Meredith Tabone first decided to buy and renovate an inexpensive house in Italy to reconnect with her family history. More than four years and nearly half a million dollars later, the one-euro flight home gave her a new perspective on work, life, friendships and happiness.
Taboni, 44, is a financial advisor in Chicago. In 2019, I learned about a town in Italy, Sambuca di Sicilia, that was auctioning off abandoned properties for a starting price of one euro, or roughly $1.05.
At the time, Taboni was researching her family history and realized that her great-grandfather was originally born in Sambuca before starting a new life in America.
Meredith Tabone spent nearly $475,000 on her dream home in Sambuca di Sicilia.
Mickey Todiwala | CNBC Make it
The coincidence was “too good to be true,” and she took it as a cue to bid.
Taboni won her bid and spent 5,900 euros, or roughly $6,200, to gain ownership of the home. She also bought the building next door and spent the next four years managing a local crew for the massive renovation.
In all, Tabone spent nearly $475,000 on her dream Italian home.
The young woman from Chicago soon learned that the Sicilians worked on a slower schedule than she was accustomed to in the United States. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed renovation progress for years.
But she came to appreciate the slower pace of life, and this helped her settle deeper into her Sicilian community.
If travel had been open as usual, “I would have normally come here and gone sightseeing and meeting other expats. Instead I would spend time with locals who were renovating my house and their friends,” she says.
Socializing is now a big part of Tabone's life in Sicily, and she says it's easier to make friends there than in the U.S. “Getting out every day and being around people is part of the culture here,” she says. “And if that's what you like, this is definitely the place for you.”
Meredith Tabone has formed close friendships with locals and fellow foreigners in Sicily.
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Tabone has a demanding schedule running her own business as a financial advisor, and spending time in a different culture gave her a new perspective.
“I'm starting to think differently about how I build my business, and maybe my life's focus won't be on work; [but] “About just personal accomplishment in general,” she says.
Focusing less on work now gives her more time and energy to achieve her personal goals, such as visiting every country in the world, rather than putting them off.
She took with her her new outlook on work-life balance at home. “I've just tried to be as efficient as possible with my time when I'm in Chicago, and I'm definitely learning to say no to a lot of things,” Taboni says.
The less work-focused lifestyle was a learning curve, but “it was something I needed and it was really helpful for me,” Taboni says.
To this day, Tabon says her only regret about her one-euro project is not accepting a slower life sooner.
Meredith Tabone says she's never done a renovation project like this before, but was inspired by the work of her father, who was an architect.
Mickey Todiwala | CNBC Make it
“If I could do anything over the buying or renovating process, I would learn to be more patient” and enjoy the experience from the beginning, she says.
At the end of the day, Tabone says, “I never felt like this wasn't the right place for me, that this wasn't the right project for me to work in or the community to live in.”
Conversions from EUR to USD were made using the OANDA conversion rate of EUR 1 to USD 1.05 on October 18, 2023. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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