Courtesy of Julia Reynolds
For almost 16 years, I called the Hawaiian Islands “home.” A perpetual wanderer, I left for a summer in Alaska, a winter in Aspen, and a bike ride across Southeast Asia. But I always eventually made it back to the lush, green curvature of Hawaii’s mountains, its stunning coastlines, and the palm trees blowing in warm breezes scented with jasmine and plumeria.
I love the magic of Hawaii, and I will forever be grateful for my time spent living on Oahu and Kauai. But somehow, since my first trip to Europe 20 years ago, I’ve had an even deeper affinity for the Mediterranean region. I lived in the Greek islands for a few years in my early 20s, and I knew I’d one day make it back to live on this side of the world again.
Courtesy of Julia Reynolds
We decided to move when we were on our honeymoon
I don’t have any genealogical link to any part of the Mediterranean, but I’ve always felt more myself here than anywhere else in the world — more than Hawaii, and certainly more than where I grew up in New England. Here, bougainvillea and morning glory climb almost every edifice, and there’s a certain quality of sunlight that creates skies of a seemingly impossible blue.
Last summer, while we were on our honeymoon in Europe, my husband and I decided to take a massive plunge and buy a house. It was something we’d talked about doing in Hawaii while we were daydreaming, but we’d never have been able to do it there, given the astronomical real estate market.
However, once we decided to look in Italy, we started to discuss it in earnest. We found a real estate agent in northwest Sardinia, our favorite area, and began looking at houses with a real intention to buy and run as a bed and breakfast.
Courtesy of Julia Reynolds
Our mortgage in Italy is cheaper than our rent was in Hawaii
Soon, we were moving out of the 350-square-foot studio that we were renting on Kauai and into a nearly 4,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house in Sardinia with an attached one-bedroom apartment included for the proprietors. After paying 85% down (bartending tips saved up plus a couple of lucky investments in 2020), our four-year mortgage is lower than our rent was in Hawaii.
However, we ran into a snag. My husband had been applying for dual citizenship through his Sicilian lineage, but the government tightened the requirements in October 2024, the same month we put the down payment on the house.
We are now pursuing citizenship through the Italian courts, which can be a long process. For now, we leave the country every 90 days. With time, we’re learning to navigate the various municipal offices with a deep breath and a smile. Because of this, we’ve only lived in the house a cumulative six months.
Courtesy of Julia Reynolds
We’re learning the language and building a community
Still, I feel like I breathe more deeply in Italy, like coming home to a place that just fits. We’re working on building a community here, and though there’s not much English spoken in our neighborhood, as I hear others speak the melodic language, I comprehend a bit more Italian every day. Much of the food I eat here is fresher and simpler; I taste olive oil that tastes like olives and tomatoes that are bright, sweet, and exploding with flavor.
A simple but excellent-quality meal out at a restaurant with housemade wine costs less than two cocktails at a bar in Hanalei. We can also grab a couple of delicious panini for €3 each to eat by the Temo River, a two-minute walk from our house in Bosa.
We miss our friends from Hawaii (and the significantly better winter weather), but we prefer the “work to live” lifestyle in Italy to the “live to work” ethos that’s more common in the US. We spend almost 60% less on groceries; that, in addition to paying less on our mortgage than we did on rent, feels like we have to hustle less to get by.
Though my husband’s citizenship is taking longer than we expected, people tell us, “Piano, piano,” which means “Slowly, slowly.” And, happily, that’s the pace we’re learning to adopt.
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