ASSISI is a small Italian village about 170km north of Rome near the historic town of Perugia.

Its stone cottages and majestic bell tower makes it look like something out of a fairytale, but there’s something different and bizarre about this Italian village. There are barely any babies.

Italian women are having fewer children because of the high unemployment rate, low wages, poor maternity rights and inadequate child care.

This had spurred the Assisi local council to scramble for ideas on how to fix the low fertility rate and a new plan will encourage people to conceive in the town’s hotels.

The Fertility Room project was designed to give couples free accommodation in the town if they conceived during their stay.

If nine months down the track, the couple can prove conception during the time they were staying in the hotel, accommodation costs will be reimbursed.

“The low birth rate in our country is one of the most significant problems that social policies will face in the coming years,” the Fertility Room website said.

A statement said the Fertility Room understood the importance of conceiving.

“Giving birth to a child is a profound gesture of love that should be increasingly encouraged despite the many difficulties in life,” the statement said.

The council hopes the simple idea will strengthen the focus on the issue of procreation.

While this will not see many more babies born in Assisi as the plan is targeted at tourists, it will work towards boosting the birthrate across Italy.

The European country is facing a birthrate apocalypse and since the 1970s, fertility rates have been in decline and the population has started ageing rapidly.

The Local reported Italy had the lowest birthrate in the European Union, and just eight babies were being born for every 1000 people.

Italy is one of the most populated countries in the European Union, with 60.9 million residents recorded last year.

In May, Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin announced she would take action to fix the “catastrophic” drop in Italy’s birthrate by introducing a higher baby bonus.

“If we carry on as we are and fail to reverse the trend, there will be fewer than 350,000 births a year in 10 years’ time, 40 per cent less than in 2010 — an apocalypse,” she said.

“In five years we have lost more than 66,000 births (per year) — that is the equivalent of a city the size of Siena (in Italy’s Tuscany region).

“If we link this to the increasing number of old and chronically ill people, we have a picture of a moribund country.”

An Italian woman told The Local residents weren’t having babies because it was too expensive and unemployment in the country was still a massive problem.

According to The Local, the unemployment rate is at 12.4 per cent, one of the highest in Europe.

There are other towns in Italy like Assisi struggling with the birthrate.

In January the town of Ostana, in Italy’s north, celebrated the birth of the first baby in 28 years.

A lack of babies are being born in cities because of high living costs, but small towns are also suffering with young people moving away to more populated areas to find work.

Ostana’s mayor Giacomo Lombardo told BBC he wanted to reverse the depopulation trend and create new jobs.

The Fertility Room project in Assisi, in Italy’s Umbria region, could urge more towns in the country to launch their own plans to combat the dire birthrate.

However a councillor in the Umbria region is looking at whether the Fertility Room is a good plan as it could tarnish Assisi’s image.

Claudio Ricci said in a statement the Fertility Room brand seemed more relevant to Paris or Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

Assisi News reports Mr Ricci acknowledged the idea was creative and original but still did not think it was appropriate.

Assisi has strong religious ties and is the birthplace of St Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208. Franciscans believe in Catholicism and St Francis is one of the most respected religious figures in history. Assisi was also the home of six other saints.

The town has some of Italy’s most historic churches, with the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi established in 1253. The village is also known for its rich culture of art and architecture.

The Fertility Room project is not the first time the country has tried to boost its birthrate.

In September the government came up with “Fertility Day” which was criticised by people across the country. They thought the campaign showed ministers did not understand the reason behind the low birth rate.

On September 22 the country held its first Fertility Day to increase young people’s knowledge of reproduction. The event urged young people to protect their fertility by preventing diseases that could compromise it, or getting an early diagnosis.

The BBC reported in one advertisement for the day, a woman held an hourglass next to the words “beauty has no age limit. Fertility does”.

According to BBC, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on radio creating stable jobs and day cares would boost the birthrate.

“If you want to create a society that invests in its future and has children, you have to make sure the underlying conditions are there,” he said.

The BBC reports there were just 488,000 babies born in Italy in 2015, less than any other year since 1861.