The picture of Italy in the last ten years, is a demographic black hole in particular if we consider small and micro-towns. This trend will even intensify in the next years compromising the economic development but also the cultural identity, the environmental sustainability, and the supply of fundamental social services like education, health, etc. In this scenario we aim to investigate if this trend could be reversed and with which strategies. At the moment the findings of the scientific literature on these issues are jet quite scarce. In this study we started from the data produced by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) describing, on one hand, the past demographic evolution (in the last 20 years) and, on the other, the projected evolution to 2041. Still from ISTAT, we used the data on internal and international migration in Italy at the municipality level. Basing on some indicators like the migration index (net migration/total migration) we measured the attraction/repulsion ability of the so-called Inner Areas. Finally, we combined the demographic approach to the geographical one using territory-based models to detect and bring out the main dynamics of the analysed phenomenon.