{"id":124614,"date":"2023-08-02T07:02:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T11:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/the-american-who-bought-a-home-in-italy-and-found-big-surprises-inside-cnn\/"},"modified":"2024-02-21T11:49:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:49:34","slug":"the-american-who-bought-a-home-in-italy-and-found-big-surprises-inside-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/the-american-who-bought-a-home-in-italy-and-found-big-surprises-inside-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"The American who bought a home in Italy and found \u2018big surprises\u2019 inside | CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Editor\u2019s Note: <\/b>Sign up to CNN Travel\u2019s Unlocking Italy newsletter <\/strong><\/a>for insider intel on Italy\u2019s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Plus, we\u2019ll get you in the mood before you go with movie suggestions, reading lists and recipes from Stanley Tucci.\n<\/p>\n

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\n CNN<\/span>
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0
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\n Buyers from all over the world are snapping up charming old houses in isolated villages in Italy. They\u2019re all motivated by different goals, but they have one thing in common: They all seek a retreat, somewhere they can escape to and live the rural idyll.\n <\/p>\n

\n Chicago-based saxophonist Joshua Shapiro, 48, embarked on the quest for la dolce vita <\/em>as the first step toward a change of life. His long-term goal is to move away from the United States, which he believes is taking a broad political shift that troubles him.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2022, he bought a small, abandoned apartment in the village of Latronico, deep in the southern region of Basilicata, for 22,000 euros (roughly $23,600), after reading CNN Travel\u2019s article<\/a> about the clever housing program launched to attract migrants and stop depopulation.\n <\/p>\n

\n For now, he drops in and out as he finalizes his home\u2019s makeover. In the future, he can see himself making the big leap to relocate permanently.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m ready for the next chapter in my life. Being a freelance saxophonist, mainly playing jazz and commercial, is not without challenges, and as taste and demand for what I do is notably decreasing [in the US], it might be in much higher demand in Europe,\u201d Shapiro tells CNN Travel.\n <\/p>\n

\n For him, buying a dilapidated property in an unusual Italian spot is political, too.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t like the political situation in the US \u2013 the shift to the right. A huge swath of the electorate believes in another version of democracy, and how all this could pan out is a huge problem,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Shapiro visited Latronico on a trip to Italy after the pandemic \u2013 the third time he\u2019d traveled to the country, and the first time in 20 years. He took along his saxophone, which he played from a house that he rented while his newly purchased home was being worked on. Villagers have fond memories of hearing jazz melodies in the winding alleys at night.\n <\/p>\n

\n What drew him to Italy was a \u201ctenuous link\u201d he wanted to revive \u2013 his grandfather had been stationed in Florence during World War II.\n <\/p>\n

\n Latronico is hardly Florence, though \u2013 it\u2019s a five-hour drive from Rome, and three from the nearest international airport, Bari. Shapiro admits the remote location \u201cweighed heavily\u201d on him as he journeyed to this pristine corner of Basilicata. He never expected it to be in such an out-of-the-way place, without any direct train connection.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy goal was to look around, see what was affordable, and what was being offered in terms of properties. With the assistance of deputy mayor Vincenzo Castellano, who handles the housing program, I picked the easiest option for me,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n

\n Twists and turns
\n<\/h2>\n
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\n \"His\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n His second-floor apartment, which has its own external staircase and independent entrance, is 800 square feet, with two bedrooms and a panoramic balcony. It needed a thorough makeover, on which Shapiro has so far spent around 10,000 euros (roughly $10,730).\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite the excitement of buying a cheap home, the adventure he embarked on had a series of unexpected twists.\n <\/p>\n

\n He had to put in new windows, re-tile it, and patch <\/strong>cracks in the walls. It also had to be furnished \u2013 Shapiro says that there was initially \u201chassle\u201d figuring out which furnishings were going to be included with the house sale.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shapiro recalls initial \u201ccultural clashes over the odd furniture\u201d he found inside.\n <\/p>\n

\n He expected the house to come with the furniture that was in the listing photos, to have one less thing to worry about at the start. But he says \u201cthere was either a miscommunication or misunderstanding about this issue\u201d with the owners.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the United States, he says, the purchase contract would have stipulated what furniture was included with the apartment, but in Latronico, it was never quite clear.\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n \"It\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n As it was, some furniture was left for him, but it was \u201cworn out or not really usable,\u201d so he ultimately had to get rid of most of it.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was not expecting some things I found, like the bed was so old and decrepit. This became a contentious issue at the time, but we have very amicably resolved this situation while learning valuable lessons along the way,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n

\n Many empty homes featured on the local website<\/a> where owners meet buyers are sold or rented with furniture, but what eventually ends up being left inside is usually negotiated between parties.\n <\/p>\n

\n Having viewed it briefly before buying, Shapiro expected the home to be in better shape.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt needed a new roof, that was a big surprise. The kitchen was totally exposed to the sky, I had to add a downspout, and there was some junk inside the house which had to be thrown away.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Latronico\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Shapiro also repainted and patched up some walls \u2013 and there was more work to do to make it fully habitable.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were a number of surprises and things I did not expect, like having to redo the bathroom, add a new hot water heater, and fix a moisture problem inside one bedroom.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was somewhat surprised at the work that needed to be done mostly due to the assumptions that I made about the condition simply due to the fact that it was being lived in prior to my purchase. I discovered later that the former occupants tolerated quite a bit of the deficiencies of the place.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Shapiro\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n There was also a bizarre encounter when he first went to take a peek inside the house he had just bought.\n <\/p>\n

\n Accompanied by Castellano, the deputy mayor, Shapiro says he was surprised to find <\/strong>it had tenants inside \u2013 a group of elderly nuns.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were these three nuns who had been living there for some time; they were tenants of the former owners. When I came, they wouldn\u2019t let me in, shocked by the idea that an American guy could walk around their house.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Luckily everything was solved. The nuns, reassured by Castellano that they wouldn\u2019t end up homeless, eventually left. They were given alternative housing by the town council.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite these initial hurdles, Shapiro says he immediately fell in love with Latronico\u2019s laid-back, slower-paced lifestyle \u2013 the opposite of what he was used to in the United States.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe village is tiny, set in a remote mountainous area. I live in a big city of millions of people. Latronico is a place I can envision being very creative in, playing, writing music,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n

\n He says everyone has \u201cbent over backwards to be nice\u201d and been welcoming, bar \u201ca few sideline stares at the stranger in our midst\u201d \u2013 although he thinks that was mainly because of the language barrier. Not knowing Italian has not been easy for him, he says.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shapiro, like all other foreign buyers in Latronico, is exempted from paying property and waste disposal taxes for five years, a measure recently introduced by the town hall to lure new buyers from abroad.\n <\/p>\n

\n And despite the unexpected building costs he\u2019s incurred, he is ecstatic to have had the opportunity to grab a home for what he considers a bargain price. In Chicago, he says, a condo costs $200,000 \u2013 plus property taxes.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Editor\u2019s Note: Sign up to CNN Travel\u2019s Unlocking Italy newsletter for insider intel on Italy\u2019s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Plus, we\u2019ll get you in the mood before you go with movie suggestions, reading lists and recipes from Stanley Tucci. CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Buyers from all over the world are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[149,148,436,153,25498,25499,150,161,20909,25525,25528,27375,10319,430,3143,433,434],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-124614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-and-industry-sectors","10":"tag-consumer-products","11":"tag-continents-and-regions","12":"tag-domestic-alerts","13":"tag-domestic-international-news","14":"tag-economy-and-trade","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-furnishings-and-furniture","17":"tag-iab-business-and-finance","18":"tag-iab-industries","19":"tag-iab-real-estate-industry","20":"tag-italy","21":"tag-north-america","22":"tag-southern-europe","23":"tag-the-americas","24":"tag-united-states"},"yoast_head":"\nThe American who bought a home in Italy and found \u2018big surprises\u2019 inside | CNN - v99news.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/v99news.com\/the-american-who-bought-a-home-in-italy-and-found-big-surprises-inside-cnn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The American who bought a home in Italy and found \u2018big surprises\u2019 inside | CNN - v99news.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Editor\u2019s Note: Sign up to CNN Travel\u2019s Unlocking Italy newsletter for insider intel on Italy\u2019s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. 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Note: Sign up to CNN Travel\u2019s Unlocking Italy newsletter for insider intel on Italy\u2019s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Plus, we\u2019ll get you in the mood before you go with movie suggestions, reading lists and recipes from Stanley Tucci. CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Buyers from all over the world are…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124616,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124614\/revisions\/124616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v99news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}