One Step Closer...

I almost can't believe this "dream" might become a reality.

I actually bought a plane ticket to Italy yesterday! Ahh! I've been searching for ages for tickets, but it seems that following the Icelandic volcano this spring, prices to and from Europe skyrocketed. I kept thinking they might get cheaper, but with no luck.

During the past few weeks, someone else has also shown interest in the house we were wanting in Palata. Since I hadn't found a ticket yet (at a reasonable price), I let the owner know that they needed to make the right decision for them by protecting their investment and selling to someone else if they desired. They haven't sold it. Yet!

Simultaneously we also found a 3-bedroom home in the village of Guilmi which was actually cheaper, but requires quite a bit of work. But, the views from the balconies are breathtaking (and there are 3 of them)! The fact that it is substantially larger is also tempting, although I think it definitely has the potential to be a money pit.

Although advertised as having one bathroom, it too lacks a shower or bathtub. So, by bathroom, they simply mean a toilet and sink. Hmmm..

I can't believe how encouraging Tony is of this entire idea. Obviously he's excited about it, but I'm heading over without him since it is a busy time at work, and he will soon be traveling to Tanzania on business...

Over the weekend I spent hours looking at properties on all of the major real estate websites in the Abruzzo region. While there are just 2 homes we are seriously interested in (as mentioned above), I've compiled a list of 17. I'd like to see at least 10 of them if possible, just to validate what I think is a good deal, a nice village, and a do-able restoration project.

I put in over 45 bids on Priceline, and last night, my "price was finally accepted". I screamed from the couch (while I was pretending to watch Indiana Jones with Tony since it was his turn to choose an old school movie)...

$886 including all taxes and fees for a flight leaving LAX at 11am with one 45 minute stop in Chicago, and a 10am arrival in Rome the next day! And, the clencher: I got a DIRECT flight back from FCO - LAX! I was so thrilled...I was certain that Priceline was going to book me on a horrendous 5am flight with 3 connections on a "non-jet" aircraft.

Since my brother will be accompanying me, he was actually able to use some of his miles and book the EXACT same flight today!

We leave in two weeks!

We're going to spend a few nights in Rome at the beginning and end of the trip because a) who doesn't love Rome? and b), I think we're going to need to prepare and possibly de-compress from all of the house-hunting.

All of the old B&B's and hotels I've stayed at on prior trips to Rome seem to have benefited from all of the excellent Tripadvisor reviews they received, because the prices are now astronomical! I picked up the new Frommers today, and in the "moderate" section of hotels, several listings were in the $300 range! I'm not sure what's happened to Frommer's perspective on budgets, but $300 is definitely the luxury range for moi.

I found a beautiful apartment on VRBO.com, and since the owner had rented it out the week prior and a few days after the dates we needed it, he's offered it to me for half price - 75 euro/night for both of us including all utilities, cleaning charges, etc! It's 200 meters from the Colosseum and has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. I'm stoked!

That's it for now...I'm trying a new recipe for homemade Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce so I'll have to get back to my dinner...

More on the upcoming trip a little later!

One of Our Dreams May be Coming True!

For over 11 years, I've had a dream of moving to Italy. This was spurred on by a study abroad trip I made in January, 1999. Like most college students, we were based in Rome, but spent weekends traveling to Naples, Abruzzo National Park, Florence, Frascati, and several little villages in between. I fell in love with Italy at that time...

Books and movies like, "Under the Tuscan Sun" only reinforced my desire to one day buy a home there and move!

I took a couple of trips back to Italy and got to play tourist in the northwest regions as well as Venice. I was able to make my 4th trip there in 2007 when Tony and I spent Christmas week in a small apartment in the tiny hilltown of Trevi, in the region of Umbria. It was magical. There were no other tourists there, nothing was in English, and life felt like it hadn't changed much since the 13th century when the village was originally built. That's when Tony also got on board with this "dream"!

Fast forward to 2010. We're living in Orange County, and Tony is loving his job at an International non-profit while I'm enjoying staying home with our baby boy. We started talking about vacation 2011 (because, I'm obsessed with Tripadvisor and any form of vacation planning). We had planned to go to Cinque Terra since neither of us had ever been, and are desperate to go! Then, we started questioning if this would be the responsible thing to do... Mainly because the housing market is still quite volatile here in California, and we thought it might be smart to invest in another rental property nearby, sit on it a few years, and then sell when the market takes an upswing. Because of this, we decided that perhaps Cinque Terra would have to wait another year or two and we would take a cruise (cheap for Cali residents) or trek down to Latin America (also cheap), which we both love.

But then, a lightbulb went off. What about a home in which we could spend part of the summer and winter holidays that could also be used as a rental property IN ITALY? And, the rest is sort of just falling into place!!!

After hours and hours and hours of exhilarating research, we have found a small home in the tiny village of Palata on the South-Eastern coast of Italy, about 20 minutes from the Adriatic Sea and the city of Vasto.

I've been waking up each morning at 6am to Skype with the realtors, building technicians, lawyers, etc., at the real estate agency we're using. I'm beside myself with excitement. It's hard for me to think of anything else! This is pretty evident from glancing at the table near my reading chair!

The home isn't in need of any renovations a la Bramasole, but it does need some paint, cosmetic work, and updating in the kitchen, bathroom, etc. I should add now that we haven't even SEEN this property in person! We are moving forward with all the paperwork, sight unseen, but will be traveling there in early September to view the property and close the sale.

It's not as crazy as it sounds...The property is very very inexpensive because Molise and Abruzzo are not yet discovered and commercialized like the regions of Tuscany, Lazio or Umbria. The day I found the property was the same day I was having my parents and my brother over to have dinner with us. When they heard about the possibility, they were in! So, we're purchasing this home in a 3-way partnership with my parents and my brother. Each of us with a 33.3% stake in it, which definitely brings the risk factor to a minimum.

So, let the adventure begin! I'm hoping to use this blog to track our journey towards becoming home owners in Italy, feature Italian Recipes, discuss blogs and books related to Italy, and feature photographs of Bella Italia!

Welcome to "Living La Vida Luna Italiano style!"