THE population of an Italian mountain village is down to just one elderly woman, highlighting an exodus from rural areas that has left hamlets across the country abandoned. Thousands of villages are empty or on the verge of being forsaken, with some being offered for sale to foreign buyers in search of second homes. Paolina Grassi, 90, is now the sole inhabitant of Casali Socraggio, a collection of slate-roofed houses in a valley on the border with Switzerland. Born in 1926, she has lived all her life in the hamlet and remembers when the village bustled with life. "There was a restaurant, a shop, a bakery and an elementary school. In my class there were 36 children. When I was born, three families had 10 kids each," said Grassi, who is the youngest of five sisters. Her husband died more than 20 years ago and her last surviving sister died last year. She loves the solitude. "The silence is wonderful, especially at night," she told La Stampa. "You don't hear so much as a car. Outside ...
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