October has been a whirlwind. From LA house sale, purging all things not coming with us, cat travel planning, flight planning for our exit, storage, immigration, taxes and on and on. As we close out this month, we have to be out of the LA house on November 4th and we fly to Italy with cat in hand on November 11th. IT’S ON PEOPLE!! Target remains for December 15th to complete construction and finalize purchase.

Italy Property

We have very positive news on the finalizing of the purchase and the remaining compliance work. The architect has now received the fines, paid the fines, received the permits and can now get underway. He needs to hire the construction team, order the materials and get started. We should know more by early November. Once the work is done, he’ll need compliance sign off by the comune, and we should be able to complete the purchase. I’m afraid to get too excited, but we are very close now. We spent some time putting a timeline together around the last couple years, from the early days of house shopping to these final days, see Timeline.

U.S. home sale

This was a big milestone. House went on market while we were in Italy. So we had to engage from there. Thank goodness we had a good team with our agent. Towards the tail end of our trip, we got great offers and moved fairly quickly once we returned home to finalize everything. Exhausting process, but grateful that it’s behind us. Many have asked about the emotional part of letting go of the house. True it has been filled with emotions, but the process has allowed us to let go more easily. Starting with the staging of the house. Honestly, once we had gotten rid of most of our things and the staging furniture was in, it no longer feels like our home. So I guess we said goodbye a month ago, and have just been squatting in someone else’s home since then. We’ll see how it feels on the last day.

Immigration

This Immigration path has continued to advance, albeit slower than we’d like. Most of the time has been spent preparing the documentation that will be delivered to the Italian Immigration committee who must approve us as the first step. So lots of back and forth with our immigration support team. It’s looking like we are now very near submitting to committee and then we wait for their blessing. We hear it’s about 30 days from submission, but then, not much has turned out as we were told.

Taxes

As we’ve shared, Italy taxing is quite high for a modest income. So we are working with US and Italian tax experts to position ourselves to get the lowest rate. With the tax agreement between US and Italy, you generally aren’t taxed twice, but the higher tax rate of either is how you pay each year. So our goal is to lower our Italian tax rate and pay the US standard rates. The tax year begins with our resident status, so early next year we’ll need a clear plan.

People, Places, Things

During last month’s visit, we found ourselves traveling quite a bit and saw some new places.

We arrived in Milan this time and spent the night in Stresa on Lake Maggiore, which is a short distance away from Milan Malpensa airport. We already shared the start of the trip from Milan, and the visitors we had at the Italy home in last month’s post. We ended up taking a train from Orvieto to Salerno to meet Kim and eventually Jeanne. So interesting to be farther south and compare things to Milan and to Orvieto. Things really change quite a bit the farther south you travel. The travel was pretty uneventful, we had a short stop in Rome before arriving in Salerno. We only brought our backpacks with clothes for a couple days and essentials, so pretty easy. From the Salerno station, we make our way to a taxi and zipped thru the city to the base of the hill. The driver indicated he cannot go any farther so we hop out and begin our ascent. Luckily the weather is relatively cool so a little sweaty by the time we reach the rental apartment but not as bad as it could have been.

Fairly straight shot up the hill, but we would later find out there is an elevator (Ascensore) from the main road that almost lets out at the apartment. Blessings.

Salerno is very close to the more well-known coast of Amalfi, but as you can see in the picture it’s the slightly less stunning and less expensive cousin, however has its own charm.

Here’s a view from our apartment window, you can see much of the loveliness along with the less appealing ship docks in the distance. As luck would have it, the apartment was right next door to the Giardino Della Minerva. The 14th century garden, and forerunner of all botanical gardens in Europe. This garden was the location where they cultivated some of the plants used to produce the active ingredients used for therapeutic purposes. Sadly it was closed for an indetermined time. What’s the Italian word for “Next Time”. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see part of the garden in close view on the right side. Vines covering top of stairway.

While in Salerno, we managed to squeeze in some lovely meals and even a gelato experience. We took a day trip to Herculaneum, location named for Hercules and the site of some incredibly intact ruins.

We also managed to squeeze in the Duomo di Salerno, which has many beautiful mosaics and a stunning Crypt below. Definitely worth a quick visit.

Salerno itself was a little more run down than we had hoped, but we still made the best of our visit.

From Salerno, we headed back to Orvieto with our friends, and after a few days in the house started our road trip stopping briefly in Siena for signatures on some paperwork with our notary. Then off to Barolo an important wine producing comune, known for what else? Barolo wine. In fact while we walked the small streets on this night there was an actual harvest activity going on right in the street. We popped in for an overnight stay and to celebrate the anniversary of Kim and Jeanne. We had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant for the celebration. The weather wasn’t very cooperative but we found the small town very cute and worth another visit one day.

From Barolo, we headed to Turin about an hour away. We had heard from many about how incredible this city would be and it did not disappoint. Huge by comparison to several other places we’ve visited. Clearly impacted by nearby countries, the architecture feels much different than Orvieto or further south. We visited the historic center, the Fiat auto museum, enjoyed some great meals. We would add this as a place to return, it feels like we didn’t take in enough of what the city has to offer.

After our stay in Turin, we’d separate from Kim and Jeanne as they continued their journey to Switzerland for another week, and we headed back to Milan for our eventual trip back to the U.S.

We had some flight adjustments but after a long day of travel from Milan to Paris, Paris to Boston and finally Boston to LA. We were safely back in our own bed.

While Kim and Jeanne visited with us at the house, we had taken a walk along the property. At one point we were all startled by a very large pheasant that took flight very near us. Sadly no picture but caught view of it as it high tailed into the air. Our friend Jeanne also taught us about Oak Galls. The idea that the wasps (Gall Wasp) are using the trees for their hatchlings is a bit unnerving. Honestly never heard of them, but certainly recall seeing them with their golf ball appearance and just assumed they were part of the normal tree. Of course, now can’t pass an oak without looking for them. Now this photo still has me haunted as I can’t tell if this is truly an Oak Gall or some other alien creature taking over. You be the judge.

House rental

As we write this, the house is targeted to be ready for purchase completion by 12/15. Because we are coming over a month early, we had to make arrangements with the owners to allow us to stay there. Rather than pay rent, we agreed that we’d cover the monthly expenses. So Gas, Electricity, Pool, Yard and Property Manager. By doing so it sort of gives us the ability to stay there and start some projects early. If for some reason 12/15 doesn’t land, then we just continue with this setup until it’s finished.

Blog updates

As we near actually living in Italy and looking forward to guest visits, we have added a Guest Book menu item to the header above. You can see the first couple visitors and their kind reflections on their early visits.

We’ve also added a menu item called Visitors. Not much there today, but hoping to add details for frequently asked questions so if you are planning a visit this might help.

That’s probably enough for our October updates. Looking forward to November adventures. Ciao

Next month will include details on the Olive Harvest that is just getting underway at the house. A couple pictures were shared by Oxana below.