For many people it sounds like a dream come true, finding a house in the countryside and renovating it to live out the rest of your days. But while most of us will never go past the dream state, one American family from New York decided to make this dream come true and actually find their little slice of heaven. And luckily for them the price tag was not too steep, €150,000 in November 2023.
The story is not an unfamiliar one, the Smarrellis, retired elementary school teachers that lived in New York, are of Italian descent, and as such decided to take a trip for their golden anniversary to Venice. This allowed them to reconnect with their culture and see the sights, but they never expected to like it so much that they would stay.
The big move to Italy, a dream come true for the New York couple
While in Venice, a quartet began playing the classic Italian song “Malafemmina” in St. Mark’s Square, which Tony Smarrelli said in an interview with CNN moved him in an unexpected way “I had tears in my eyes because my father would play his Italian records every Sunday for dinner and sing that song to my mother.”
After this emotional experience the couple decided to try to reconnect with their Italian roots and move to the country to discover the land of their ancestors. The process was made easy by an American-run real estate agency in Calabria who found them the property and eased their way into Italian home ownership. But the hard part was the move, from one continent to another.
Although this did not deter the couple, who were quick to go back and pack up their lives so they could enjoy their Italian retirement. Although they had many options to chose from, some o them the typical torusity places that appear in most guide books, the couple went about it in a different way, and took into account that it was their home, not a vacation residence, and so they chose to purchase a home in Scalea, for its quality of life and proximity to the sea.
As Tony continued to explain “We flew to Italy for the second time in 2023 and submitted an offer on that house. We got our visas in the US in three hours, sold our house (in the US), packed our belongings, and flew back to Italy in December 2023,”
The quick turnaround meant that they could also get some renovations done to the house, which, while habitable, could use some upgrades to bring it up to this century. They spent €80,000 in a complete renovation, installing new tiles, changing the water and electrical supply, and replacing essentials like doors, windows, and screens. The total expense for the house came in at €230,000, which for Americans used to New York prices was a complete bargain.
Living on the coast of Southern California or somewhere with coastal views on the East Coast would easily cost between one and two million dollars,” Tony explains.
The couple was also pleasantly surprised about the quality of life they could have in the region thanks to the lower cost of living, which they were not accustomed to while living in the US. Living in Scalea with all the bells and whistles is much cheaper and they claim that combined spending does not exceed 1,200 euros per month, which includes luxuries such as “going out to dinner two or three days a week with a bottle of wine,” they say. This proves that there is lie beyond the American dream.