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)
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)
