THE LIST 

When we embarked on our house hunt in Italy… 

...we already had excluded a few regions that didn’t match out appetite enough (like: too far from the sea, an overkill of foreigners or second homes). There was a budget ànd we had made up a wish/priority list, as wise people do in these cases. Years before we had done the same, in our search for a holiday home in Italy and that had ended up quite satisfactory. 

Once we knew we were going to emigrate into another country it became all the more important, as it’s not like you're, say, buying a loaf of bread.  

What's on the List? A determination of the position, neighborhood, conditions and features of the dwelling and premises. Set the priorities amongst these, gradually sliding down to mere bonuses, but no dealbreakers.  

Should the top 3-5 not be featured in a project, we shouldn’t even plan a house visit; of course the goal is to find a house that ticks all the boxes (a phantom), or, more realistically, ticks more of them compared to other houses visited. 

Once we had narrowed down our search to Abruzzo over time our list was getting longer, not shorter, so we could really get into details comparing all these country-houses available on the market there. Yet most projects didn’t get past point 5. Or even 3. There wasn’t a whole bunch of them. Actually there were just two. And finally, just one. 

On top of our list was to find a renovation project with some character, with good bones, preferably in a livable state. We wanted to do the renovation (or most of it) ourselves, so ruins were out of the question; we wouldn’t mind living in a tent or caravan for a while but the longer our search took, the lesser this seemed a good idea. Amenities like water and electricity (in whatever state): also a must. 

Next: 1 ha of land or more, as we love our freedom but wanted also the option to start a boutique glamping. Followed by the presence of an olive grove of which I had been dreaming for so long (I admit, this was my personal dream. Jaap preferred a bar at walking distance). This part of my dream was not really hard to become reality; it’s almost harder to find a farmhouse on the Abruzzese campagna without an olive grove.... and always nice if you can scratch one or two points off the list and move on to the next. 

Ah yes, we wanted something close to the sea, how close however we left open for negotiations. With ourselves. 

Next: we are from Holland, the flattest land on the world, most of it stretches out BELOW sealevel. So of course our new paradise should be in a hilly environment with a nice view, that would reach beyond green pastures with cows or a bunch of treetrunks. Either faced on the mountains or on the sea (a bonus). 

A nice, medium sized town in the neighborhood with all services: a must. Walking distance to the home village cum bar: another bonus (sorry Jaap). 

We also hoped to have a nice collection of fruittrees, bonuses for the ones with something else than figs (as 99% of the objects had these anyway) and the more exotic (to us at least), the merrier. A small vineyard (scenic!) was a plus as well, although we had our doubts if this would be a wise idea…. No dealbreaker. 

On our first visit to Abruzzo on our second to last day, we visited a house we had seen online and dreamed about a lot. It came well passed point 5, it just lacked a bathroom (and kitchen but who cares), had solid bones and we saw enough possibilities to do a renovation ourselves. We visited with a geometric architect etc. and then made the mistake of trusting the real estate agent selling the house, as well as the kind owner. He had inherited his parents house, then changed the listing to an agricultural dwelling to save taxes, which we knew. What we didn’t know was in order to get it listed back as a house, it should be renovated by professionals because it was obligatory (in this area) to do complex earthquake-proof adjustments. It would not only exceed our budget but also kill a lot of the charm of the old farm we had fallen for. When we found out, we had already made the first down-payment (because we were in a hurry and the agent said another couple was keen on buying it, just had some financial issue to sort out)…. It was not a whole lot and we regarded it as learning money, an nevertheless costly lesson. Well, now we were all prepared for the real work! We explored Abruzzo further south, did some house visits with a new agency mainly in central Abruzzo. And then came Covid… 

To be continued in the next blog!