Sicilian mayor Vittorio Sgarbi
Vittorio Sgarbi, who among other things is an art historian, stands with a portrait in his mayoral office in the western Sicilian town of Salemi. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi, left, works at Salemi’s city hall. The town was devastated by a 1968 earthquake, and Sgarbi has drawn international media interest by offering to sell empty homes for a euro ($1.35) apiece to buyers willing to rebuild. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi, at the desk, holds a news conference in Salemi. A Korean American merchant in New York donated about 55,000 DVDs and videos for a cultural center in the Sicilian hilltop town. We convinced him that Salemi was the new New York, Sgarbi said when the gift arrived. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
In the 1990s, Vittorio Sgarbi became a fixture on political talk shows on television. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
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Destroyed in the 1968 earthquake, this house is one of 3,500 abandoned homes in Salemi being offered for little more than one dollar. The town has been deluged with e-mails and calls from potential buyers: Norwegians, Australians, Britons and quite a few Italian Americans. City officials say the first sales will soon be made to notables. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
The town of Salemi, which has a population of 11,800, was founded by Arabs in the 9th century. In 1860, liberation hero Giuseppe Garibaldi gave a historic speech there declaring his campaign to unify Italy. (Giuseppe Piazza / For The Times)
