About five years ago, my husband and I bought a house in a Sicilian hilltop village without seeing it in person.
We knew it was an unconventional decision. We lived in New York City at the time and I had never been to Sicily before we closed on the property. Some family and friends doubted our plans.
In retrospect, a lot could have gone wrong, but it wasn’t until we were finally on our way to Sicily in May 2022 that I said out loud, “What if we hate the house?”
Fortunately not.
We bought a house instead of planning a trip
I have always dreamed of visiting Melilli, the village where many of my husband’s relatives lived. Camellia Philips
Our plan was risky, but we didn’t make it on a whim. It was inspired by the limitations I had due to a chronic health condition.
I lived with him for years chronic migrainemeaning I experienced 15 or more days of migraine symptoms every month. One of my worst triggers was air travel.
During a cross-country flight, I was usually in bed for a week, unable to function. It got so bad that I stopped flying for work and pleasure, and only traveled by train occasionally.
However, I missed traveling and dreamed about it Visit Sicily – specifically Melilli, the hill town where many of my husband’s relatives lived. My husband and father-in-law had told me so many stories about this village, with its maze of cobbled streets and breathtaking sea views.
At the beginning of 2020, my husband and I came up with a radical solution. If we bought an affordable house in Sicily – and did it all remotely – we could go there more often and for longer periods of time.
If I got sick for a week, it would just be a blip, instead of ruining an expensive, “once in a lifetime” vacation.
We found the perfect place within our budget
We paid 57,000 euros for our house. Camellia Philips
Initially we planned to find a country house. However, we have learned that maintaining land can become expensive, especially with the risk of summer forest fires – and our goal was to make traveling to Italy easier and more affordable.
We found a Sicilian-British couple who would be our property hunters on the ground. Of the seven potential houses we examined, we chose a two-bedroom house in the historic center of Melilli.
Tucked on a quiet street too narrow for most cars, the sunny yellow house had a panoramic roof terrace as big as our one-bedroom house. apartment in Brooklyn.
The wasteland behind it was lined with terraced gardens, silver-leafed olive trees and orange and lemon trees. We paid 57,000 euros, or about $65,000 USD, plus closing costs.
We had to install our own kitchen, but otherwise the house was habitable. Camellia Philips
The house was already habitable, albeit unfurnished. The only downside: like many Italian houses, it was not equipped with a kitchen.
We were worried about the extra costs, but our local real estate agent helped us order a simple kitchen. Unlike in the US, Italian kitchens are often purchased as a whole, including cabinets, countertops and appliances.
Everything is delivered in boxes and assembled and installed within a few hours. The total price was approximately $1,500.
Although the house felt cheap to us by American standards, buying it was not without risk. Properties here have often been on the market for years, so what we paid was a sunk price. If we weren’t happy, we probably wouldn’t be able to flip the house or sell it quickly.
After our first stay we knew we couldn’t go back to our old lives
I fell in love with our house in Italy. Camellia Philips
After living in New York City apartments for twenty years, the house felt like a palazzo.
The rooms were bright and the ceilings were high. Every morning sunlight streamed through our southeast-facing windows. From our roof I could see the Mediterranean Sea Mount Etna in the distance.
I fell in love with the rhythm of village life, including impromptu street conversations with neighbors, the abundant local produce, and the nearby ancient ruins and cultural sites.
When we returned to Brooklyn after two months, my husband and I knew immediately that it was not home anymore. Home was the yellow house in Sicily.
Buying our house was a risk, but it paid off. Camellia Philips
It took us a year to plan our full-time move. My husband already had dual nationality thanks to his Sicilian father, so we didn’t need a visa. However, we did have to prepare my immigration papers and make plans for how I would support myself.
I left my 20-year career as a nonprofit fundraising organization and built a consulting firm. Between things like enrolling in the national healthcare system and taking advantage of tax breaks for freelancers, I’ve been able to work part-time instead of full-time.
Even buying the house Sicily was a risk, it also turned out to be a smart financial move – and I get to spend more time in Italy than I ever dreamed.
