Wonder Grottole begins as an experimental project to engage and connect people and energies from all over the world. A visionary project that has captured the attention of Airbnb, and together, since January 2019, they have promoted the Italian Sabbatical project.
Local and global, material and immaterial, past and future.
Being comfortable together, inventing and imagining new ways of living in the community.
Feeling in harmony with nature inbetween a fluid time that flows more slowly.
Grottole is a small town with 2,100 inhabitants. It is located in Southern Italy in the region of Basilicata and it is 30 km from Matera.
Inhabited since prehistoric times and crossed by the Appian Way, it was once a crossroads of people and economies from north to south.
However, today its historic center has only 300 inhabitants and has 629 abandoned houses.
During the last sixty years its inhabitants have sought work in larger cities or abroad, giving rise to a
rapid depopulation of the town, especially its historical centre.
According to a report by Legambiente in 2016, there are about 2,500 depopulated Italian rural villages, some semi-abandoned and other ghost towns. These places represent the essence of
Italian history and the craft tradition of the country.
It is for this reason that Wonder Grottole aims to experience the possibility of recovering the memories of this territory and repopulate the village of Grottole through the creation of a new community in harmony with the resident population.
Wonder Grottole wants to experiment a new tourism model, the 4.0 one, an evolution of the previous ones because it is able to systematize the recovery of the territory, favor an urban regeneration and create a new tourist market. The tourist no longer lives the territory passively, nor does he live by the simple experiences offered by the locals, but becomes himself a protagonist because he brings and exchanges skills, values with the territory and his people.
The impact of this type of tourism is very positive as it increases the quality of life as well as encouraging and generating new economies.
The ideal tourist for Wonder Grottole is a tourist who no longer lives the territory passively, nor does he live by the simple experiences offered by the locals but becomes himself a protagonist because he brings and exchanges skills, values with the territory and his people.
Wonder Grottole will be a space for conversation, for being together, for creating relationships, for expressing creativity and experiencing new productivity.
It is at the same time residences, places of conviviality and laboratories.
Wonder Grottole will connect existing human and resource capital with new people, new ways of doing things, looks and ideas to regenerate the old village and create opportunities. A wealth of culture, traditions and stories to learn about, use, tell and pass on.
There is a great heritage of culture, traditions and stories to know, to tell and pass on and Wonder Grottole wants to preserve this collective memory.