Drop everything and move to Abruzzo. At 1,100 meters above sea level. Why not? Cassandra Trestle, 33, tells ‘Cnbc make it’ the life path that led her, together with her family, to abandon the United States and embrace a new way of life, certainly more spartan, but also less frenetic.
“We lived in New York from 2015 to 2019,” says the young mother in a YouTube video that has garnered more than 3 million views. “I worked for a tech startup and Alex (the partner, ed.) was a butcher at Whole Foods. In the last house we rented in Brooklyn we paid about 2,000 dollars a month and I couldn’t even imagine how we could save the down payment to buy a house in New York. At the end of 2020 our daughter was born and that’s when we started thinking about our future as a family.”
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With the baby on the way, the couple begins to seriously think about moving abroad. Maybe in Italy. Why not? Of course, the job market is asphyxiated and the bureaucracy is a nightmare, but there are some advantages. The cost of real estate, for example, which is much lower than that of the United States. If the choice falls on a small village far from the tourist areas, the prices become truly appetizing. In 2022 the family decided to take the big step.
“Abruzzo struck us for several reasons”, says Cassandra, “but first of all because it is a much less known region. I didn’t want to have to deal with the problems of mass tourism or the overtourism of famous areas like Tuscany. Abruzzo is authentic: you perceive it immediately and you don’t have the feeling that there is something built for facade. Furthermore, we live in a typical perched village, almost 1,100 meters above sea level, which means that we are surrounded by magnificent views.”
The house bought for 11,500 euros
The economic factor made the difference. “The fact that we were able to buy a house entirely with cash seemed almost unbelievable at the time,” the woman says in the video. “The property we purchased was on sale for 13,000 euros, but we managed to get it for around 11,500 euros.” The couple spent another 15,000 euros between renovation and furnishings. In total the bill amounts to 26,500 euros. In New York a garage costs at least double. To give you an idea.
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In the meantime, the family bought a second house in the countryside for 17,000 euros, spending another 15,000 on renovations. Managed by Alex, the holiday home is rented to tourists and guarantees an average income of around 1,000 euros per month. Cassandra instead works for a travel agency. “I make significantly less money than I did when I worked for a company in New York, but from my perspective my time is much better spent.”
Today Cassandra and Alex’s life is decidedly more spartan. To get around they bought an old red Fiat 600 for just 1,000 euros. The family spends around 150 euros a month on electricity, while full-time nursery fees cost just 60 euros a month. “My friends in Seattle who have children of the same age pay about $3,000 a month for a similar facility,” says the 33-year-old, “insanity.”
“I no longer have to worry about rent and mortgage”
“Living in a small town – says the young mother – forced me to slow down, in the best way possible, and to really understand that nothing is that fundamental: many things can wait and many others can be done without stress or pressure”. “The best feeling I continue to feel since we bought a house here is a sense of relief” he says. “Every month I don’t have to worry about that fixed outgoing coming up, no monthly rent or mortgage to pay.”
Among the points in favor of living in Italy is the quality of the food which “is clearly superior to anything I have tried in the United States. Every time we return to the USA after having been in Europe for a few years it seems strange, because every time we go out to eat we always feel very bloated: I think we have simply gotten used to how we eat in Europe and our bodies are no longer made for American food”.
In short, for now Alex and Cassandra have not regretted their choice. Far from it. Moving from New York to a small village in the Abruzzo Apennines may seem like a risky move, perhaps a little crazy. Yet the woman assures that she would not go back. “I definitely miss my family and friends from the United States, but at this point in our lives I couldn’t imagine returning to live in the US full time.”