This American bought an apartment in Italy and got a “big surprise”.

(CNN) — People from all over the world are looking to buy attractive old houses in different towns in Italy. They all have different goals, but something in common: they’re looking for a retreat, a place to escape, and an idyllic rural experience.

Search begins for Chicago saxophonist Joshua Shapiro, 48 beautiful life As the first step towards life change. His long-term goal is to move away from the United States, where he believes a broader political shift is occurring that worries him.

In 2022, he bought a small abandoned apartment for 22,000 euros (about $23,600) in the village of Latronico, deep in the southern region of Basilicata, after reading a CNN Travel article about an intelligent housing program launched to attract immigrants and prevent overcrowding.

For now, he’s in and out while remodeling his home. In the future, he envisions taking a big leap forward permanently.

“I’m ready for the next chapter in my life. Being a freelance saxophonist, mainly in jazz and commercial music, is not without its challenges, and because the taste and demand for what I do is declining significantly (in the United States), I’m in greater demand in Europe. Could be,” Shapiro tells CNN Travel.

For him, buying a dilapidated house in an unusual part of Italy is also a political question.

“I don’t like the political situation in the United States: the shift to the right. A large segment of the electorate believes in another version of democracy, and how this can all play out is a big problem,” he says.

Shapiro played saxophone on Latronico’s first trip. Credit: MC Newmanshapiro visits Latronico on a trip to post-pandemic Italy – his third time in the country and his first in 20 years. He brought his saxophone with him, which he played from the house he rented while work was being done on the house he had just bought. Locals have fond memories of listening to jazz tunes in the winding alleys at night.

What drew him to Italy was a “little link” he wanted to revive: his grandfather was stationed in Florence during World War II.

But Latronico is not Florence: it’s a five-hour drive from Rome and three hours from the nearest international airport, Bari. Shapiro admits that the remoteness “weighed heavily” during his trip to this unspoilt corner of Basilicata. He never expected that he would be in such a remote place, with no direct train connection.

“My goal was to have a look, to see what was on offer affordably and property-wise.” With the help of Vice Mayor Vincenzo Castellano, who is in charge of the housing program, I chose the easiest option for me,” he says.

Twists and turns

Their second-floor apartment, which has its own external staircase and separate entrance, has 74 square meters, two bedrooms and a large balcony. It needed a complete renovation, on which Shapiro has spent about 10,000 euros (about US$10,730) so far.

Despite the excitement of buying an affordable home, the adventure he embarked on took a series of unexpected turns.

He had to put in new windows, re-til it and patch up the cracks in the walls. It also had to be furnished; Shapiro says it was “difficult” at first to figure out what furniture would be included in the home sale.

Shapiro remembers the initial “culture shock” over the strange furniture he found inside.

I was hoping the house would come with the furniture that is in the listing photos, so I would have one less thing to worry about first. But he says there was “a lack of communication or misunderstanding on the issue” with the owners.

In the United States, he says, the purchase agreement would have specified what furniture was included in the apartment, but at Latronico it was never clear.

As it was, they left him some furniture, but “it was worn out or unusable,” so in the end he had to get rid of most of it.

I didn’t expect some things, like the bed, to be so old and shabby. “It became a contentious issue at the time, but we resolved the situation very amicably, learning valuable lessons along the way,” he says.

Many vacant homes that appear on local websites where owners meet buyers are sold or rented with furniture, but what is ultimately left is often negotiated between the parties.

After a brief visit before buying, Shapiro hoped the house would be in better shape.

“I needed a new roof, which was a big surprise. The kitchen was completely open to the sky, I had to add a downspout and there was trash inside the house that had to be removed.”

Shapiro also repainted and fixed some of the walls, and there was still work to be done to make it fully livable.

“There were a lot of surprises and things I didn’t expect, like redoing the bathroom, adding a new water heater and fixing the moisture problem inside the bedroom.

“I was a little surprised at the work I had to do, especially from the assumptions I made about the condition of the house, because it was inhabited before I bought it. I later found out that the previous residents were quite tolerant of the defects. of the place “.

A difficult habit

He also had a strange encounter when he first went to look inside the house he had just bought.

Along with Castellano, the vice mayor, Shapiro says he was surprised to find that there were tenants inside: a group of elderly nuns.

“There were three nuns who had lived there for a long time; they were tenants of the previous owners. When I arrived, they wouldn’t let me in, shocked at the idea that an American was walking around their house.”

Fortunately, everything was resolved. The nuns, reassured by Castellano that they would not be left homeless, left. The city council offered them alternative accommodation.

Despite these initial obstacles, Shapiro says he quickly fell in love with Latronico’s slow-paced lifestyle, which was unlike anything he was used to in the United States.

“This town is small, located in a remote mountain area. I live in a big city with millions of inhabitants. Latronico is a place where I can imagine myself being very creative, playing, writing music,” he says.

He says everyone “went out of their way to be friendly” and except for “a few sidelong glances at the stranger in our midst”, though he believes that’s mostly due to the language barrier. Not knowing Italian was not easy for him, he says.

Shapiro, like all other foreign buyers of Latronico, is exempt from paying property and waste taxes for five years, a measure recently introduced by the city to attract new buyers from abroad.

And despite the unexpected construction costs, he’s thrilled to have the opportunity to buy a home at what he considers a real bargain. In Chicago, he says, a condo costs $200,000, plus taxes.