Small-Town Puglia: What It’s Like to Live in Biccari
It’s one thing to get excited about €1 homes in Italy in villages you’ve never heard of. And it’s quite another when the village in question is one you know very well.
I recently stumbled across the news that the tiny town of Biccari in Puglia (Apulia) is jumping on the cheap home bandwagon in order to bring in new life to this sleepy mountain town. Biccari Mayor Gianfilippo Mignogna is offering a number of turnkey, ready-to-move-in properties for approximately $9,000. It’s a wise strategy in order to lure would-be residents who are turned off by the daunting task of renovating an old or dilapidated property.

But here’s the thing — Biccari is the ancestral home of my mother-in-law. So I have some misgivings about this new scheme. On the one hand, I am nervous about a horde of tourists descending on this small town and disrupting the calm. On the other, I wonder how new residents would cope living in this insular, isolated place.
I have spent a lot of time in Biccari. I’ve visited Biccari in every season, during holidays and festivals as well as when nothing has been going on.

I’ve been there on sweltering afternoons waiting for something (anything!) to open up. The Biccaresi honor the siesta like no place I’ve ever been, shuttering homes and businesses at noon and not reopening until 4 p.m., sometimes 5.
Closer to Molise in geography and spirit than it is to the beach resort towns of its region, Biccari sits among woodlands, expansive valleys of wheat, and smooth hills dotted with industrial windmills. It sits in the shadow of Monte Cornacchia, the highest peak (1,151 meters) in Puglia. “These are mountain people,” my husband likes to point out when trying to explain how his mother and her family were very different than the caricature of ebullient and chatty southern Italians.




Like many places in small-town Italy, Biccari is liveliest on the feast day of its patron saint San Donato. The early August festival brings a lot of former residents back to town, many lingering for days or weeks before and after the event before returning to their homes in Milan, Turin, Naples, Germany, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere.
On the day of the feast — August 7 — many Biccaresi, accompanied by a hired marching band, parade through the town with statues of San Donato and other saints. (This type of religious celebration, of big, shoulder-borne processional structures, has been recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.)




Meanwhile, the rest of the residents watch the procession from their stoops or balconies. When night falls, there’s a big concert on Piazza Matteotti and fireworks. It’s a fun time, but it’s gone in a flash.
Though Biccari is lovely, defined by the elegant dome of Saint Mary of the Assumption, the 12th-century Byzantine Tower, and well-maintained cobbled squares, it is beset by many of the problems endemic to the Mezzogiorno. A lack of jobs led many Biccaresi, including my mother-in-law and her family, to seek opportunities elsewhere.



Getting to Biccari also isn’t so easy. It is accessed by slow, often poorly maintained, provincial roads. The nearest train station is in Foggia, about half an hour away. And Foggia isn’t even well-connected to rail. It takes nearly three hours to get to Foggia on the fastest routes from Rome, Naples, or Lecce, and requires at least one change. In other words, if you wish to live in Biccari, you will need a car.
When my family has visited Biccari, we have usually opted to stay in nearby hotels (of which there are few) because the home in town is very small. Most of the houses in the heart of the village are very small and modest, the size of small apartments, and without air conditioning.
My mother-in-law’s childhood home is located on one of the main streets in the center of town, ideal for walking to church or to the main square. But it is tiny — one large room comprised of the kitchen, dining room, and living room; a bedroom about the size of a king-sized bed; and a bathroom with barely enough room for a toilet and shower. It is unfathomable to me how she once lived here with her parents, her five brothers, and their animals (which stayed indoors in a small storage space at the back of the room).



I write this post not to discourage folks from considering a move to Biccari, but to paint a picture of what I have seen and experienced in this town. I have mixed feelings because I want Biccari to succeed in trying to repopulate its town. But I also want to give a reality check to people who may not consider some of the small details and logistics when moving to small-town Italy. I suppose that what I have described above could be said about many of the towns that have offered these unbelievable deals to foreign investors. A lot of these towns are losing residents because village life is hard.
But who knows what could happen? Perhaps this could be the beginning of Biccari’s rebirth into a destination. The Basilicata town of Matera, approximately two hours south of Biccari, transformed itself from a poor, sunbaked town of cave dwellings into a magnet for artists and tourists. It took many decades, but Matera eventually earned the spotlight as the European Capital of Culture in 2019. Given Biccari’s small size, it won’t be able to follow the same path as Matera. But it could become a Calcata or Cervara.
I spoke briefly last night with my mother-in-law about the Biccari news. And while she was delighted to see her hometown’s name in the international press, she also had a wry smile when she asked me if I wanted to move there. “It’s a nice place to visit,” I said diplomatically, “but I don’t think I could do it full-time.” She nodded via FaceTime from her condo in Florida.
This post first published on 3 February 2021
Updated on 19 May 2021
Enjoyed this description of Biccari. Have to admit that when I first read of the place in a CNN article It sounded like a fun way to fulfill longstanding fantasies.
Thanks, Bill. I hope I was even-handed in my description. There’s still a lot more I could add. Hope you’re well!
My dad is from Matera, we had a apartment there. I lived a few times when I was a kid. I do tend to visit family it has been a couple years since I have been there. It has grown and seems the Sassi has made more tourists come even the university has helped. However it still is nowhere and is boring, also jobs seem like they have not gain momentum. Nice to visit but to live is a different story.
1 euro???? It is not possible.
It’s definitely not possible. That’s just the price to earn attention. See this article foe more details: https://www.italofile.com/italy-one-euro-home-video/
Is interesting for me,I wish i can discovered.
Is anyone can give more info?
Sounds like you want to preserve an unsustainable experience. Clearly the Town is trying to attract visitors. You made visiting sound unattractive.
Biccari is being creative and clever in featuring itself with no misgivings.
I think your article hurts the town. For people who can work remotely, Biccari is an interesting potential to rewrite the pace of life.
I hope people visit and experience it.
Even-handed would have been a Pro and Con list of apples to apples comparison. Your article leaves with a sense of momentary joy from the August event, wrapped in a year of hard living.
At minimum, I think you worked against the interests of the Town and residents, masked as an insight driven educator.
They seem to have a vision for their future and you seem to be focused on their past. They appear to be pushing forward and you’d like to freeze them in time.
You missed an opportunity to represent here. I think they deserve better.
Thank you for reading my post, Bob. I appreciate your criticism. Indeed, I had mixed feelings about writing the post because I want Biccari to do well. But I also wanted to temper the expectations of readers as well as write about my personal relationship with this small town that was suddenly in the spotlight. I understand that Biccari was overwhelmed with interest thanks to coverage on CNN and Forbes. So I don’t think my blog post will hurt them too much. Anyhow, I hope that the initiative leads to reinvigorating the town and the local economy.
Biccari is not too far from Orsara di Puglia, the village I was born in and visit every year-well except during Covid! It’s been too many years since I’ve been to Biccari so I don’t remember it, but I do love going to Orsara. The fresh air is amazing, the food and the walks too. In the summer there is a nightlife and passegggiata, although not so much the rest of the year. It is hard to get to-but that also keeps it real. I hope Biccari does well with its initiative-although most foreigners look for a beach when they hear Puglia. Ciao, Cristina
Nice to hear from you, Cristina. Thanks for reading. 🙂
Dear Melanie I want to thank you so much for these beautiful photos of Biccari! My father was born there in 1906 and I was blessed to spend 3 weeks in this timy town, loving every minuet of it! To see the actual streets that I walked, the church where I prayed made my heart sing! I have a favor to ask of you. Can you direct me to where I can purchase a poster or landscape print of biccari. I am remodeling my living room and I want to show my chilkdren where there Nonna and Nonno kived. I have an 11 x 14 poster showing a hillside view of Biccari but I would like 2 or 3 more to make a “series” across the wall. Please let me know if this is possible. Grazie, Bernadette Carpineta 984 Apple Road Quakertown Pa. 18951.
Hi, Bernadette! Thanks for your message. I don’t know of any specific places to get Biccari posters. But you may want to try inquiring with artist Bill Renzulli (a distant cousin from nearby Castelnuovo della Daunia). https://william-renzulli.pixels.com/ Good luck!