‘Seinfeld’ Fans Are Shocked to Learn That Tuscany Is Paying People to Move There

Those of us who paid more attention to movies and TV shows than to geography class probably associate the picturesque Italian region of Tuscany with either Seinfeld or Diane Lane’s 2003 mid-life crisis. 

Back in the Season Seven Seinfeld episode “The Maestro,” the titular conductor begins dating Elaine and promises to take her to his house in Tuscany. When Jerry mentions that he’s heard it’s nice there, the Maestro randomly warns him that there are zero places to rent in the entire region.“The houses are passed down from generation to generation, it’s very hard,” he explains.  

A vexed Jerry can’t help but obsess over the Maestro’s bizarre claim and ends up inadvertently renting a villa, thus ruining Elaine’s romantic getaway. 

While the Maestro, aka Bob Cobb, was obviously trying to keep Jerry away, as Seinfeld fans on Reddit recently pointed out, the real-life Tuscan real-estate industry is shockingly different from what Cobb claimed.

CNN recently reported that the Tuscan village of Radicondoli “has been losing people for years.” While it was “once home to around 3,000 residents,” Radicondoli is currently home to just 966 people. And “about 100 of its 450 houses sit empty.”

So, in order to try and turn things around, the village is straight up paying people to move there. In 2023, Radicondoli “launched a program offering up to 20,000 euros, or about $23,000, to anyone willing to buy and live in one of its vacant homes.” And that sum also comes with ”an extra 6,000 euros in contributions towards expenses like heating and transport.”

While that strategy only helped out home buyers, now the town has “expanded the plan” and will “cover half of the first two years’ rent for new tenants through early 2026.” The empty homes that are available “for both rent and purchase” include “one-bedroom apartments in the village’s historic center, as well as Tuscan farmhouses on the outskirts.”

But there is a catch, new residents “must stay for at least 10 years if they buy a home, or four years if they rent.” Still, there are seemingly so many homes available in Tuscany that one town will literally bribe you to live there, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what the Maestro suggested. 

It just goes to show that you really shouldn’t believe everything you hear from a minor fictional character in a ‘90s sitcom.