Deep in the Apennine mountains of Abruzzo, medieval hamlets stand frozen in time — more cats than people walking their crumbling streets. But a wave of EU grants is offering these ghost towns a second chance, funding cultural programmes, tourism initiatives and a scattered hotel model that has since travelled from Matera to Rwanda.

Video Solutions Rome produced, shoot and edited this CNN report exploring how Italy's abandoned villages are being reimagined as intellectually driven destinations — and what their revival means for Italian identity itself.