I pay $ 1,850 a month for my 3-bedroom apartment in Italy-look inside

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In 2003, I spent a semester at L’Aquila, Italy and fell in love with the country. This study abroad has changed the trajectory of my life.

Two years later, I returned to monitor my master’s degree in marketing management and communications at the University of Bokoni in Milan. The fashionable, fast Milan was miles away from a sleepy, neighborhood L’Aquila, and the city’s nightlife actually reminded me of my hometown in Miami.

After graduating from school, I realized that I wanted to stay. It was the beginning of two decades and a counted love affair with Italy. I moved here permanently in 2012 after marrying my Italian husband Diego.

Today we live in Milan with our six -year -old son Lorenzo. Run a company called By doing Italy To help other Americans make a home for themselves here.

How did we make our own home

A look inside the recently renovated apartment in Milan

Bathroom

This bathroom is one of my favorite rooms, but it required a lot of work. We ejected it completely, changed the crane, and added the hexagonal tiles I love. We provided the tiles of a charming, friendly and family company in Tuscany.

The shape of the hexagon looks so elegant to me.

Photo: Thea Duncan Prando

Kitchen

When we got here, the kitchen was not renovated after about 40 years, so it needed a lot of work. In fact, we had our wallets to carry not only our kitchen goods from the old apartment, but also the appliances.

My husband and I love to cook. I often say that I live in Italy for food.

Photo: Thea Duncan Prando

We tore the sink and the stove from our old apartment and installed them in the new place. It was a memorable transition. We also added a few new cabinets and a new countertop.

We destroyed the existing wall tiles, but held those on the floor. We also closed two side doors that opened in the kitchen to give us more space on the hob.

Elegant but still effective storage in our kitchen.

Photo: Thea Duncan Prando

The living room

To open the living space, we knocked an entire wall. The living room has natural hardwood floors, which we grinded and added a easier spot.

A great place to sit and a relaxing glass of wine.

Photo: Andrea Mignolo for CNBC did it

Since the flooring in this space on the corridor was a tile, we picked up a little wooden floor to match the rest of the room best.

A wonderful place to sit, work and collect my thoughts.

Photo: Andrea Mignolo for CNBC did it

The books, the gray sofa and the lighting are some fun focal points of space.

My son’s room

The details of the card are so charming.

Photo: Thea Duncan Prando

The beloved part of my son in his room is the giant map we put on one side of the wall. He likes to point out all the different places on him. I love it because it helps to gather all our worlds in one place.

Our room

Calm oasis of space.

Photo: Andrea Mignolo for CNBC did it

One of the most important additions we made in the apartment was the air conditioner in our bedroom. I grew up in Miami and my family is from the Caribbean, so I can handle some heat. My husband, on the other hand, not so much.

The air conditioner was a must.

Photo: Andrea Mignolo for CNBC did it

I also love our chest of drawers, which was handmade by my husband’s great-grandfather in the 1800s. He needed some work to bring him back to life, so we restored him.

Why I like to live in Milan

I at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. An important shopping center in Milan, near Duomo

Foan: May

When we go to the market, there are so many quality ingredients to choose from. Fresh, delicious products here are relatively easy and affordable. We drain on objects such as eggs, milk and pasture butter, or farms that are just outside the city, or from the farmers market in the city.

I am on a fresh products stand in the Brera neighborhood in Milan.

Foan: May

Leisure is also a serious business in Italy. The perfect example of this is the evening ritual and tradition of aperitivity.

My husband Diego and our son Lorenzo, having dinner at a restaurant in Piedmont, about an hour and a half from Milan.

Photo: Thea Duncan Prando

As soon as the working day is over, people will stop at a coffee shop for a glass of wine and food for an hour or two. This is deeply rooted culturally, so much that every time we leave the park after school, my son says “Facciamo un ‘peritivo’ – although he does not delight a” A “very delight.

In a local family farm called Zipo. They sell fresh dairy products with slow food and their own rice. They also organize cheese production classes where you eat at the end.

Photo: Jessica Pepper

We will head to a place in the neighborhood with our friends. Children receive their own table with juice and chips, grown -ups will sit at our table with our adult drinks and no one looks at us as if uncomfortable.

I in the Abruzzo area in Milan, where I lived when I just moved to Italy. I am in a super cool butcher shop where you can buy the meat and then bake it on the barbecue by the store. I eat a typical dish (essentially lamb skewers) from the area called Arrosticini.

Photo: Diego Pondo

I like to raise my son in Milan. Having children here does not mean that your social life ends. There are many parks, galleries and museums and a wide variety of family activities.

In one of my local markets.

Photo: Andrea Mignolo for CNBC did it

On average, Italians receive four to six weeks of paid vacation every year and, unlike the United States, people actually use their vacation time. From Milan we can reach Lake Como or Genova, at the sea, for less than two hours, and these are just easy day trips.

I in front of a random nice door in my neighborhood.

Foan: May

I grew up in a middle -class immigrant family. The fact that I now get to regular vacation in places like the Italian dolomites and spend the weekends in Vienna is not something I take for granted. I feel incredibly blessed and I couldn’t be more happier to be here.

Thea Duncan Prando is the founder of By doing ItalyS She lives in Milan with her husband and son. To learn more about her life in Italy, follow her @Doingitaly

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