Man, 83, lives in an airport for nine months before being rescued
He relied on the kindness of strangers.
The story of an Italian man who spent nine months living in an airport might sound a little like the plot of the 2004 movie The Terminal.
But unlike Tom Hanks’ lead character, who gets stuck in an airport because of civil war and a passport problem, 83-year-old Arnaldo set up camp at a check-in lounge as a result of Italy’s cost of living crisis.
Arnaldo moved to Marconi airport in Bologna last July when he could no longer afford rent.
Originally from Sicily, an island off of Italy’s south coast, Arnaldo had been living in Bastiglia, a town near Modena in the north of the country.
However, the retired wine consultant started to struggle last year when his pension was no longer enough to cover his rent.
According to local property websites, single rooms in Bastiglia cost around €400 a month.
Arnaldo slept outside for a while, but soon bad weather forced him to find somewhere to shelter. He turned up at the airport’s check-in area with a single suitcase.
Arnaldo said he never wanted to ‘be a nuisance’.
His presence soon caught the attention of airport staff, who started to bring him food and coffee. One staff member bought him a sleeping bag, and workers from the airport newsstand gave him a newspaper to read every day.
Then news outlets started to report on Arnaldo’s situation. Local authorities said they were unaware of the 83-year-old’s living conditions until they read the media reports.
Bologna’s Councillor for Welfare Luca Rizzo Nervo said he was sorry authorities only learned of Arnaldo’s case in this way.
The Bologna municipality has now intervened, providing Arnaldo with hotel accommodation while they find him a new home.
Arnaldo’s living conditions captured the hearts of Italians. His heartwarming story would fit right in with TikTok’s hopecore trend, where feeds are filled with uplifting clips focusing on positivity and optimism. There are over 291,000 videos posted with the hashtag.
Italy’s cost of living crisis
Arnaldo is one of many Italians who are struggling to get by amid rising prices.
Italy’s National Statistics Institute says one in 12 people in the country live in absolute poverty.
That’s pushed many out onto the streets. In 2023, homelessness in Italy was up 6.8% compared to the year before.
The country’s cost of living crisis is one of the worst in Western Europe.
According to a 2022 YouGov poll, 82% of Italians were unhappy with how their government was handling the cost of living crisis.
The same poll found that more than nine in ten Italians had to make cuts to their usual spending or were expecting to do so – more than any other Western European country.
41% of Italians said they had struggled to pay energy bills.
Who else has lived in an airport?
While Arnaldo’s solution to rising living costs may seem unusual, he’s not the first person to spend an extended period living in an airport.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the man whose story inspired the film The Terminal, spent 18 years living in the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
In August 1988, Iranian-born Nasseri tried to travel from France to London, but he was turned away because he didn’t have a passport. Nasseri said his papers had been stolen.
He was returned to France where he was detained at the airport. Despite several attempts to sort his paperwork, Nasseri was unable to leave the airport. He spent his days smoking a gold pipe, journalling, and eating McDonald’s.
In 2006, Nasseri was hospitalised, and in his absence his usual sitting spot at the airport was dismantled. He was offered shelter accommodation in Paris, where he stayed until his death in 2022.
Gary Peter Austin, a former jockey from the UK, was left stranded in the Philippines in December 2013 after he was told that his e-Ticket for his flight home had been cancelled.
To make matters worse, Austin was short on cash and he didn’t have enough money to buy another ticket home.
With nowhere else to go, the then-52-year-old spent 23 days stranded at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
A cleaner at the airport took pity on him and brought him food. Eventually, the British Embassy helped him to book a flight home.
A Japanese man named Hiroshi Nohara spent almost four months living at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City in 2008.
Nohara quickly became a local celebrity. Fast food chains in the airport gave him food and branded t-shirts, and people turned up to take photos with the airport’s new resident.
Nohara refused to reveal why he stayed so long at the airport. He did not have any visa or documentation problems.
At the end of December, Nohara left the airport to stay with a woman who invited him to her Mexico City apartment. The woman, known as Oyuki, lived alone in Mexico City and her husband worked in Japan.
However, in January, he hurriedly left the country carrying three plastic bags stuffed with clothes. He gave no further explanation to reporters.