Houses/apartments are much cheaper as long as you are not on the water. Just like here, the closer to the Med or Adriatic the more expensive.
https://www.idealista.it/en/geo/vendita-case/calabria/lista-mappa
This seems to be the Italian version of a Zillow listing site.
You can search by region. The search above is for Calabria(the tip of the boot across for Sicily).
Generally there are a lot more apartments for sale instead of stand alone houses. Newer buildings are worth more money.
Buildings with elevators are more expensive.
Like always LOOK for bars on the windows. That typically means an area you do not want to live.
This interest for me came up when I came across a YouTube channel called AHomeinItaly. This is run by a British expat offering real estate in the Abruzzo Region. Which is east of Rome down to the Adriatic. This is also a lesser expensive area.
I think some areas of Sicily have more crime. Keep in mind that the south gets pretty hot in the summer. The middle part of the country on the coastal plain is more moderate.
The country is very mountainous. So, there are a lot of villages that are tougher to get to. These are where you can
buy houses for under $100K.
There are some towns in italy with programs by which you can buy a house for very cheap provided you put some renovation effort into it. I don’t know if that can be your own ‘wood butchering’ or if you must hire a local who is not you.