Among the wheat fields of central Sicily you could stumble on places like this.
Coming out of the wonderful woods of Mount Carcaci we found ourselves surrounded by the ruins of Riena ghost-town.
Its history is similar to that of certain towns during the gold rush, colonised among haste and dreams of glory and then abandoned shortly after.
There’s an ongoing debate about the dates of foundation and abandonment, probably due to the loss of archival documents.
Some say it was a town planned in the fifties, populated in the following decades but ultimately abandoned about 20 years later.
Others instead argue that it was planned during the fascist years (1922-1943) to drive farmers to colonise the inner part of the island, the most remote lands. According to this version, they all left in 1950 except a fugitive who hid in its ruins to evade e a life-sentence.
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