During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, due to the government's restrictive measures and the adoption of smart working for the performance of many work activities, an unprecedented phenomenon has been recorded: cities have emptied and many people they have returned to their often southern regions of origin. In this context, a debate has developed at various institutional and professional levels on the need, in the future, to enhance the numerous villages that make up the Italian province, with advantages that could consequently affect the organization of large cities. Italia Minore, ongoing project, investigates the provinces of southern Italy that have remained marginal respect to the economic and social development policies implemented by successive governments, since the beginning of the last century. Abandonment and emigration are a problem that affects these areas of the country. Although large spaces of almost uncontaminated nature arouse a certain fascination, especially in the innermost part of the central-southern Apennines, allowing one to perceive a better quality of life, the "Questione Meridionale" - a term used for the first time in 1813 - is still an open wound .