Rural Pop-up Events
ITEN

Rural Pop-up Events APS

Villages have a future. Come be part of it.

We connect forgotten places with people ready to bring them back to life. Giving villages new reasons to thrive.

Discover the placesDiscover I Custodi
Open doors. Living villages.

Our mission

An open door. A reason to stay.

Tackling rural depopulation means creating reasons to stay, return or move here. We start with places where people meet.

Places for a new beginning

A place for your next idea.

From Rural Pop-up’s Cercasi gestore catalogue. Open a listing for conditions, availability and contacts. Listings are in Italian.

Borgomale · CN

Enoteca / Ristorante Comunale Il Crutín

Conditions, availability and contacts in the listing.

Rocca Cigliè · CN

Alimentari e Bar

Delightful little grocery shop to be reactivated, located just below the hostel (same historic building) in the central square of the village, opposite the medieval tower.

Igliano · CN

Circolo

Attractive bar/restaurant with accommodation (rooms with 6 beds) on the upper floor, overlooking the central square of Igliano. Activity to be taken over.

Rocca Cigliè · CN

Ostello

Small and delightful hostel with 8 beds (one double room and three other beds on request) located in a period building in the centre of Rocca Cigliè. On the ground floor there is a dormitory with three beds, a living room with kitchen, bathroom with shower, pellet stove. Hosts are sought for the period between April…

Levice · CN

Baia Blanca

Baia Blanca is a charming, historic summer nightclub, very popular in the 1980s and 1990s and closed permanently in 2007. The charming location is nestled between the hills of Alta Langa (Cuneo) and the Ligurian Sea. This open-air venue, in the heart of the village of Levice, is ideal for public or private events…

Explore Cercasi gestore

Preparing to reopen

Borgomale · Alta Langa · Piedmont, Italy

A new life for Il Crutìn

From Como to Borgomale: Camilla and Emanuele are working on the revival of the historic Il Crutìn and getting ready.

Giorgia, the association’s president and the place’s human custodian, supports them. Il Crutìn is the first Custode: its artificial voice gathers its history and prepares new encounters.

A future meeting place for residents, visitors and groups. Il Crutìn is municipal property: management will be awarded by the municipality through a public procedure open to anyone. The reopening date is still to be confirmed.

Talk to Il Crutìn

View it on a mapPiazza Castello, 1

Il Crutìn on Rural Pop-up

I Custodi

A chat with a place awaiting new life. Its artificial voice gathers memories, ideas and people ready to get involved.

Scan the QR code on the door or choose a place online. Ask about its history. Tell it what you would do there.

Discover I Custodi

25–27 September 2026 · during ELT · open house

TEST 01 — Rocca Cigliè

During ELT, we reopen Rocca Cigliè’s former municipal grocery: come in, share a memory, suggest an idea.

Schoolroom, Pro Loco headquarters, village shop. Let’s imagine its next life together.

We meet at the Banco delle idee (ideas counter). After the event, a QR code remains: I Custodi keeps gathering memories and proposals.

Open doors to imagine a living place again.

Talk to the former grocery

Events

The event is an invitation to meet and imagine a place’s future.

Music, food and workshops bring people back to municipal spaces, alongside local administrations. Here is where we started:

  1. 16 December 2024Rural Pop-up XmasArguello, CN (Alta Langa) · 'Nuto Revelli' community hallpilot test, held as a private event
  2. 1 May 2025May Day @RuèBosia, CN (Alta Langa / Belbo Valley) · Doi Fagnàn (the association's private base)first fund-raising event
  3. 9 August 2025Baia Blanca, Levice (CN)Levice, CN (Alta Langa / Bormida Valley) · Baia Blanca, former discothequea former discotheque reopened for one night: first summer event of the series
  4. 25–27 September 2026TEST 01 — Open house at the former groceryRocca Cigliè, CN (Alta Langa) · Former municipal grocery, during ELTthree open-house days: the ideas counter, the memory of the place and an artificial voice on the door

Let's do it together

For municipalities

Have a space waiting for new life? We help people discover it and find those ready to care for it. Decisions stay yours.

Write to us

For people ready to take the leap

A trade, an idea, a desire to live in a village? Let’s find the place and people to start with.

Tell us your idea

Who we are

Rural Pop-up Events APS was founded in 2025 by members of Rural Pop-up, a PNRR-funded project. We work with local administrations to bring unused rural spaces back to life.

We started as 7 people from Piedmont with experience elsewhere. Today an international network joins us: different perspectives, shared roots.

I Custodi and the concept behind it belong to Rural Pop-up Events APS. The project is connected to Rural Pop-up, a platform by Welance Ventures Italia SRL. The physical installation format was conceived by Giorgia Gamba.