After much debate about the pros and cons of living in Italy versus living in America, we made the difficult decision to return to the states and our home in Hickory, North Carolina. There are so many advantages to living in Italy–it’s without question safer as the mass shootings that have become a fixture of American life are virtually unknown here. And if Italian partisanship can be somewhat turbulent, it lacks the extreme animosity that has become prevalent in U S politics. Italy is also beautiful, full of art treasures, the people warm and wonderful, and, yes, the gelato is delicious.

However, there are a number of difficulties one encounters when living abroad that are not necessarily considered in the early blush of new adventure. Managing finances from abroad can be difficult, excessively time consuming and sometimes unresolvable. Increasingly, for instance, institutions will not send their all important verification codes to a foreign mobile phone, leaving the account holder without access to important information. And locally there is, of course, the necessity of ongoing dealing with the notorious Italian bureaucracy, which even native Italians lament.

Beyond that, Terry and I are ageing and feel we will have better support in Hickory than in Italy for whatever challenges old age may bring. Even more important is the draw of children and grand-children living in the states who are entering exciting new phases of their lives that we would like to be closer to witness.

With our decision to leave we must face selling our house, unfortunately in a slow real estate market. We chose to buy a house when moving to Anghiari because renting in Italy has some pitfalls and we knew that we would live here for several years at least. So now we will sell our wonderful, ancient home. The touching up of needy areas has been done, a realtor secured, and arrangements in place for shipping furniture back to the states in mid-December.

Not surprisingly, the real estate business functions somewhat differently in Italy than in America. Each realtor operates independently, normally through an “Exclusivity” clause in the listing contract, which insures that the listing agent “owns” the right to sell the property. Other realtors may show the house but must work through the listing agent to do so. Should a home be sold in that arrangement, the listing and outside agent share the commission. Alternatively, a second agency may chose to list through their own office but will have to repeat all the requirements for listing and provide their own photographs. The advantage to them would be to claim the entire commission if their agency sells the property. Though there is no MLS (Multiple Listing Service) to disseminate active listings online, there are two websites that approximate the same function–https:\\www.Idealista.com and https:\\www.Immobiliare.com — where house hunters from around the world can view numerous listings ensuring a wide view of available properties.

A required part of presenting a home for sale is recording its energy efficiency in the description of the house. For this one hires a geomettra, an engineer who will check windows and other outlets along with heating systems including the boiler and all radiators if you have that type of heat. If there is another inspection having to do with the condition of the property I am as yet unaware of it or whose burden it is to pay for it. I do know that on real estate sites habitable, in good condition or in need of restoration are included the description so prospective buyers are aware of what to expect. The number of people in my FaceBook Expat group expressing interest in buying a rundown property to restore is surprising but the challenge does intrigue the adventurous.

The day that our realtor was here to take pictures he pointed out that we have a bit of a problem in that we do not have an ante-bath. In Italy there is a legal requirement that an enclosed space must separate a bathroom from a kitchen. In our house we have a large entryway between those two rooms but it is not enclosed so cannot serve as an ante-bath. We were not advised of the requirement when we bought the house but if we had been might have agreed to accept this failing as our realtor suggested a buyer could do. Alternatively, he said, the toilet could be removed and the room turned into a closet. Really!!! We just completed the remodel of that bathroom last fall and take some pride in its improvement. Before undertaking the remodelling we had installed a door to the bath where previously there had only been a curtain for privacy. In order to avoid tearing holes in the wall, we left the curtain and rod in place along with the new door.

Thinking to be humorous I suggested this might constitute an ante-bath and the agent responded, “You joke, but that may, in fact, suffice.”

In Italy, household appliances are not normally included in a house sale…even kitchen cupboards may be stripped by the seller to take to a new home. We, however, plan to leave our appliances, and certainly the cupboards, having no need of them when we return to the states. We will take three of our favourite chandeliers to use in our townhouse or wherever we decide to live in Hickory. While both the appliances and the remodelling we have done might normally be considered in the pricing of a house, the poor real estate market in Italy means that much of our investment will not be recouped. Moreover, the difference in the dollar-exchange rate does not work to our benefit so we will feel fortunate if we can sell the house for near what we paid for it and consider the “sunk funds” the cost of spending a few years living in Italy.

Our house is a “sky-earth” house, meaning that all floors are owned or occupied by a single owner or tenant and are normally free standing or limited to a single adjoining wall. The top floor of our house was at one time a separate apartment and still has its own exterior door and stairway leading up to the living area. We, however use the several rooms of the upper floor for our own purposes, accessing it via a double door from the main living area. Should a new owner decide to let the space for an office or install a kitchen to restore it to a rentable apartment, the house would no longer be, strictly speaking, a sky-earth house. One could, though, offer the space as a BNB for visitors to Anghiari as the previous owner did without jeopardising its earth-sky designation.

Most houses in Italy have a cantina, or separate storage space below the main living area. Unheated, usually pretty rough in its finish, but eminently useful they are Italy’s version of a basement in the sense that they are essentially the place where one keeps seldom used items. Our cantina has its own address, #3 Vicolo di Monteloro, the lowest of the three numbers associated with our house: the main entry is #5 and the back entry leading to the upper floor is #7. Assuming proximity of mailbox to entry is relevant, we have always used #5 as our address but recently learned that our legal address is #3 Vicolo di Monteloro and have, perhaps as a result, occasionally found a letter wedged into the cantina door.

When our house was listed online we saw that the realtor had dubbed it “Casa Monteloro,” reflecting both the name of our street and its location in the medieval hamlet of Monteloro. This tiny area is the oldest part of Anghiari, predating even the historical centre. While at one time a complete castle, we occupy only the portion of the structure that was a watchtower overlooking the Upper Tiber Valley.

The slideshow below offers a brief tour of the house using a few of the photos posted online by It.Casa.

And now that our property is officially listed and online we wait for the first showing of the house hoping for a quick sale; but wondering if our property will languish in the slow real estate market. Having sold several properties in the past, I have experienced both of those scenarios, from sales on the first day to waiting one or more years for a viable offer. During the first months on the market, our furnishings will be in place, usually considered a benefit when selling a house. But shortly before Christmas our furniture will be removed for shipping to Hickory and with that, along with the holiday and winter season, we can doubtless expect a slowing of whatever action there may have been. Nevertheless, we have just begun and the future is not ours to know, so waiting, hoping and wondering mark our days.