3. A Setback

Things heated up this summer with our search for the perfect Italian Agriturismo. In the last update, I shared our three top properties. But didn’t reveal we had made an offer and were under contract on the 2nd one. At the time I was writing the last update, things were starting to go sideways so I held off the details until we knew what was going to happen.

Last May, we were back in Tuscany with friends and we revisited the three finalists as well as a few others. After a return visit to all three and comparing to the others, we got excited about the farm in Chianti. It also helped we had beautiful weather and some great connections with friends.

When we got back home, a case was made that this was the property and we went ahead with an offer. We negotiated and eventually agreed on a price and conditions of the sale.

Our real estate agent drafted the preliminary offer, or the Proposta d'Acquisto. This is written in Italian and English side by side but the Italian version wins any translation disputes. It is a binding agreement to purchase pending a diligence period through July 15. I was assured we could get our deposit back if things went south.

Once both parties signed, I wired the down payment to our Notaio who lives in Siena. In Italy, the Notaio (notary) is very different from a US notary. Notaries are public officials responsible for ensuring the legality of real estate (and other) transactions. They verify that all legal requirements are met. They are a mix of an attorney, public official, title company and property detective. They also hold your money until the transaction is finalized. I had never met my Notaio and I wasn’t sure where he was keeping our money, but our lawyer Giorgio vouched for him so we went forward.

With the preliminary offer signed, deposit sent, we lined up our inspection team - Massimo the architect, to oversee things, his colleague, another engineer, who will investigate the structures, and another engineer study to the bridge. Stephano the commercialista (CPA) would evaluate the business licenses and the geometra provides copies of building permits and other documentation.

As we have been told by everyone, things move slowly in Italy. Massimo did a great job of keeping diligence moving along but it was summer and people were on vacation or traveling or just busy. We quickly realized we weren’t going to be done by July 15 and extended diligence to October 31st.

While diligence was progressing, we met with contractors over zoom sessions to get preliminary estimates on the renovation work. We learned a lot. What we thought was a simple thing - to have the guest rooms nice and cool in the summer heat - turned out to not be so simple.

First, we learned that in Italy and much of Europe, building codes specify AC systems only can cool a room to 25 degrees Celsius / 77 degrees Fahrenheit. This was a big aha - it’s not that Europeans don’t like AC, it’s that they are only allowed to cool to 77 degrees.

We then learned what was required to properly cool (or heat) a guest room - it requires rebuilding the building. The properties we have been looking at are all similar, built somewhere in the 1200s to 1600s with thick stone walls, terra cotta flooring and beam and clay tile roofs. Want to cool the bedroom? Here’s what you do.

First, remove the ground floor tiles, as they are set on the dirt. Excavate down a few feet to create space for insulation and a vapor barrier. Replace the tile floor. The stone walls are also built directly on the dirt and moisture is sucked up into them which gets into the plaster on the lower half of the walls and makes the rooms damp. To solve that, chip off the plaster and replace with a lime based product and then repaint the walls. Where there are exterior walls, build new walls against the old walls to add insulation and space to run new electrical and plumbing because the existing is 20-40 years old. Replace the windows with thermal windows and redo all the doors and trim as we’ve changed the floor height and increased the wall thickness. For the 2nd and 3rd floors, remove the terra cotta floor tiles, add seismic steel rods to tie your exterior walls together. Then pour lightweight concrete to stiffen the floors and then put the floor tiles back. About 20% will break, so head off to the second-hand building supply store to find matching historic tiles.

Now that you’ve done the easy part, all that is left is the roof. Scaffold the entire building, carefully remove the historic clay tiles (breaking about 20%), add thick insulation, a vapor and water barrier, and then replace the clay tiles and figure out how to cosmetically blend in the roof that is now raised up 10” higher.

Now, add the new AC units and enjoy a not-cool but not sweltering 77 degree room in the summer.

We almost abandoned the project right then, our American sensibilities about how cool we should be able to be in the summer highly offended. But then we learned that further cooling the rooms to suit the demands of us Americans is possible. As we are learning, most things in Italy are possible, but they require workarounds and code variances.

Oh and of course, all this will be very expensive. But that’s okay, we anticipated everything being expensive, we have a budget to cover it, we’re all good. Or so we thought.

As the summer ended and our various team members visited the property and started digging into the documents and examining the buildings, we started discovering more issues. There are always some issues with big, historic properties like this. In Italy, the buildings must match the permits and plans on file at the municipality. It’s the job of the geometra to sign off on the things that match. She had told us early on that there were a few minor issues being fixed - a door that needed to be removed and some water rights being solved. No big deal.

But then we learned that one of the buildings had only a permit for the roof - and this was one of the main buildings. Were we okay with just removing the walls? Or maybe we could reapply for permission and a retroactive building permit, a process that could take years. This was just the start of a long list of discoveries. The issues list grew longer and longer, and when we received the official diligence report that was basically novel-length, we had to face the fact this beautiful property was just not possible. It was time to terminate and start over.

No worries though. I called our attorney and shared that the property failed diligence so we want our deposit back. “Eric,” said Giorgio. “No problem to terminate but maybe it takes 2 years to get the money. But we go to court and we will win. Or maybe it’s no problem and you get the money right back”.

Wait, what? Maybe I was listening with rose-colored glasses earlier, but I thought it was a simple thing to terminate. It didn’t sound very easy. Like everything else bureaucratic in Italy, we would have to wait and see.

So…. we’re back to the beginning. Searching for the perfect property. A bit wiser, a bit poorer, but still enthusiastic about the project.