An Argentine won the contest to go live three months in the south of Italy with all the payment

A small Italian town called Grottole will have a different summer. Five people from different parts of the world will be part of the local community after winning a contest in which they will enjoy three months without paying anything. Among the elected, there is a young Argentinian, who lives in Buenos Aires and who wanted to escape the stress and chaos of the city for a while. His dream is realized!

The project was realized by Airbnb platform and promoted by the NGO Wonder Grottole in order to repopulate a village located in the province of Matera which has 300 inhabitants in the historic center and 600 empty houses. When they consider that they may disappear, they want the winners to return to the roots of this rustic Italian corner and revive their tourist interest.

More than 280 thousand people they volunteered to become "inhabitants" of Grottole during the summer. According to the contest's leaders, the five winners will be completely immersed in the life of the community, starting their journey with a month of training led by the local population before becoming hosts of the accommodation and experiences of the platform. form.

Your job will be to welcome travelers from all over the world to a room in the center of the community or in a traditional house. Its main task will be to promote social impact activities: they will teach vegetable growing, honey harvesting, pasta making and olive oil production.

The proposal drew attention to Pablo Colangelo, a 36-year-old software engineer who did not hesitate a second to apply for the competition. The young man has Italian origins, but was born and raised in Buenos Aires and is one of the project winners. On July 5th, the whole village of Grottole will welcome you with the four other "guests of honor".

This is how elected applicants learned

The main reason he ran was the desire to leave the hectic life of the city, at least for a time. "I hate traffic. I hate running all the time with a constant feeling of stress. This project will allow me to change the way of life and live for the first time rural life. In addition, it will be an opportunity to get closer to my Italian roots, "he said in the gallery.

The rest of the winners

Anne Tachado, 24, is a Filipino photographer with great volunteer experience. She graduated in agriculture from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she has lived since the age of 17.

Remo Sciubba, 62, is a former project manager of Italian origin who, after spending years in the business, has discovered a pbadion for teaching foreign languages.

Helena WarrenThe 45-year-old, born in a houseboat in Canada, has recently moved to Buenos Aires, where he organizes tango cultural tours for tourists visiting the country.

Darrell Pistone, is a 61-year-old New York firefighter who has just discovered that his grandparents were born in Grottole.