The Italian Sabbatical
ANNO: 2019 - PARTNER: AIRBNB
In the summer of 2019, five people from all over the world embarked on an extraordinary adventure in the heart of the small village of Grottole. Selected from over 280,000 applications, Anne, Helena, Darrell, Pablo and Remo became the protagonists of the Italian Sabbatical.
The strength of the community and international volunteers
For three months, these "temporary residents" immersed themselves in the life of our country with the aim of actively contributing to its revitalization. The project aimed to slow down, rediscover the beauty of Italian rural life and, above all, bring new life to Grottole, a picturesque village with a rich heritage and around 600 empty houses in its historic centre.
The five volunteers, from Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Argentina and the United States, worked closely with our community to develop a unique experiential tourism offering. In just three months, Grottole’s story has captured the attention of international media (with over 3,000 articles worldwide), bringing the village into the global spotlight.
Thanks to their dedication and collaboration with the local community, the volunteers have acted as true storytellers of Grottole, creating engaging experiences, opening a community hub as a meeting point with the community, creating thematic routes through the village with signs equipped with QR codes that tell the story of the cultural sites (with audio guides in Italian, English and Spanish), creating a map of Grottole and inaugurating a suggestive panoramic path that connects the village to the "belvedere".
The Italian Sabbatical has been a concrete example of how international collaboration and local commitment can generate new opportunities for the enhancement of heritage and the revitalization of small Italian villages like Grottole.
