Big Blend Radio

Feuza Reis - Buying Property in Sicily

This episode of Big Blend Radio’s 3rd Monday “Food, Wine & Travel” Show with IFWTWA features travel blogger Feuza Reis who shares the ins-and-outs of purchasing property in Sicily, especially through unique 1 Euro Homes project in San Piero Patti.

A small village that's home to around 2,500 residents, San Piero Patti is located approximately 2 hours from each major airport in Sicily, 1 hour from Messina, and just 20 minutes from Patti, a larger city with around 9,000 inhabitants. This hilltop area offers stunning views of the Tyrrhenian Sea. From here, you can see the Aeolian Islands, and on a clear day, you can also see Panarea at the very bottom on the right, Stromboli. Read Feuza's article about it all in "Live in Italy" Magazine, here: https://liveinitalymag.com/buying-property-in-sicily-1-euro-homes/

Feuza Reis, also known as Fuse, combines her expertise in mid-budget travel with her deep affection for Europe in captivating stories and visuals on her blog, Fuse Travels. Originally from Brazil, Fuse's passion for travel truly blossomed six years ago when she fell in love with Italy. She plans to move to Italy in three years and brings almost four decades of travel experience to her audience. Keep up with her at https://fusetravels.com/.

Learn more about the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA) here: https://www.ifwtwa.org/

Follow this Podcast Channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzIUCV2e7qm1chVylr9kzBMftUgBoLS-m

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 16 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Food, Wine, and Travel Show, where we go across country and travel the world with members of the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association. Let's go. Welcome everybody. You know our third Mondays we get to chat with travel writers about recent destinations and experiences. All the members are, well all of the writers are members of the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association, which we call IFTWA, it's an easier way to go. You can check them out at ifwtwa.org and today we're excited to chat with Fuzza Reese. She is known as Fuse, and that's what her blog is, Fuse Travels, so go to FuseTravels.com like Blowing a Fuse, but we don't want to blow a fuse, but she's a travel writer and today she's going to tell us about, this is so fascinating because a lot of us are, you know, expats in different ways and have been expat or may be looking for an expat destination, she's going to tell us about what's going on in Sicily, about buying property and renovating these historic homes. It seems pretty cost effective, but you never know when you start digging into a wall, right? But welcome. How are you? Welcome, Fuse. Thank you. I'm well. I'm having the post trip blues a little bit mixed with, I was away for three weeks, and then it's mixed with, oh, I actually, you know, should be happy being home and getting kind of recharged and just reorganize and then to plan the next trip, right? So where is your next trip? So the next trip I'm trying to get back to Europe in September, and probably Alaska also in September as well. So I'm working on that. And then just, there's some family trips happening to New Jersey and Massachusetts for the summer. Oh, cool. So now you travel with your husband too, and he does the photography and drone photography. So he actually just does the drone. I am a photographer. So I've been a photographer for 16 years, my previous life, let's call it. I was a wedding and fortune photographer. Okay. Wow. That was my first taste of the creative entrepreneurship. But I've been traveling all my life because I'm originally from Brazil. So what has been interesting for my husband and I is that only six years ago that we on a trip to Italy was when things kind of shifted for us because when you are an immigrant and you live in a different, well, essentially we're an expat here, right? Yes. The travel back to the mother countries always looked at as just kind of obligatory travel. And I feel like my husband and I have had to redefine what travel means to us because sometimes when there's travel associated with visiting family as an immigrant, there could be even like traumatic things associated or just like an obligation. Because when I would always spend a lot of summers in Brazil with a Grandma Fuza, who I'm named after, it was never an incentive to travel. I mean, Brazil is a gorgeous country, but there was never an incentive to like explore. So you almost felt like, oh, I'm visiting family because I have to, this is nice. But it wasn't until six years ago that we had this like life-changing trip where things really shifted for us and it was just very eye-opening. So then you started your blog then? No, I wish. But the funny thing is on our second trip to Italy, we started joking around pretending we were vloggers just because we had watched so many YouTube channels to prep for the trip. And we would like, when I look at the footage, it's really bad, it's shaky. And it was like comedic, but it was definitely almost prophetic because look at us, that's exactly what we're doing six years later. At the time, I really thought like, oh, it's too competitive. And I taught SEO for photographer. So I was the local SEO strategist and I was like, yeah, that's going to be hard. It's just too competitive. And I didn't start the blog till our trip two, two and a half years ago, two years ago where we took the family. And then I was like, oh, I'm going to do a TikTok for travel. And then I had some videos go viral because COVID had just opened up for travel. And there were some people very passionate about if you should travel or not. And that just, I kind of went viral and I was like, you know what? I'm going to do the blog. So I had a local blog about business and South Florida because that's where I'm based. And I turned it into a few travels and I haven't looked back. Awesome. Awesome. It's fun though, isn't it? It is. It's hard work though. You know, we do these travels and that's the thing where people don't see, you know, everything moves fast. There's no real downtime on these trips, you know, unless you really carve it in there. And then you come back and it's like, here's all the footage, here's all the stuff. And then everybody's like, have you written it yet? Yeah. Yeah. And I just wrapped up that article, which like I was done. And then it took hours of editing and like photos and credit. It is a lot of work. And the thing with, I think with what we do, it's really a lifestyle. So there, you know, it can look glamorous, especially on social media. But and, you know, when you're first starting out, especially if you're not monetizing or if you're not really getting like the assignments, it could be discouraging. But you just have to remember it's a lifestyle. So that's really what motivates me and keeps me going because I do this travel more. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Well, and everyone, I wanted to make sure you go to FuseTravels.com. Links are in the show notes, but she's got an article talking about this buying property in Sicily. And these one Euro homes in San Piero Pate, I don't know, she's going to have to pronounce everything for me today. But the article is in live in italymag.com. The link is in the in the episode notes, but it's live in italymag.com. So so Italy kind of opened your eyes up and so you've fallen in love with Italy from what I gather. Yeah. So like, and it was funny because I thought it was just me and then my husband like we're like, let's go back again. And then I was like, oh, it's my 40th. Let's go back again. And we just like, we just felt like such a connection to the place almost like, I don't believe in previous lives or anything, but there was this connection there that I was like, that's funny because I thought maybe I would want to retire in Brazil. And now I've seen myself in this place and then I looked up the whole soul place. So really Italy is our soul place. It is the number one country that I cover on the blog and usually my assignments. I do also talk about Portugal and Brazilian, I speak Portuguese, but that's going to help you with Italian too. Right? Yeah. Because it's all the romantic languages. Yeah. So I'm studying Italian right now. So and then, you know, also through the association, I got to go to a wonderful trip in in Greece too. So Greece. And my four top countries are now Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece are kind of like focusing on, but and it's Europe. So all my travels are really to Europe. So when I'm not traveling, I'm home with the dogs. That's really what I'm doing. And so the Greece trip that you went on, that was through Iftua, the international food went travel rights association. And then Italy, that's how you met your friend Lisa from liveinidleymag.com. Yeah. Yes. Cool. So the funny thing is, we were in the group and she was looking for writers and, you know, I saw that it was Italy. So we're in the same Facebook group, but then we were like, wait, are you in South Florida? And so we're both like 30 minutes away from each other. Oh, cool. Yeah. We met in person. And then she does a lot of like the Italian American events. And there's just a lot of wine related events, which I don't mind though. So sad. It is Iftua, the food, wine and travel writers association. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So it's just been great, right? Like to connect and then now connecting with you two for this podcast. And then I think, you know, they do such a good job with the social media engagement and the Facebook group, which is very impressive. It's hard sometimes in other groups where you don't really see that. So being part of the association has been one of the best things for me. That's awesome to hear. And going, let's go to Sicily and everyone. There's a conference coming up in September and upstate New York. So go to Iftwa.org for that. And you don't have to be a member to go to the conference though. Why wouldn't you become a member like that? I mean, it's worth it. No. Yeah. Like these opportunities, these press trips that they have, then the social media engagement, I think it's really, it's just really supportive and they're very organized and then they also have their own conferences too. Right. Now, going to Sicily, this is such a fascinating way of living there because I know people that have actually moved to Italy in their whole thing. We were pet sitting for them because they kept going over until they found their home. But they aren't doing this and I wish I'd known about this because I think they would have loved it. But this is kind of a way of keeping these buildings from basically going away, right? This is actually kind of a preservation movement for these historic homes, right? Yeah. So absolutely. So right before COVID, there was the first time I've ever heard about this and the first project that I saw featured on the news was actually Brazilian news. It was a tiny, tiny town very far away and they were having this issue where the youth were moving away and you know, the population is essentially almost like dying. So each, they're called communes there which is almost like a township or almost like a village. Yeah. So each commune does have their own, you know, different. But it's not a hippie commune. No. Just had a picture. No, no, no. So this project in Italy and Sicily, you know, which is a part of Italy, of course, that is the goal. So it's to preserve culture, it's to bring, you know, just people back to the city because a lot of the youth will just go away and they will move out and then not come back sometimes and then sometimes there's like these businesses that have been open for a long time. But then, you know, the next generation doesn't really want to take care of that and they want to do something else. So in San Piedupati, what's really interesting is that they have this historical quarter, which is like the Adabiti quarter. So Sicily was, you know, invaded by so many different groups. So at one point where the Arabs were very prominent, they made, so the architecture, the way that things are made in this little quarter is from that era. So this quarter is where most of the one-year-olds that they have right now available and they're trying to revive this very important historical and cultural part of San Piedupati. And San Piedupati is located in the Messina area. And what I really loved is that it's like 25 minutes from the beach. So that was kind of like my favorite thing. It's not out in the boonies, it's not a ghost town, you know, sometimes when you think, I don't know if you've seen anything with one-year homes, but it could be just ruins or it could be auction, which is not the case here. Okay. And it's cool because on the article, you also have a video showing like going to different ones. You went with a mayor? A mayor was taking you around? Oh my God, so I have a funny story. So when I got there, Consuelo is the local rep, was super helpful, and she was like basically my host. And then she introduces me to Chinsia, and she says, "Oh, this is the major." And I'm like, "Okay, I had no idea what she was referring to." And then Cincios starts walking with us and we go to the coffee shop, and then Consuelo is like, "Yeah, the major." I'm like, "Oh, I'm sorry, are you a police officer?" I was like, "I'm like a major, a sergeant major in the military." I was like, "No, no, no, I was like, "Oh, mayor," because what happened was once they saw that I knew a little Italian, they spoke like 70% of the time in Italian to me. So you know, some things like I had to confirm with her for the article after because I felt some things were like lost in translation, but yes, so the mayor drove us around, which was really funny, but she has a really great vision. She has a really, you know, she's very passionate about the project, and it's funny because when you're walking in a small village with the mayor, she gets stopped every three minutes, right? Like somebody sees her and they're like, "Oh, let's talk about this road," or, "Oh, you know, this is happening." So it was just funny because Consuelo is also very well known in the village. So we're, and they knew like, you know, like it's a small village, so they knew we were foreigners. We're not from there. It was just like so nice to be, to be hosted, but there are a lot of amazing things that I loved about the experience. And it seems like you went to three different places, which is a good balance, but you go in and like, how much do you have to pay? Like it's just, it's, I thought at the beginning was like, "Here's my dollar, but it's not. You have to pay like $5,000 deposit, right?" Yes. So the goal is always to renovate. So it's never going to be just one year, right? The goal is they're essentially, these homes are volunteered by the, the properties here. They're, they're just giving this, because there's just a lot of abandoned property. So the goal is it needs to be renovated in order to be livable or in order to, you know, repopulate the place. It's an asset, an asset to the quantity. Exactly. So I know there's some other communes where they have different requirements, even about business and things like that. But in some theatre party, basically it's one euro, well, you choose the home, one euro, and then there's a 5,000 euro deposit. Now this is refundable. This is really just a guarantee that you're going to do what you said you're going to do. Yeah. Okay. So it is refundable later. I really also thought was incredible was you have five years to renovate. So that before you, yeah, it used to be three years. So they know that people need more time to visit beforehand and people can't be there all the time. And then things in Italy are slow, like I'm going to say, yeah, and you're going to have to find construction people and you're not quite live. Yeah. I can see where you're maybe not living there with running water and electricity at that time depending on the place, right? Right. So they're very good about like giving you a lot of support, like Consuelo is very well versed in like who's who as far as like construction, architect, anything in your need, but still will take time, right? It can take time depending on what you do. The other thing to keep in mind is that in this out of each quarter, like it's you go through kind of like those gates, those building like of the church and then many areas it's not accessible by car. So then you're going to have like kind of an extra charge for people to bring the construction materials. Oh, okay. Yes. So, but it's still very affordable when we looked at all the three homes and there was one home. If my husband was on board, I would jump on it, but we're not there yet. She's inching, yes. Because there was one home that was essentially moving ready. And I was like, Oh my goodness, because, you know, the third home was actually confusing to even film. The third home was like definitely full gut. And it had a lot of floors and it was a little confusing. The first home had some infiltrate infiltration like water stuff on in the ceiling. So it was so how much would you need to renovate? I guess it's like the big question. It could range from the one that's moving ready, probably like 10, 12,000. Then the, the highest one could be a hundred thousand, also depends what you plan to do with it. Right. But again, five years. So if I'm thinking, so the middle home was about 50,000 only because of this water infiltration because the bones are really good. And if it wasn't for this roof issue, it would be even less. And they do have certain requirements of how it needs to look on the outside. Not really on the inside. You can't just go there and, you know, color your, the outside of your home like this color. Right. Okay. So, so basically it's got like a, you've got the historic requirements like a historic district here. They do that where you can't go and paint, you know, this historic home bright pink like a homeowners association, but it's a little different. Yes. A little stricter in a way because it's still historic. Exactly. So like that second home, we're going to call Mr. Mondello's home, it was moving ready. And then there's a second part of the home, which is double the size of the home, which we couldn't actually get into. It was locked. That's why you don't see it in the video, but it's essentially double the space of the home. And it's like storage, but you could create a kitchen there. You could create a lot of things for that home. All you really need to fix in order to, let's say, commit to your, to, to what you promise is the exterior on the, on the side of that home. So that is about, I think there was like 10,000, maybe a little bit less. And then there was one floor you needed to fix. So that one could be about 10,000 and remember, you get the 5,000 back. So it's not like you're spending 17,000, right? Right. And then it's like, aesthetics, you're going to do a paint job, you might redo the bathroom if you wish. But the cool thing about that one is that like it's moving ready. So essentially, I have a place already that I could spend while I work on the other things and, you know, set up a water bill and, and things like that. So. Yeah. It's doable. That's doable. Yeah. Well, and it all depends on people's budget and time. And are you going to try and live there while you're doing it? Some people are going to have to commute. You know, if they're going from the States back and forth until it's ready and then they're ready to do maybe a full move or maybe it's a second home, right? Or a third home or can they turn it into like an Airbnb? Is that something or would they go against that? So that you can, you definitely can, which is also very cool and, you know, nice of them. And one thing, I think another thing that they have going for them is that like the rental, the rental has gone up, so there's been more demand for rent because there's actually a lot of Argentinians who are working on their citizenship. So I don't know if there was like a family back in the day that moved to Argentina, but in order to get the citizenship, they have to like prove the family, you know, descendants. And it takes longer. So they say it's going to be three months ends up being six months. Anyway. So the influx of the Argentinian community and I guess more expats has caused the rent to go up. So I think there is, there's an investment opportunity here, not like huge investment. Okay. Never not like you can see in the US, but you know, maybe to rent it out when you're not there and at least it's going to pave like utility bills and give you some little bit of money. Yeah. Pay you back in. That's cool. Yeah. It can pay for itself until you're ready. You know? This is exciting. And so you were saying the beach isn't far. And so what would you say people get to experience there if they're going to move there or vacation in this home and you know, try to enjoy this process too. What are some of the things people can enjoy doing? So one thing I think, and I think Nikki Taylor from La Dolce Vita magazine does really well is I think anyone that's considering expat life, moving abroad, especially to Europe, you have to understand that it's also a mindset shift and you have to embrace slow living. Like there's no way that you're going to go and be at the pace that you are now. So things like things closing in the afternoon, right? And you know, it is a whole lifestyle change, right? Which I mean, I'm 45, so I'm older, I'm like ready to embrace this type of slow living lifestyle because their goal is to preserve their culture and their heritage. They're not wanting to make this some casino, you know, like nothing like that. So the kinds of experiences, we went to like four amazing experiences. The church that they have there is incredible. There was a convent that was connected to this church that has this museum that this convent used to be full of art and workshops and you can see a lot of the things that they used to do, which is great. There's also a lot of agritourismo, so a lot of farms in like the villages close within like 10 minutes from there. There's also, there's opportunities to buy land too if you wanted to. So like, for example, we visited this one, agritourismo and it was like a pizzeria for dinner. So it's called the dino. It's actually deer meat pizza they had. But this place has, it's like a wedding venue, but also there's these little villas that for accommodations, which was really cool. Oh, that's nice. So there's the tinnuti gati winery that we visited because wine itself is strong. So the people, they were so nice. So it was just nice to have like these cultural experiences and see how they live, right? And it is like, you know, seeing the safety, it's super safe place. The kids are playing by themselves in the piazza. People leave their cars open, you know, their cars open. There's like two police officers, but there's really like no crime. But it's like, I think the slow living, there's some things that you need to consider if like that's for you, right? It's also, I think cooking and eating is different to like, it's a lot of local vegetables and fruits and farm to table. But if you ever visit Sicily, you could go to Messina. And so some piazza is about one hour from Messina, two hours from each airport. So it's pretty central from each airport, 25 minutes from the beach. And you know, you can stay there and just try out some of these local experiences, get to know the people, Consuelo will do a great job hosting you, you know, showing you some of the historical things. That's cool, man. It's quite an opportunity. And I think, you know, we've got all the boomers who are doing things, doing a lot of travel, right? And so it's, it's, this is something that it will really appeal to people. You know, just even new retirees going, Hey, let's do this, you know, and it could be all ages, you know, everybody's in a different place of their life or what they want to do. And yeah, real estate is always good. Yeah. And then I have, I'm starting classes with Valeria, who's having a retreat there in September. I'm going to, I didn't send that to you, but I could send you the info because what she does is she teaches Italian online. And then she hosts these retreats and then you get to practice an Italian in real life, but she'll take you to local experiences, like you could go to a ricotta farm, which is fun too. Yeah. And see how ricotta is made and eat some ricotta as well. Okay. With wine. And wine and amazing wine. Yes. That's how you do language classes with wine. I know. I mean, they always say like the more wine I parlayed Taliana Molta. And that's it. That's it. I know, but it sounds like so much fun. So you're going to do it. Are you looking at doing this? So I'm going to apply for the Italy Nomad digital visa, which has, it's officially out, but not officially out. So your news reported that it was out. I got very excited. A lot of people got very excited, but they haven't passed it on to the consulates here. So technically go to the consulate. You can apply to it. I did do a video about the requirement. So I'm going to do that first. And then there's some other areas in Italy that I want to explore and just go back more times to really see my husband's more of a hustle and bustle kind of person. So I have to get him on board. I'm like totally ready to just go and like, you know, take care of my herb guard. She wants an herb guard. I want the rooftop patio. That's what I want. I know. Yes. That looks like a good wine time spot, you know? Yes. And they have like, depending where you are in San Piedo, you see like the three islands and it's funny because one of the islands, it's called Volcano and I thought it was a volcano. So it's like, what's the name of the volcano? But it's actually called Volcano. Okay. So it's Lee potty volcano and I forget. And then there's Trumboli, which is a volcano. So the views are amazing. I also thought the weather was very, it was really hot, but you get the wind because you're in the mountains. Oh, that's nice. Yes. So I thought that was another plus. Yeah. Well, I mean, going from South Florida to that, it's going to be a little cooler actually, right? Just a little drier, more drier right then. Yeah. Yeah, what Florida has, but this is just so fascinating. So they're doing this all over Europe, it seems like in throughout Italy or, you know. In Italy, there's more places I've seen. So like the most famous one is that Musomelli, which is also in Sicily. So that one has been all over the news. That one is kind of like really big for expat, you know, life. And then what I do know is that you have to, if you're looking into something like this, you want to make sure that how many years you have to renovate and also that it's not an auction. So that's what I liked about some period of positive. It's really one euro, the 5,000 is just a deposit, it's kind of, you know, it's your guarantee that you're going to do something there, but in certain other communes, it's an auction. So I wouldn't probably not do an auction. The other thing is you also have very affordable homes that are kind of like the in the, you know, 10,000, but it probably needs another 10 to 20,000, which is still very affordable compared to what we do. I mean, South Florida. Yeah, yeah, really. Come underneath that. You're going to get a, you're going to get a railing. Yeah. Like here's one step and a half. Exactly. Yeah, that's, that's a way. Wow. Well, very cool. Thank you for sharing this with our audience and I think people are going to find this fascinating to go and investigate and see what they want to do, especially. I know so many people, like, I know you've got to know Chris Cutler, right? From if to us, she's, you know, any chance she can get to Italy, she's in. Yeah. That's me. Yeah. Yeah. And once you get into it, you're in. So very cool. Everyone again, the links are in the episode notes, but you can go to fusetravels.com. Also live in italymag.com. And of course, go to iftwylifwtwa.org. And so happy travels to you and good travel writing and have fun. Enjoy. Thank you, Lisa, so much for having me. It's been great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Big Glenn Radio's Food Wine and Travel Show featuring members of the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association. We encourage you to visit their website. We say iftwa, which is IFWTWA.org. You can also follow us at bigblendradio.com. Happy travels, everyone. [music], please subscribe. and subscribe.