Initially, I didn’t pay close attention to what was happening in my village. I was part of a different migration: the flood of Italians in their 20s, 30s and 40s who had earned college degrees and then left villages or small towns, where job options are limited. Some had moved to Berlin, Denver, London or Paris, where one of my closest childhood friends now lives. I landed in Rome, among those who moved to Italy’s big cities in search of work.

For many visitors, a great allure of Italy is the sense that nothing changes, whether the timeless beauty of Rome or Florence, or of villages like Castellina, where the castle and the original fortification were built in the 1400s. But change is now rippling through the country as Italians prepare for national elections on March 4 — the first in five years. No issue is more inflammatory than migration. No issue is more deeply felt than the weak economy that has plagued my generation.

What I hadn’t expected was the way both issues had quietly reshaped my village. My family has lived in Castellina for generations, and I’m the granddaughter of a farmer, in this region famous for its wine. Yet migrants now tend many of the fields or care for many of the elderly, while some of their children and grandchildren have moved away. Today, 17 percent of the population in Castellina arrived as migrants.