Turnaround: abandoned villages, from discarded elements of modern Italian society to possible resources

Abandoned villages can be considered both as discarded elements of modern society and as sources of identity. This paper considers this attribute as an added local resource, which can trigger processes of regeneration and local development with positive impacts on economy, environment, landscape and local community. Abandoned villages from the 1900s until the 2000s are diffused throughout the Italian territory, mostly in rural areas. These villages, abandoned due to various unfavourable conditions, represent an extreme outcome of the phenomenon of rural depopulation. Although the ghost village loses its original purpose as human habitat because it is abandoned, it is not really forgotten. Starting from the rediscovery of persistence of rurality in the form of memory, the intent of the paper is to try to answer the following questions: Does the reality of abandoned villages represent a rural resource in itself? What value can be attributed to abandoned villages? Is it possible to imagine new scenarios or roles for abandoned villages?