• More Chinese tourists have visited Italy this year than any other European country, with many seeking out the country’s villages and hamlets
• The trend is helping revitalise depopulated villages in rural areas of the country

Forget about France, Germany or Greece – Italy is now the most popular European destination for Chinese tourists.

Numbers are expected to continue growing in 2020, which has been designated the “Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism”, and next year will also mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

According to Italian tourism authorities, roughly 3.5 million Chinese travellers had visited Italy this year by the end of October, and these tourists are increasingly choosing to visit offbeat destinations in the country as they search for unique travel experiences.

“Chinese visitors are discovering and falling in love with quaint, small rural villages like in the Abruzzo region, where few residents live,” says Gianfranco Bonacci, a cultural expert based in Abruzzo, a scenic province on the Adriatic Sea.

“These spots are far from mass-market destinations. What attracts Chinese tourists is the chance of having a slice of solitude and silence all to themselves,” adds Bonacci, who has worked for Italian public utility companies in China.

“It’s a luxury many don’t have back at home where everything is confined, regulated and limited due to population density, and where spaces are ‘collective’. In Abruzzo’s hamlets, they breathe fresh, unpolluted air, and can look up at the clear sky and stare at the stars.”

The chance for Chinese travellers to escape the stress and pressure of everyday life may be the main attraction of the province’s constellation of tiny, isolated villages and ancient towns.

With just 1,100 residents, Roccascalegna is one of these medieval villages in Abruzzo. Its old stone houses are set at the foot of a fortress dubbed the “Castle in the Sky”, which juts out of a basalt cliff over a breathtaking precipice. Cars are parked at the entrance of the village and guests walk along on old donkey trails made of rough stones carved from the hill’s jagged rock.

The fortress has become a niche location for weddings among Asian couples, who climb up the hill to the fortress’s chapel. Heels are not advisable on the steep and uneven stairs, so some bridal entourages make the journey barefoot.

Bonacci thinks that by discovering the appeal of these forgotten places, Chinese visitors can take more of an interest in the preservation of their own country’s architectural heritage when they return home.

“China’s rural landscape is dotted with ghost villages that have been abandoned to develop new towns,” he says. “By pursuing economic growth, pieces of China’s cultural heritage have vanished, but visiting Italy has shown them a different perspective. Here we tend to cherish our past. The Chinese have started to see, and admire, how old places can be a treasure, and how even ruins can be brought back to life.”

Italy is dotted with 6,000 forgotten villages, while another 15,000 are threatened with depopulation. Many are picturesque and some extraordinarily beautiful.

Most of them are in central Italy, in the regions of Abruzzo, Marche and Molise. Chinese and Japanese buyers have even stepped in to rescue a few dying hamlets by purchasing crumbling farmer’s houses that they have restored into summer homes.