Forsaken Village on Italy’s Coast Tells Tale of a Paradise Lost 20 Miles Castel Volturno ITALY CAMPANIA REGION Villaggio Coppola Naples ITALY DETAIL Gulf of Naples SICILY Mediterranean Sea 20 Miles ITALY Castel Volturno CAMPANIA REGION Villaggio Coppola Naples Gulf of Naples Mediterranean Sea MAY 18, 2017 Salvatore, 40, a house painter, and his partner, Maria, 41, a cleaning woman, moved into the village from Castel Volturno’s historical center after they found the rents there to be too high. Text by GAIA PIANIGIANIMAY 17, 2017 VILLAGGIO COPPOLA, Italy — When Villaggio Coppola was built in the 1960s along the western Mediterranean coast of Italy, just north of Naples, the aspiration was of a utopian residential area. Around 12,000 apartments, along the seaside and in the nearby town of Castel Volturno, were built in violation of zoning laws, at a time when local authorities ignored development along the coast. Today they live in Parco Saraceno with three of their four children in an apartment that overlooks the local soccer fields and Villaggio Coppola in the distance. The section originally designed for wealthier residents, Parco Saraceno, stands as a ghost town, including a now vacant but once popular hotel built to resemble a castle, a remnant of the village’s grand ambitions.
