While Tuscany remains a land of small towns, not all of those hamlets perched on the hills are as charming and impeccably maintained as we see in the pictures of magazines or travel guides. Some have adapted to the unrelenting march of progress, others have just faded away, falling into disrepair and oblivion. In Italy there are 2 million homes that have been practically abandoned by their owners. There are some efforts to bring back some of the towns that have gone deserted, but many villages remain desolately empty. Tuscany has some of these ghost villages, but few are as fascinating or haunting as Toiano, between Palaia and Volterra. In less than 20 years, after the Second World War, all the families went away, moving to the valley to get jobs in the factories that sprung up around Piaggio, the makers of the Vespa scooter. If you visit, the desolation is both magnificent and eerie. Some of the houses look like they've been abandoned in a hurry, with plenty of household items from the 1960s around, as if they're waiting for their owners to come back. This ghost village, though, has a dark history behind, the tale of an efferate murder that brought this isolated hamlet on the front page of the country for more than 2 years. The homicide of Elvira Orlandini, the most beautiful girl in town, captivated the country, with the trial of her fiancee Ugo Ancillotti becoming the first to be covered obsessively by the media, turning it into a farce. When the fiancee was found innocent, the death of the "Bella Elvira" became one of Italy's most famous cold cases, still unsolved to this day. Toiano sits there, barely standing on its peak, completely empty, visited occasionally by cyclists, amateur photographers or paranormal enthusiasts, looking for the ghost of the village belle, who apparently wanders the empty streets at night. Listen to the story of this town left behind by history and the tale of the murder that was the beginning of its end. Let us know what you think of this story and if you like this kind of episode or not. Every feedback is greatly appreciated!
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LINKS TO SOURCES (ITALIAN ONLY)
https://www.vanillamagazine.it/toiano-un-paese-quasi-fantasma-capsula-del-tempo-degli-anni-60/
http://www.palaiatoscana.it/notizie/toiano-alle-brota-il-borgo-fantasma/
https://www.lanazione.it/pontedera/cronaca/palaia-toiano-demolito-1.2895954
https://www.daicollifiorentini.it/nel-decadentismo-toscano-una-domenica-a-toiano-paese-fantasma
http://www.lazonamorta.it/lazonamorta2/?p=5119
https://viaggiareoltre.it/toiano-paese-abbandonato/
https://initalia.virgilio.it/toiano-omicidio-irrisolto-leggenda-32614
http://www.girosognando.it/2018/12/19/toiano-di-palaia/
https://www.cioletticlaudio.it/toiano-pi-il-paese-fantasma-di-elvira-orlandinila-bella-ragazza-sgozzata-nel-bosco-5-giugno-1947/
https://www.scenacriminis.com/delitti-biografie-criminali/delitto-del-corpus-domini-chi-ha-ucciso-elvira-orlandini/
https://www.viaggiatoriignoranti.it/2018/11/lomicidio-del-corpus-domini.html
https://www.lanazione.it/pisa/2008/08/10/110566-giuseppe_meucci_dice_notte_fantasma_della_bella....shtml
https://www.nuovatlantide.org/il-delitto-irrisolto-della-bella-elvira-di-toiano/

BACKGROUND MUSIC
Pipe Choir - Bom Bom Breakthrough Instrumental
Pipe Choir - Coffee and Time
Pipe Choir - Stand Up
Pipe Choir - The Opening Closing (Instrumental)
Wayne John Bradley - Blues Rock Original Instrumental
All released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/pipe-choir-bom-bom-breakthrough-creative-commons-instrumental
https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/p-c-iii-coffee-and-time-creative-commons-instrumental
https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/p-c-iii-stand-up-creative-commons
https://soundcloud.com/pipe-choir-2/p-c-iii-the-opening-closinginstrumentalcreative-commons
https://soundcloud.com/ayneohnradley/blues-rock-original-instrumentalcreative-commons
http://www.pipechoir.com/