How To Choose A Home in Italy

We are contacted dozens a times a year on this topic, by people who want our advice on how to choose a region, a neighborhood, and a home. So here is our best advice! 

A few pointers about some potential legal issues, some tips on how to figure out the best region for you, and a lot of ideas about how to focus on specific things you are looking for in the home itself. 

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at: 

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about how to choose where you want to live in Italy- 

Among other things, we’ll discuss…

- why bigger isn’t always better

- Why a new home purchase might include a desiccated toilet brush

- and: why the South isn’t necessarily warmer than the North

[music up then down to 20%]

This is Matt Walker -         …and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and whatever else 

- so pour yourself a cup of coffee - here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We are travel writers and consultants, and also professional musicians; we've been living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years.

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and of course here on our podcast. 

…and that was us playing our own intro music - we recorded it here… Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, ecc ecc ecc

So, let’s talk about finding the right place to live in Italy!

We’re going to talk about finding a place to live mainly based on our own experiences here. We’ve given out a ton of free advice to people about moving here - this podcast is all that info distilled down to one chat.

We have occasionally been engaged by people to go to particular properties, taking pics and videos, and possibly asking a few questions of the realtor involved

For example: a place not too far from where we live: Location and specifics turned out to be not what the client thought based on emails and info with the realtor connected to the place: Realtor assumed she knew basic things about how stuff works here, but she assumed it was all just like the US. Water hookups, bathroom location

A few times a month we get queries about consulting on moving 

Moving to Italy - from US you need a visa - not Diane Lane’s character or Clooney

Depending on what passport you hold determines if/how long you can stay

Realtor doesn’t care if you can move here or not

We’re mainly talking today about what you’re looking for in a property 

This is not a how-to; but we can offer our advice based on our own specific experience and on those of people we know. - Consulting on specifics of moving is not something we do; we are not professional real estate authorities. Any search for a house in Italy should include a good realtor and whatever other professional help you need for your personal situation (immigration attorney, commercialista, ecc)

What we did:

We bought our house for 26K, fixed it up for 43K. Bought it to use as a writing haven to write our fifth guidebook, I think rich people call it a Pied A Terre. We often say that it was lucky that we did not know that we were buying our “forever home”! Because we would have had a whole bunch of “must-haves” that would have dragged out the process, and then we wouldn’t be here, we would still be living in Nashville. 

One reason our move has been a success - that is, we feel great about having moved here - is not intending to recreate a US lifestyle here - we intended to do and experience something new/different

Other expats we’ve met that are unhappy or that moved back, were expecting to recreate their old life in Italy but just with more pizza and gelato 

Also: Not a good idea to buy a place with intent to re-sell in foreseeable future

Accessibility - close to airport? Connections to trains etc - less touristy

(Friends Lee & Bo pre-selected this town for convenience)

CAR

Driving license, good for one year only for Americans. So if you buy a rural home which requires a car, you need to look into the rules for your country of residence and see if you need to pass that test. (we have a whole chapter about this in our book)

Climate 

Heat in summer, lack of central AC. Fog in winter. Humidity, can’t dry clothes

Must consider climate change too. Flooding. 

Water supply/shortages 

People think the north is cooler, but some of those big towns in the flatlands are SUPER hot in summer. Florence/Firenze is super hot. 

7% tax deal, 1€ home deals - most of those are in the south of Italy, generally much hotter

Size of place - bigger isn’t better - heating/cooling difficulty, visitors

Heating: Firewood vs pellets (vs electric) - story in our book

Electric grid: limits on capacity; don’t expect to have or be able to use all the things

Daylight

Italians generally shut the shutters all day in summer, to keep the cool in. Not running AC 24/7 like in the US. So inside can be pretty dark. That is one reason you see people out all the time, the piazza is like a communal living room. 

If you plan to be home a lot, like us since we work here, you should consider the natural light. We move around a lot with cats on research trips and after 2 weeks sometimes we are pretty bummed missing the light, and view. 

Cross breeze, since AC is not as ubiquitous or strong. Laws about when you can use AC and also heat, and how strong it can be. Good to plan on not having it or using it not on Arctic Blast level (we kept at 82 F 28 C)

Ground floor vs stairs vs elevator

Renting apartments 

Our best understanding is that renters must sign a lease for 3 to 5 years. Very important point that surprises a lot of people. Not a great idea to do it sight unseen, as that can really get scammy. Many rentals will come fully furnished, but it will not be new furniture, most likely. Probably family furniture. 

We are not experts in renting, you will want to either go with someone you personally know, or work with a realtor. 

We are not real estate or legal experts, we are just laying out some questions to ask the pros. Know our rights and responsibilities as renter - not the same as elsewhere

Realtors 

Italy-wide realtor doesn’t really exist 

Lots of folks get mad when realtors do not respond to calls or emails, but that is pretty normal. Check out websites, and familiarize yourself with how buying and selling works here. This varies one region to another

Buying a home 

Might come with all the stuff of the owner, or might be empty. And by empty, NO APPLIANCES. Do not make assumptions based on whatever is the norm in your country, we have seen so many horror stories because of that. 

Spend some time googling to read up on current blogs, also Facebook groups can be surprisingly helpful, if snarky. Definitely find a good realtor. We got lucky. 

If you are not fluent in Italian, you will probably need to hire a translator to help you and make sure you know exactly what you are looking at and getting, or not getting. 

No “staging” with rented furniture like in the US. Make sure you get in writing what will stay and what will go. Possible claims of other relatives, each kid owning a room for example. Ownership or tax liens. Shared roof. Can’t paint exterior walls any color you want. Solar panels. 

Contractors/workmen

Property tax on 2nd home 

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That sound of the pill bottle means that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - -  just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - instead, today’s show is brought to you by: 

A Good Idea. And today’s Good Idea is: 

Instead of gifts, write notes and put them in a jar. We do this every year, and open them on Christmas Eve: Most memorable gifts ever!

That’s it!   … So anyway, where were we?

Expat communities 

If it is important to you to be around other expats, you will want to make sure you choose wisely. For example, Cortona and Florence are both quite heavy with English speakers, big communities. Our area, not so much, which is one of the reasons we chose it. 

Also, if eating food from your home country is a big deal to you, you need to look into that to make sure you can get what you want. 

But you will probably be disappointed! Our best advice is to count on leaving that stuff behind, and not trying to recreate your old life here. You can find stuff, but you might not, so you might not want to count on it. 

Lots of expats we know are disappointed because they have unrealistic expectations. 

Food

Speaking of food, it is a good idea to choose an area to live in that has food that you like, since that will be the freshest and most affordable. 

Here: carbonara, but impossible to find jalapenos, or even a cannoli would be expensive since that is Sicilian 

You will find Italian delicacies over many regions, but the style of food only in that area.

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - but before we go: “ASK US ANYTHING:” Do we talk to our cats in Italian?

Don’t forget about our “Ask us anything” - you can write in and …

We hope you enjoyed joining us for our chat about searching out a place in Italy!

 We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll be posting a new episode each Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… Buone Feste!