This Italian valley wants remote workers to trade the city for mountain life

Rather than relying solely on tourism, Italy’s Soana Valley is targeting a different audience to reverse decades of population decline: remote workers and people seeking a slower pace of life. A new project called VIHTA, launched by the villages of Ingria, Ronco Canavese and Valprato Soana in Piedmont, offers free housing and coworking space to professionals, families, academics and students willing to spend two to four weeks in the mountains this autumn.

The Soana Valley region had already made earlier attempts to enhance its digital working environments, including coworking spaces in the three villages. This latest project goes further by combining housing, workspace and community participation, asking participants to take part in local activities and meet residents while they consider whether mountain life could become permanent.

The villages sit near Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy’s first national park, an area that draws hikers and nature lovers from across Europe even as its surrounding mountain communities have steadily lost residents to cities in search of education, jobs and services.

Experts note that successful revitalisation of rural areas depends on more than scenery alone — transport, healthcare, schools, internet access and jobs all play a role, according to studies on Italian mountain demographics, which have found that no single factor explains why some Alpine regions grow while others empty out.