7. The Complicated Race to Closing Pt. 3

It was now early January, and while we were meant to close on January 21st, everything seemed very uncertain.

We were trying to untangle the question of the sale opposition, which required a lot of talking. Talking to the judge who was responsible for approving the sale, talking to the notaio, talking to the auctioneer, talking to the sellers, and anyone else who was remotely involved in order to clear up the entangled legal mess inside which our future home was marinating. Except now it was not just the holidays we were up against, we discovered the judge was unfortunately ill and out sick.

All the while, we were still working on hiring the right contractors and tracking down the right paperwork to be ready in case the opposition was rejected. At this point, we did not know what we would ever do without our lawyer who worked around the clock to overcome every obstacle, as every step of the way we lost more and more in translation as the whole situation became more and more complicated. But we all worked through our list until finally, on January 20th, we thought we had it all sorted out. Maybe. Hopefully.

But we refused to celebrate. We had learned our first lesson more than once: nothing is done until it is done. And there was still that big final piece of the list: getting the opposition dropped and ensuring everyone showed up the day of the signing. We still had no idea if any of that would happen.

After weeks of working and waiting and waiting and working, feeling like we had won something and nothing, the day of the signing arrived.

We got our first bit of good news: the opposition had been resolved! And then our second bit of good news: everyone had shown up to the signing! We held our breath, hoping the next bit of news would be that we had purchased the villa. But 75 documents needed to be signed, so it would be hours before anything was truly official.

Watching our phones for updates, we all received a WhatsApp message

“Done,” our attorney wrote.

Done.

A year and a half of searching and planning, hundreds—or maybe thousands—of properties reviewed online, 30 properties looked at in person, one failed sale, one auction win, 46 frantic days of pulling together a sale over the Christmas holidays, battling legal opposition, having our team work late into the night and drive documents all over Tuscany down to the very last minute, and finally, finally, it was done.

Our vision of a resort in Italy was officially happening.

Finally, after much waiting, here it is: our first—and hopefully not last—champagne moment. We officially navigated the Italian real estate process and officially own a villa in Tuscany!

So the easy part of buying the property is done. Now comes the hard part! Turning it into the luxury boutique resort of our dreams.