Meet The Italian Entrepreneurs Giving New Life To Italy's Economy

[The Lawspeaker]

A generation of young Italians are rediscovering the grand tradition of “Made in Italy”, ditching international careers and expensive studies. Is the return to their roots more than just a hipster phase? “Yes, I kind of like the fact that now I’m making concrete products", says Guido Pallini, a London banker turned Tuscan farmer. "Before I was selling contracts and ideas, and a lot of hot air." But now, if he's not herding his buffalo on horseback, Guido spends his time perfecting new varieties of cheese on a farm that belonged to his retired father. "I see also my friends that went away to live in London, after 10 years they're all coming back", says Guido's sister Matidia. The trend seems set to continue, and with youth unemployment still at 35%, half of the 125,000 Italians leaving the country last year were young people. Yet for these law-students-turned-farmers and psychologists-turned-shoemakers, the future for a generation of educated Italians is back where they started, at home. For more information, visit https://www.journeyman.tv/film/7260

[Tooting Carmen]

The de-industrialisation and de-development of most Western countries over the past few decades (except maybe Germany) really needs to be reversed. Good on them.

[The Lawspeaker]

I think that Dutch and German teens and twens could learn from this. For us older folks, it may be too late (although we can focus on other things). They should return to the lives of their ancestors and go back to the countryside which can be redeveloped. This should reverse the trend of increasing urbanisation and the destruction of old farming communities that both North and deep South are increasingly suffering from. I want to see them become young farmers, craftsmen, people rooted in their history and their traditions.