Roberto Covolo, ExFadda’s project manager.

Jutting into the Mediterranean on the stiletto heel of Italy, the municipality of San Vito dei Normanni in Puglia is home to 20,000 Sanvitesi inhabitants. The Apulian countryside is peppered with olive groves, oak trees, and farms separated by wind-polished stone walls. Agriculture has long been the backbone of the local economy, but a lack of employment and social innovation has compelled a large portion of the town’s youth to emigrate.