4. Going Once, Going Twice
Once we realized that we would not be getting our Chianti hamlet, we restarted our Internet search to review every property we had ever looked at updating our search spreadsheet. Now we reviewed properties with new eyes, clicking through every picture and measuring every distance from a small, picturesque town, on the off chance that we had thrown out some diamond in the rough.
As many prospects as there were wheels of cheese in Parma.
Hours turned into days and we started looking at new properties along with the old. We started wondering if we were being too inflexible in our requirements. Maybe we needed to start looking further out. Originally, we wanted something within an hour to an hour and a half from an airport, but maybe four hours wasn’t so bad after all? Many terrible thoughts like this were had, with everyone talking everyone else off ledges, and finally agreeing that we really ought to give another try to finding something that checked all the boxes. The Chianti property had been so close, but maybe that was just the bad relationship before we met the one we were going to marry. Maybe our perfect place was still out there.
And then we saw it: the perfect property.
A gorgeous villa outside of Siena on 150 acres, with a small olive grove and vineyard, the right amount of rooms, and not in an insane state of disrepair, but stunning with old stone facades and Italian charm positively brimming from every cypress tree. The problem was the property was going up for auction which was a process we knew nothing about.
And it was coming up for auction in…three days which our attorney told us was impossible to get all our documents in order to participate so the auction came and went. Anyone who has had to go through the home buying process knows there are some places that you just weren’t fast enough to jump on, and they stick around in your mind, becoming the one who got away, that you could have built a beautiful life with if you had just been given the chance. Now our search had to be conducted knowing that we missed our dream property by a few days. Morale was, shall we say, medium.
If something goes to foreclosure in Italy, it then goes to auction. And sometimes when things go to auction, people just…don’t show up. If no one shows up to the auction, The bank drops the price and then puts it back up for auction.
The new auction was scheduled for December, which meant we had plenty of time to investigate how to prepare for this process. We immediately reached out to our lawyer, Giorgio, who said the auction process was pretty straightforward. All you need is to put up 10% of the sale of the property as a deposit to show that you are a ‘serious buyer,’ and then win the auction. Easy! Then you just need to wait for the paperwork to be signed by the judge, because what would be the joy of winning if you didn’t get to wait around for a little while?
In preparation for the auction, we traveled back to Italy to visit the area around the new villa. Armed with our team, and all the lessons we learned from evaluating the prior property, we went in with newfound expertise.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, we fell in love with the property and surrounding area. For the first time, we started envisioning living in a little town called Monticiano, outside of Siena, with just a few little shops and bars, and a natural hot spring nearby.
All that we needed to do next was secure our spot at the auction. We were informed there were other interested parties this time around, so we got to work right away. Securing the ability to participate in the auction involved setting up an Italian company. This required us to have an Italian representative, to which we appointed one of our lawyer’s colleagues, and then also to set up a bank account.
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
As with all things Italian and Sienese, even banking is steeped in history. We set up our account at the oldest continuously running bank in the world, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which opened in 1472 - 552 years ago. Bank account secured, then came the harder part: getting the right amount of money for the auction deposit.
It’s not fast to transfer money the first time across borders and we were coming up on Thanksgiving in the US. We were now a week away from the auction, unsure if because of digital paperwork and American holidays if we were even going to be able to get the deposit check issued.
It was a Thanksgiving miracle. The deposit from the Chianti property appeared in our Italian bank account, just the amount we needed to enter the auction. No waiting years to get it back, after all!
It was now time for the actual auction. Giorgio entered us in the auction and let us know that there were a few other parties that had entered. “So we will not be alone…” he wrote us.
The auction would take place 3:30am EST. We counseled our lawyer on our maximum bid, and then all went to bed not knowing how we would wake up. Did we win? Did we have to reach our max? Did we lose?
We all could barely sleep for not knowing. We checked phones at 5:30am, at 7am the message arrived.
We won, we’re moving to Italy.
