Dream of Italy is made possible by: Parmigiano Reggiano is a distinctive flavor experience on its own or with your favorite dish, cheese crafted in the heart of Italy for over 1,000 years.

Authentic.

Local.

Traditional.

Parmigiano Reggiano.

Go Traveler.

Streaming TV travel app available on all smart TVs and app stores.

Don't go anywhere.

Just travel.

Miio your bridge to Italian craftsmanship: fashion, accessories, homeware and beauty.

Made in Italy only.

Jupiter, Florida and online.

Dalla Fonte bringing Italy to your doorstep.

A culinary adventure through Italy.

One plate at a time.

And also made possible by: I'm Kathy McCabe.

In this series we█ll meet the authintic characters...

Uncover the hidden treasures, and discover what makes Italy the most fascinating country in the world.

Join me as we dream of Italy In our last season, I took you to the lesser known region of Abruzzo, where I uncovered treasure after treasure, overwhelming natural beauty, charming towns, stunning seascapes, friendly people, adorable animals, delicious wine and mouthwatering food.

Now I want to show you what life is like for four American expats who have recently moved here, including a couple who were so inspired watching last season's Abruzzo episode that they bought a house here on their first trip.

Affordable Abruzzo is the hot place to buy a home in Italy.

So on this side, you have the mountains and then the Adriatic.

Yes, right down here.

We have it all.

Craig Sutter and Lexy Lux dreamed of relocating to Europe when they retired.

But Craig's unexpected heart attack was the jolt they needed to speed things up.

The idea of putting things off until I'm 70 and retiring and going out, that may or may not be an option.

Why don't we start now?

In the beginning, we thought, oh, gosh, is it is it too stressful?

Is it too much?

And as soon as he said it, and his cardiologist said, yes, go!

A former competitive cyclist Craig had long been enamored with Italy.

One night, while watching TV, the couple saw my episode on Abruzzo and decided to book a trip to check out the region.

So once you decided Abruzzo, how did you how did you find this house which I am just like crazy over.

We got together with our realtor and we'd probably look at maybe three houses, four houses a day.

And and then we came to this place and I walked around a little bit and I walked upstairs and I said, this is the place I want.

We literally can stand back to back on our balcony.

He can look up at the mountains and be in awe and I can see the Adriatic Sea and we're standing right next to each other.

This modern four bedroom, four bathroom house with a large kitchen and glassed in dining room is in the town of Civitella Messer Raimondo in the province of Chieti.

The purchase price was █250,000 or about $290,000 at the time.

Cheaper than a similar house almost anywhere in America.

Plus, Italy offers a tax break to qualifying foreigners who move to some smaller southern Italian towns.

It's 7% tax for a ten-year perio and so we're able then to deduct whatever we pay in Italy off of what we owe in the US.

Wow.

So that's a big savings.

Yes!

We also looked just at the general cost of living.

You know, what does it cost to go out to eat?

I still think it's probably 30, 40% less than what we were experiencing in Oklahoma.

For stays longer than 90 out of any 180 days, Italy requires visitors to have a visa.

Just buying a house does not give Americans the right to live here full time.

Craig and Lexy moved on an elective residency visa most often utilized by retirees.

Part of the deal is though when you come over here, Right.

So you have to establish that you have a source of income through your pension, through an investment income, royalty income, but it can't be through actually working.

Navigating visas can be challenging, but there might be something even more difficult.

Getting an Italian driver's license, which is compulsory after living in Italy for a year Taking the written test means studying for 7,000 potential questions, all in Italian.

You have to take a written test on theory 30 questions, you can only miss three.

Then that enables you..

In Italian, in Italian It is doable, but it takes a lot of time and effort.

Now that you've lived here what do you love about Abruzzo?

We love that really every day is an adventure.

It's completely changed me in ways that I wasn't even really expecting.

I'm just a I'm a much happier here.

A big selling point for Abruzzo... ...the food.

Lexy and I are lucky enough to score a cooking lesson with chef Gabriele Maiezza ... at his farm and restaurant, Agriturismo Santa Felicita.

We're making a specialty of Abruzzo Spaghetti alla Chitarra, named for the guitar-like tool used to make it.

Mani...

Your hands.

in pasta We're going to make it by hand, a mano.

Mine doesn't look like his.

I don█t know.

Wow.

It's like magic.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Thank you, Gabriele.

Grazie, grazie.

Craig... Lexy... Buon appetito.

It's so good.

Thank you, Kathy, for inspiring our dream of Italy in Abruzzo.

You're welcome.

Salute, Salute.

Edna Snow picked a different town in Abruzzo to realize her retirement dream.

sleepy Torricella Peligna.

I have to tell you, two of my favorite things in the world are tomatoes and dogs, and you've got a lot here.

Aren█t they beautiful?

This is really the dream.

Yeah.

Dream of Italy.

As a divorcee whose children are grown up Edna felt she had little tying her to the United States and began to hear about the allure and affordability of Abruzzo.

It was on my bucket list, I wanted to be fluent in another language.

I want to live in another country.

So, you know, so I'm really studying hard to learn Italian.

I try to talk to the people in town.

Nobody can really understand me yet, but I'm getting there.

What is it about Abruzzo?

Of of all the places you could live, really, in the world that attracted to you, that made you come here and look for a house?

I'm 30 minutes from the beach, I█m 30 minutes from the mountains, I can go cross-country skiing up in the mountains, but I can get to the beach in no time.

And, you know, it's like the new Tuscany.

you get more bang for your buck here.

Just everything's, you know, less expensive here.

I mean, and the and the health insurance, you know, is, you know, I paid and I got the platinum policy and it was █1,000 for a year.

and Italy has one of the top health care systems in the world Edna bought a three bedroom house with a guest cottage and plenty of land for gardening and relaxing, all for under █250,000 or less than $290,000 at the time.

Tell me about the process of looking for a house to buy.

How is it different here in Italy?

Well, here one agent cannot show you houses, that's listed with another agent.

So I book four different agents, four different real estate companies here.

And then they showed me different houses that they had, you know, available.

And this was the 16th house I looked at.

It was the last house I looked at.

I just I saw it and I went, this is it.

Been very busy.

Oh, my God.

Look at all this passata!

I've canned over 100 jars of passata, you know, tomato sauce.

I've done pickles, I've done blackberry jam and it's quiet and it's peaceful, but yet I can get on a plane and be in Paris, you know, in a hour and a half, it's got everything.

A dog lover like me, Edna brought her dog, Atticus, with her from the U.S.

I decided that he needed a companion.

So I asked a friend of mine, she's an expat here.

she was rescuing a cat rom this rescue.

And I said, well, ask the rescue lady if she might know, you know, of a dog.

And so she said, Mimi, who's had a very sad life, she's been in a kennel for her whole life.

You know there's a lot of stray dogs and cats here in Italy, and when they end up in a kennel, they often end up there for life.

So to adopt one is great.

Behind my house, there's nothing it's just, you know, fields and farmlands and, we can just walk for miles back there.

And it's great for them because, you know, like I said, don't have to have them on a leash.

And it's so beautiful because the views are just incredible.

Edna's advice for Americans moving to Italy: have patience and an appetite for trying new things.

You have to absorb into the culture.

So the saying around here, piano piano, you know, things work differently here.

You got to be, you know, patient with that, so many people kept going you're so brave to go there by yourself.

And I was like, no, I mean, it's just an adventure.

That's the way I look at it.

Now, have you been on a Vespa since you've been here?

I have not.

That's on the bucket list.

Well, I think I know some guys that could take us for a ride.

That would be great.

All right, let's go.

Since 1946, the Vespa has been zipping around Italy and the world.

Thanks to Corradino D█Ascanio an engineer from the town of Popoli who designed the iconic moped.

Today we are joining the Popoli Vespa Club for a trip to the San Calisto Vineyard of Valle Reale, a noteworthy producer of the region's renowned Montepulciano D'Abruzzo wine.

Viva Abruzzo, and viva La Vespa!

Cheers Former Bostonian, Pamela Capper, relocated to Bisenti a small town in the province of Teramo, nestled halfway between the Adriatic Sea and the Gran Sasso National Park.

I came to Abruzzo and I came to this town and it just grabbed me.

Divorced and the mother of four grown children, Pamela has been dreaming of Italy since she studied abroad in Florence during college.

I felt that why put off something?

I just need to make it work.

I just felt this sort of sense of urgency that I needed to do this.

What are your priorities?

What do we really need to make us happy?

And I realized that I don't need as much money as material things I just wanted to live in a place where I felt safe and at peace and beauty around me and it's been a really nteresting journey for me so far.

And why, this little town of Bisenti?

You walk around this town and people are so welcoming and, you know, they don't have a lot, but whatever they have, they're happy to share with you.

I feel like the air is clean, the water, the food.

I trust my food more than I than I did in the States.

You know, I know where it's coming from for the most part.

And what is Bisenti, what is this town known for?

Originally they say that Pontius Pilate was born here.

Presently, they're well known for their specific grape, the Montonico grape and the first weekend of October, they have a wine festival.

And it's going to be a big celebration.

Thousands of people come from around the world to celebrate this ancient Roman grape.

Bisenti honors art every day with colorful murals painted on buildings throughout the town.

Bisenti may have a population of just 2,000 people but they are all devoted to Italian pursuits.

Italy is all about art and great artists here, there so many talented people ceramicists and silversmiths and chocolate masters and singers and musicians, of course, winemakers.

So there's so much creativity here and they really want to share that with everyone.

Pamela's three bedroom, two bath home costs █65,000.

And then she spent about █35,000 modernizing it, less than $115,000 in total.

I did the two bathrooms.

I also put a kitchen in because there wasn't a kitchen.

And that's not unusual.

Not yet retired.

Pamela still works.

She applied for a student visa, which allows her to study Italian and work up to 20 hours per week.

A former tech recruiter, she now teaches English online to tech workers around the world.

I go to school three days a week we focus on different areas, grammar, conversation.

And you're teaching English to the mayor and the people that work in the community.

Exactly.

Yes.

And they're such good students.

They want to learn.

They want to you know, they embrace that whole international community sense.

My name is Pamela.

My name is Umberto.

My name is Carlo.

Very good.

Excellent.

Good job.

With teaching and her other volunteer work here in Bisenti, Pamela loves to give back to the community she's fallen in love with.

It█s the people, it's the art, it's the beauty, it's the attention to detail and just the pride that people have in what they do and their country.

I just immediately felt like I had come home.

Pamela is taking me on an excursion that anyone who visits Abruzzo can enjoy... a ride on the Italian Trans-Siberian Railway.

♪Traditional Italian Music♪ Did you ever imagine you'd be on an antique train in Abruzzo?

A couple of years ago?

No, it really is a step back in time.

Yeah, time travel in Abruzzo.

Climbing 4,000 feet in elevation The route traverses through the Majella National Park.

Revealing some of the most heart stopping views in all of Italy.

A local guide makes sure passengers don't miss a thing.

Look at this.

There's just mountain after mountain after mountain.

When you think there's not another, there's another.

It's amazing how it changes.

It's a magical journey made only more perfect with traditional Abruzzese music.

♪Traditional Italian Music♪ ♪Traditional Italian Music♪ Less than a ten-minute train ride away from Sulmona Famous for its beauty and confetti candy lies the charming town of Pratola Peligna.

The population of 13,000 has dropped by nearly half as residents have moved o bigger cities or abroad for work opportunities.

Their abandoned homes have fallen into disrepair.

But Mayor Antonella de Nino and Councilman Paolo di Bacoo have turned that into a fresh start.

Most of the one euro homes are in the old town just a few minutes walk from the train station.

Many of the towns for the █1 they█re far away in the countryside they█re not near a major city, here you're just 10 minutes from Sulmona, you█re 30 minutes from the ocean.

You're in the middle of life.

Many things are going on.

And the mountains, so it█s not remote.

And they don't have to live here all year?

No, it could be a second home, a home, a vacation.

Many of the houses need significant renovation, so they don't truly cost just █1.

The town can connect buyers with local construction companies, with the cost of renovations ranging between █30 and █80,000, definitely under $100,000.

New owners must submit a renovation plan to the town within six months of purchase and have construction completed within three years.

You can even buy one without ever visiting.

Locals support the influx of new blood the program is bringing here.

It is, it is bellissima.

One local Ray emigrated to Connecticut when he was young, but comes back as often as possible.

What do you think about this this idea to sell these houses in your old neighborhood for █1?

I think it's positive because if people come here, it helps them.

Over here you rest, you could find peace.

Buying a house is just one step, and local companies and real estate agents are now meeting the demand to help Americans and foreigners with everything from completing paperwork to finding trusted workers, to maintaining their properties.

The general question is the fear of the unknown.

Like what am I going, how am I going to do, like, I don█t know anyone Pamela█s real estate agent Manolo Lupinetti tries to go the extra mile or kilometer.

We specialize with working with people abroad and we have like what they call after sale services.

And basically after the clients bought the property, we have someone who is kind of the guardian angel, if you want to say, and they sort of help them through all the process of the paperwork, changing the bills, if you need a builder or renovation, we have company that we trusted and we, you know, they do the work.

If you have someone just helping you through the process it█s not difficult whatsoever.

It's pretty easy.

What if I want to buy a house with land?

How much.

like in a countryside?

It generally if a reasonable house which is not ruined with some land which allows you to have a beautiful garden, a pool or some olive orchard.

Oh, I love it.

That█s my dream.

Around █100, █120, █130,000 you can buy a property.

I love that, I love that.

All of this seems to be like the American dream or the, you know, the Italian life, dolce vita.

La dolce vita!

Yes.

You may remember we met the energetic band Orchestra Popolare del Salterello in Vasto in our previous Abruzzo episode.

I've invited them here to Bisenti for a lively street concert celebrating our American expats.

So these are my old friends.

You saw them in the Abruzzo episode in Vasto.

They█ve come to join us and to remind me how to do the Saltarello.

♪Traditional Italian Music♪ ♪Traditional Italian Music♪ Ladies, Pamela, Edna, thank you for showing me your beautiful new life in Abruzzo.

Viva Abruzzo!

Viva Saltarello!

Whether you're moving here or just visiting, Abruzzo is the perfect place to experience authentic Italian life with some of the most gorgeous landscape and lovely locals that you can find in Italy.

In loving memory of Phineas Orazio McCabe, who is not only a terrier, but an Italian at heart.

who was not just a terrier, but an Italian at heart.

Dream of Italy is made possible by: Parmigiano Reggiano is a distinctive flavor experience on its own or with your favorite dish, cheese crafted in the heart of Italy for over 1,000 years.

Authentic.

Local.

Traditional.

Parmigiano Reggiano.

Go Traveler.

Streaming TV travel app available on all smart TVs and app stores.

Don't go anywhere.

Just travel.

Miio your bridge to Italian craftsmanship: fashion, accessories, homeware and beauty.

Made in Italy only.

Jupiter, Florida and online.

Dalla Fonte bringing Italy to your doorstep.

A culinary adventure through Italy.

One plate at a time.

And also made possible by: For more about visiting Italy additional videos and a companion travel guide, visit DreamofItaly.com/tv Follow Dream of Italy on Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook