A town which has not seen the birth of a single baby since the 1980s has finally broken the jinx.
The Italian town of Ostana
Since the 1980s, the Italian town of Ostana had not seen the birth of a single baby.
But last week, a dream came true, as the mayor of the small town said. A baby was born. The first in 28 years.
According to La Stampa, the town has only 85 inhabitants, including newborn Pablo. Its population has continuously fallen -- a fate shared by many other Italian towns and villages.
The Mayor, Giacomo Lombardo was quoted as saying: "The real decline started in 1975, with 17 babies between 1976 and 1987, when the last boy was born - until little Pablo."
A party will be held to celebrate what he hopes will be the start of a reversal of that trend.
The arrival of baby Pablo has certainly been welcomed in Ostana, according to the mayor. He said: "It's great to finally have someone born here, and it shows that our efforts to reverse population decline are slowly working."
Lombardo has tried to create jobs in order to prevent other young people from leaving the town. Pablo might be the first indication that his strategy is working. His parents wanted to move away several years ago but stayed after they were offered the opportunity to work at a mountain refuge.
Younger Italians in particular say there are few attractive job prospects in rural areas. Many have moved to cities, leaving their hometowns to the elderly. Ostana, which is in northern Italy, has only one shop, a bar and two restaurants, according to the Italian news site the Local.