Meet the man who wants to pay YOU to enjoy ‘la dolce vita’

“We have had inquiries from Britain and all over Europe,” smiles the affable mayor. “Some people ask us if the offer can really be true and we tell them of course it’s true.”

You might think the offer is being made because this ancient town is on its knees – not true.

But one of the conditions of the deal is that buyers must have permanent residency, so new life will be breathed into its 9,000-strong community.

It’s the latest example of Italian officials using cash offers to rejuvenate dwindling socalled “ghost villages” and rural areas across the country.

In recent years, people around the world dreaming of a place in the sun have snapped up properties for bargain prices, promising to revamp them.

Much as I enjoy “la dolce vita” – Italian for the good life – I want to know whether Presicce, once known as the “city of green gold” due to its olive industry, offers enough for a complete change of lifestyle.

“Life here is a little slow and quiet but that is the lifestyle that so many people want today,” insists Mr Rizzo.

“We have good, fresh food, sunshine, history, culture, everything – even the sea is just a short drive away.”

The offer only applies to properties built before 1991. Ambitious young Italians often head towards Italy’s industrial north in search of work, leaving places like Presicce bereft of youth.

Frescoed palazzos, votive columns, iron and stone balconies, where any Juliet would feel ould ed comfortable being wooed by her Romeo, don’t seem to have the pull for the modern generation of young Italians. However, the migration northwards is a decision they may regret.

“People are just discovering why Presicce is the perfect place to live,” continues the mayor.

“Be my guest, have a look around. You will not be disappointed. I know you’ll want to come back, maybe forever.”

Mr Rizzo moves fast. After a few phone calls, local experts arrived at the town hall to await his instructions.

“Francesco, can you take the Daily Express to our underground city?” says Mr Rizzo casually.

Oddly, we hadn’t noticed a lost city when walking through the narrow winding streets and through the Baroque palazzos. Within minutes, tour guide Francesco Primiceri takes us to the Piazza del Popolo, which is flanked by grand sandstone buildings dating back to the middle ages.

Apart from a few round metal grates embedded within the well-worn stones on the ground, the square looks like those in many Italian towns, but without the usual abundance of restaurants.

Francesco pulls out some keys to an iron gate at what looks like a small subway entrance and invites us to walk down some mossy steps into the cavern below.

Some 10ft beneath the square a vast warren of chambers and alleys becomes visible through the gloom of the electric lights.

“Hundreds of farmers worked here harvesting olives for lamp oil,” explained Francesco while sitting on a giant circular stone.

They dropped the olives down through a hole and then they were put between these heavy round stones. Donkeys were brought down to turn the stones, crush the olives and produce the oil.”

The first current residents knew of the “lost city” was in the early 1990s when part of the ground collapsed into a hole.

Since then, 23 chambers have been found and four are open to the public for guided tours. Thankfully, metal and concrete props have been built to give the ceilings support.

Wandering around in the maze felt like being on the set of an Indiana Jones movie without the snakes.

“In the summer the temperatures can get to 40-degree Celsius outside but

Cels it is very cool down here and the visitors like that,” adds Francesco. “I would love to have seen Presicce illuminated with the old lamps. It must have looked magical.”

Above ground, he takes us to what looks like an impressive but fairly ordinary archway and then he points to the ceiling.

Back in the 16th century a local artist had painted a scene depicting the Battle of Lepanto, possibly the world’s last naval engagement fought by men in rowing boats.

Strolling around is thirsty work, particularly when the sun nudges temperatures towards 18C in mid-November.

At a friendly cafe, a cup of good coffee costs one euro twenty, the same as one local oval-shaped pastry filled with cream and cherry sauce.

A bottle of the local pumpkin beer costs three euros, the same as a glass of wine. A takeaway slice of pizza costs three to five euros, much cheaper than northern Italy. Two scoops of wonderful ice cream costs just three euros.

As we chat in the street a local woman ushers us over to see her home. We walk through an ordinary wooden door into a courtyard where purple flowers tumble down over the entrance to a private orange grove and fallen fruit litters the grass.

It’s the sort of scene you might find in a Franco Zeffirelli film, timeless and alluring.

Our next guide is the council’s “assessor” of culture Natacha Pizzolante, who takes us to Piazzi Villani, where a column for Sant’Andrea (the apostle Saint Andrew) has pride of place.

“He has done a good job of predicting the town for centuries,” she says. Some of the figures on statues around the column have lost their heads over time, but nevertheless the detail on the carved stone is impressive.

Natacha goes on: “They built a church by the column.When they stripped back plaster in the church they discovered paintings going back to 1575,” she enthuses.

“The detail of have inquiries Britain and the works and colours are exceptional, even to this day.The marble there dates back to King Ferdinand the IV of Naples.

“People are getting excited because we have the feast of Sant’Andrea. For nine nights musicians take to the streets with tamburellos, an ancient musical instrument (similar to tambourines) and then we have a huge bonfire. History is alive.”

She points out that Presicce even has its own Banksy. On a mundane wall street artist Marina Mancuso has painted the face of a young child, using subtle shading, which is strangely moving. She adorns ugly modern street furniture like electricity boxes with her work.

You can tell Presicce is a sleepy sort of place when a man in a van drives by with a loudhailer telling residents he has got mattresses on the back for sale, wrapped in cellophane and ready to use.

Councillor Alfredo Palese says it is a pity there are so many empty homes in the historic centre. “We will be offering up to 30,000 euros to people willing to move here and buy one of these abandoned dwellings,”

“It will go partly into buying an old home and partly into restyling it.”

Some of the properties on offer in Presicce are going for as little as £21,000 – a bargain even though the one or two-room flats need new kitchens, bathrooms, replastering, rewiring and possibly structural supports.

IN 2019 Presicce merged with the neighbouring community of Acquarica, creating Presicce-Acquarica. The joining together of two small communities to create one larger one has meant an increase in funds to the council of some one million euros a year.

Councillors want to use some of that extra money to invest in revitalising the old district of Presicce, hence the offer.

It is part of the Salento province of the Puglia region, which has a vibrant culture. There’s a rich folk music scene, dances, festivals and food fairs featuring leavened pasta pancakes stuffed with shrimps.

Presicce is towards the bottom of the heel of the boot of Italy, ideally placed for days out to nearby coastal towns – just 15 minutes from the south-east coast and miles and miles of sandy beaches.

On the opposite side of the coast are towns like Tricase and Tiggiano, where British actress Helen Mirren has a home.

Which reminds me, I must get an email off to Mayor Rizzo: “You were right. Presicce is special. Please can I have some money to buy a home there.”