Greg’s story doesn’t start with a house. It starts with his grandparents.
Italian by origin, they had left generations ago — and after a long career in American law, Greg decided it was time to reconnect with that part of himself. Not as a tourist, but properly: learning the language with my friend Chiara, and eventually, living here.
A Two-Step Plan, Not a Leap
When Greg first reached out, we didn’t talk about buying a house. We talked about testing one.
The plan we built together was deliberately unrushed: first, rent in the Lake Bracciano area for a couple of years, to actually live the daily reality of the place — not just visit it — and find out whether it truly fit what he was looking for. Only then, if it did, would we move to step two: buying a home there for good.
Right now, we’re still on step one. And that’s exactly where we’re supposed to be.
Finding the Right Base — Even for a Rental
Greg reached out asking for help finding a rental property, not a purchase — but the search still deserved the same care. In late March 2026, we met in person for a full day of viewings, going through a shortlist of properties I’d selected for him around Bracciano.
We found the one. All the paperwork followed, and in early June I was back in Bracciano to hand over the keys.
The Part Nobody Warns You About
Along the way, I handled the utilities and the opening of his Italian bank account — and this is where I’ll pass on something worth knowing, because it trips up almost every foreign client at some point: Italian banks, these days, mostly don’t handle cash over the counter, and most don’t do currency exchange either. If you’re planning to deposit dollars, convert them before you arrive. It’ll save you a completely unnecessary trip back and forth.
Between the bank and setting up his phone and internet with TIM, there was a fair amount of back-and-forth — the kind of small, unglamorous logistics that don’t make for dramatic stories but that someone has to handle. Eventually, everything was in place.
A Base, Not Yet a Home — But a Real Start
Greg now has his base in Italy — the place where the next chapter of reconnecting with his family’s origins actually begins. Whether that turns into a permanent home on Lake Bracciano is still an open question. But it’s an open question he can now answer by actually living there, rather than guessing from abroad.
Sometimes the right approach isn’t finding the house right away. It’s building the time and the space to find out what “right” even means, first.
“Everything was excellent!”
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