does have is Rocca Calascio, an ancient castle which draws 100,000 tourists a year.

Baldi plans to spend a big chunk of the funds -- just over 4.6 million euros -- on restoring part of the ruins, which were damaged in a deadly earthquake in 2009.

It is hoped archaeological digs will determine...