In Milan, there are 2,000 people per square kilometer, but in the province of Nuoro, there are just 35. Between the two Italys, however, it is the second, that of depopulation, which is having the upper hand. ISTAT projects a loss of five million residents by 2050 and eleven million by 2070. Depopulation is a phenomenon that mostly impacts inland and mountainous regions. To combat this, some local governments sell uninhabited homes for symbolic amounts, others provide monthly payments to people who move there and start businesses, while yet others provide access to the internet and other forms of technology. Antonio Decaro, the president of ANCI, refers to it as the "counter-exodus agenda," and on January 30 in Rome – in the presence of the head of state, the prime minister, and 5,000 mayors – probably the most ambitious chapter was shown. It is called Polis and it is a project that would convert post offices in towns with less than 15,000 residents, where 16 million Italians reside, into branches of the public administration. It means that the Post Office can ask for identity card and passport, personal and judicial certificates, cadastral surveys and ISEE, boat license and tax code. No longer will it be necessary to enter a vehicle and travel kilometers to reach the court, INPS, Carabinieri barracks, or police headquarters. All of this will cost $1.2 billion, of which two-thirds will come from the NRRP and 400 million from Poste Italiane, which will primarily supply the digital and logistical network, technologies, places, and employees for a project aimed at bridging the gap between the two Italys.
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