If you’d told me when I was a young girl in the Midwest that someday I’d own a house in Italy, I’d probably have laughed it off. Owning a home in a foreign country — any foreign country, let alone Italy — always seemed to me like something that only movie stars did.

But here I am today, a middle class American with a second home in the beautiful, green region of Abruzzo, Italy. It’s a dream come true and something that brings me and my husband great joy.

Buying a home in Italy may seem complicated and confusing. The truth is, the process is very simple and straight-forward — as long as you choose the right real estate agency. Offering residents an attractive lifestyle with an emphasis on family, scenic beauty and world-famous food and wine, expats moving to Italy will be seduced by the country and its passion for la dolce vita.

My husband and I were looking for homes specifically in the Abruzzo region because of the amazing property prices there right now. We went with Abruzzo Rural Property, and it was the best choice we could have made.

Below, I’ll explain some tips and advice for first-time American home buyers in Italy. I’ll also explain how the home buying process in Italy differs from that of the United States.

One Year Later, Interest In These Properties Has Increased Nearly 200%

 Considered the greenest part of Europe, with three national and five regional parks, this spot boasts beautiful coastal towns, charming medieval hamlets, and hilltop villages with breathtaking panoramic views—who wouldn’t love this ideal location?

The climate here is typically Mediterranean, with four seasons and very mild winters. Situated on the Adriatic Sea, it’s a coastal region with 134 kms of beaches, but it’s also a mountain region with well-known ski resorts and the highest peak in the Apennines.

This diverse place is Abruzzo, located in Central Italy.

Abruzzo was mostly unknown to international tourists until 2001 when the low-cost airline Ryanair launched a route from London Stansted Airport to Pescara, Italy, the most convenient airport for this region.

In the last few years, people from all over Europe, the States, Australia, Israel, and South Africa have started buying properties in Abruzzo. In February 2018, the leading property web portal Rightmove calculated that among its worldwide users, interest in Abruzzo properties has increased by 192% compared to last year.

 We bought our house in Italy because we fell in love with it, ruin and all, with no mains services; it had been abandoned for twenty years. We could see the heaved floors, soaked walls due to lack of guttering and the land piled over a metre high at the back wall, north side of the house. We knew that the house involved hard work but honestly we had no real idea, we were excited, enthused by the prospect.

We wanted to embark on the building works ourselves, our finances were low and so we knew that we couldn’t afford surveyors, architects, builders, landscapers, designers, etc... We decided to take on the project ourselves, for most the project would have involved planning on many levels, financial, practical, long term, short term, and critical path analyses! But we were enticed, spontaneous; we were keen but also complete novices.

We both have creative backgrounds and are open to challenges, diversities, the changing ebb and flow of life. And so full steam ahead, fuelled by enthusiasm, drive and commitment we began. Long, long days, weeks, which became months that led to years of long days – time, that is the key. We thought of ourselves as time rich and cash poor, we were happy to invest our time into something we felt important and time is what was required, lots of it and hard work.

We wanted to keep our costs low but also to sensitively restore the house with as many natural, traditional materials as we could keeping a rustic yet visually pleasing look.

We met with our local comune, council and organised the relevant permissions to complete works ourselves. Every local council here is different and permissions and laws change not only from place to place but by year to year. We found ours to be encouraging and whilst there are always hurdles to jump we found this part relatively easy.

So feet first we dived in using just our common sense and a bit of internet research to work out the order of events and the tasks themselves. We wanted to keep our costs low but also to sensitively restore the house with as many natural, traditional materials as we could keeping a rustic yet visually pleasing look. We were keen to be as environmentally friendly and green as possible while not looking for a complete eco house we preferred to minimise the impact. We tried to tread lightly. This we achieved by reusing natural materials and using hand tools for the majority, breathing life back into a smallholding that had been left dormant.