Lurching towards Italy

To Rent or to Buy

Whenever one moves to a new area, it is prudent to spend a few months there assessing the location, the neighborhoods, the houses themselves…isn’t it? And surely it is even more important when relocating to a new country. Renting, then, would seem to be the obvious choice. With that in mind we looked at rental properties in Anghiari and nearby towns. Still, we couldn’t resist checking out properties for sale as well. We also looked at sites describing the processes and costs for each so we could make a comparison.

I think, though, that our hearts were always inclined towards a purchase. For one thing, in order to fund our transition, we needed to sell our house in Fernandina. That led to the question of what to do with our furniture and since we had some good and cherished pieces, we wanted to use them in a new home in Italy. So shipping furniture along with our oh-so-many books, dishes, paintings, clothes and more entered the equation. If we were to rent short term, that is, for a few months, the apartment would inevitably be a furnished one and we would have to store our furniture either in the U S or in Italy. In the unlikely event of renting for a longer time, could we face the prospect of moving our household twice should we eventually decide to buy?

Now let me explain some of the ins and outs of renting in Italy. There are a number of categories including, but not limited to, holiday letting, transient letting, and two different kinds of long term lettings. Holiday lettings may be for a few days or a few months and will be furnished. Transient lettings can be for a couple of months or up to eighteen and are likely to be furnished. There are two types of long term renting: three years plus an option for two more, and four years plus an option for four more. Either could be furnished but the norm is unfurnished. Confused yet? There’s more.

Most homes or apartments in Italy are rented by an individual, not an agency. That allows the landlord to save money on commissions and taxes. Scams do happen, although it seems there are fewer now than in the past. Still, as a new arrival in Italy, it is best to be represented by an agency, and pay the commission of at least 10%. Moreover, some landlords not only want to meet you in person before accepting you as a renter, but are likely to require that you have money in the bank to cover rent for a year. That, of course, is in addition to any deposits you must make to cover possible damage or defaulting.

Short term rentals tend to be more expensive per month, not only because they are short term, but also because they are furnished. Shabbily, often, but still furnished. The photos you see on line can be very deceptive, showing only the best of what the apartment or house has to offer. And it isn’t entirely unusual for there to be a significant amount of dirt, hair, stains, and so forth, which can’t be seen in photos.

Long term rentals, the three plus two and four plus four mentioned above, are for those who probably are not planning to buy, ever. The landlord can legally terminate the contract at any time, but has to give six months notice. The tenant also can move out but is obligated to a reasonable notice period as well.

Purchasing a house also has risks, of course. Unless you already know the area, it is difficult to be sure that whatever town, city or country side you choose is the place you want to spend a significant length of time. But in favor of buying, housing prices are low; Italy’s real estate market has been depressed since the 2008 world wide recession and is only slowly recovering. Naturally, lowered housing prices are attractive to buyers, but there isn’t any assurance that the market will have improved significantly by the time you decide to sell. American buyers should keep in mind the dollar to euro ratio, which does fluctuate. The value of the dollar against the euro has been better for the past year than in a very long time, so anything purchased now is a relatively better value.

In the end, we decided to purchase a house. Partly that was due to all the factors I’ve described. In addition, we were reluctant to spend a rather considerable amount of money to rent a place and to store our furniture, depleting our less than abundant resources. As anyone who has purchased a house knows, there are fees associated with buying that are above the actual purchase price of the house so we did have to factor those into the total cost. In Italy, however, the realtor’s commission is split between buyer and seller. The happy result is that the seller doesn’t have to foot the entire bill and, to the buyer’s benefit, the price of the house isn’t elevated to cover that cost. For foreign purchasers, there will be a charge for translation of the paperwork. We had to have a translator even though Terry knew Italian well.

Although buying a house in Italy is relatively simple, neither renting nor buying are without some difficulties. Since we were using money from the sale of our house in Fernandina, we did not have to apply for a mortgage in Italy. I’m grateful.

How did this all start?

Terry says that our interest in making a trip to Europe began with my study of his family history in late spring of 2018. His Slovenian grandfather, and numbers of his siblings, immigrated to the U S around 1911, settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Surely, we did become fascinated with the project and, thanks to Google maps, were able to see and, visually at least, wander through the tiny village of Hudi Vhr where his grandfather grew up. Thoughts of traveling to Slovenia and truly walking through his ancestral home began to be a fun topic of speculation. I’m not sure how or exactly when this began to translate to the idea of living abroad, but our investigation of Italy began soon after.

Before long, we decided to spend September of 2019 in Florence. We reserved an apartment, arranged for a dog sitter, and decided we would look for property while there. Terry was fluent in Italian after his decade of going to school in Italy, so there was really no question of the most fitting destination. And, since we both had a strong interest in the arts, we imagined immersing ourselves in Italy’s rich artistic resources.

Did we then settle back and wait for a year to pass like mature adults? Not at all. The internet was our best friend as we looked at property for rent, property for sale, and the best place to live. Pretty quickly we found that any place near Florence would be too expensive, so Terry began looking further afield, though primarily in Tuscany. Simply by chance, a site touting the virtues of Anghiari popped up one day.

Anghiari is a medieval, hilltop town, recognized as one of the most beautiful in Italy. With a population of around 5,000, it is a quiet town, but one that attracts visitors and offers a range of activities and sights for the tourist. Part of its fame stems from the lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, “The Battle of Anghiari.” The battle did, indeed, take place in Anghiari, at the base of the hill on which the village sits. Not much of a battle, actually–only one death is recorded and that resulting from a combatant’s fall from his horse. Still, da Vinci made much of the scene and it was later replicated by Peter Paul Rubens.

So now we had a preferred location–this was getting exciting, and dangerous, as now an actual plan was beginning to take shape. But what is a location without a house to live in? Thus began our property search, now in Anghiari or nearby towns. Pretty quickly we settled on a couple of real estate sites, Gate-Way and Romolini. The latter was based in Anghiari and before long we were exchanging emails with Anna, who was so helpful that we couldn’t help but respond.

My First Blog Post

Terry, my partner, and I met several years ago, both having lost our spouses to cancer . By the time of that auspicious meeting, we had survived grief and recognized the possibility of a new, albeit late life, opportunity to love again. Our first conversation, held over plates of appetizers at a party, told us how much we had in common. He was a retired doctor who had lived in Italy while pursuing his medical degree at University of Bologna. He began drawing and painting during his scant spare time and continued his hobby through the years.

Though somewhat less dedicated than he, I also had spent many hours drawing and painting, a hobby since childhood. My interest in the arts led to a degree in History of Art and later in Archaeology. In both disciplines my emphasis was on Roman art and the Roman frontier, which together led to a season in Italy working on an archaeological dig at the Palatine Hill in Rome.

Terry and I lived on Amelia Island, Florida–a beautiful barrier island where we had many friends who shared our interest in the game of petanque. We had moved into an historic home in Fernandina’s well-known historic district. Why on earth would we want to leave such an idyllic place?

The answer to that is multifaceted. First, traveling was in our blood; we both loved to visit places we had never seen or wanted to see again. And Terry and I had both lived abroad so were undaunted by that prospect. But in addition, we were both concerned about conditions in the United States. The political rancor, the continued gun violence and, on our own little island, the rampant development that was changing all that we loved about the place. Finally, and perhaps most important, we looked at the next five years of our life and decided that the time for one last, great adventure was upon us.