We reach the village of Acquaviva Platani in the early afternoon. There’s silence in the fields and softly falling rain. Three barking stray dogs follow us a little, then give up. A downpour closing in on us from across the valley. We find shelter under an oak tree. A countryman covers his head with a poncho and walks on.
Up on main street nothing moves. Some houses are uninhabited. An old man smoking a cigar nods at our greeting.
Acquaviva (“living water”) owes its name to the many springs in the area. Village rich with water and fertile land, it’s among the places in Sicily that suffer most of depopulation. In the ’50s it counted 3600 inhabitants. Now only 860. Almost 2500 of its citizens are resident elsewhere.
It’s tough to see towns extinguishing slowly. There’s need of a new system able to bring back life to the small communities. Is there a way to do it in the near future?
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