The Calabrian Dream

OK, I’ve decided to write this blog to:

1. Keep a record of events in the hope our dream of moving to Italy will become reality.
2. If or when it does happen, I can have a nostalgic look back with tears in my eyes.
3. I also need to keep busy whilst waiting for the dream to happen as I did quit my last job four and a half days (yes days!) after starting, which is in no way like me.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Michelle and along with my other half John, we’re planning to move from Penkridge which is a small market town in Staffordshire, England to a new (yet unknown) life in Calabria, Italy.

Why Calabria? Well firstly, we love Italy and have done since working for an Italian forklift truck company in the 1990s. We fell in love with the people, the culture and the food and we visit at least once a year.  More recently, we had an amazing week in June 2017 when we visited Calabria and it’s the only region we can’t let go of when we returned home. We do absolutely love Italy in every way, but there’s something about the raw Italianness (if that is a word) of Calabria has drawn us in.

We attended the A Place in the Sun exhibition in Birmingham, England in September 2017 and the only property representative from Italy was a guy called Tony and his company Calabria Property Consultants is based in Scalea, Calabria. It must be a sign!! We had an interesting chat, but we left it there and kept hold of the dream tightly.

I was then put on notice of redundancy in December 2017 with my final day to be in February 2018, so it seems like it was another sign and a good time to give the dream a proper look. We decided to visit Tony in Scalea for a few days of house hunting, the day after leaving my job. With the help of Tony we had to find out if we can actually afford to move, mortgage free with cash to live on for a while. Guess what? We can in Calabria. Woohoo!

So, today our house has been for sale for 55 days – not that I’m counting. We’ve had a few viewings but nothing serious. Well there could be one but they have to sell their house first, so obviously it’s not a real thing.  I am keeping busy by selling things I can find in the house that we don’t use. I have a spreadsheet that I keep up to date with costings and savings so we know where we stand.  I am also trying to improve my typing speed and accuracy as I will need an income and online transcription maybe the way forward, although I have other skills like DTP and photography so that could also be an option.  But if the house doesn’t sell soon I will have to start thinking of getting a job.

The basic plan is to visit Scalea again in June, fingers crossed we will have definite interest or maybe an offer on our house, choose a property in Calabria, return home, sell the house, pack everything we’re taking, sell all the furniture we’re not and make our way to Calabria and purchase the chosen property as our new home. Easy! Or maybe not, we’ll see.

Anyway, the pic below is me, an actual photo I am happy with. It was taken by John when we were on holiday in Palermo over the new year 2017/18. Yes, we went to Italy again, (well Sicily), that is what we do. We can’t help it, our friends and family, whom we’ll miss like mad, expect it and we just love it. So that is why we have decided we need to live there.

This blog is a record of our experience and thoughts of our transition from the little English town of Penkridge to somewhere in Calabria, Italy. As long as house sells!

Hope you enjoy our journey.

So cheers for now or should I say salute!