Villa Adriana - Atina

We're native English speakers living in Belgium, and buying a villa in Italy meant doing it in a language that isn't our primary one — my wife holds her own in Italian, I manage rather less — under rules we didn't know. Finding the right people to work with mattered more than anything else.

We found Alfano — a family-run business — through their website and sent over a list of fairly naive questions. The answers came back quickly, simply explained, and with no attempt to steer us. That set the tone for everything that followed. When we flew in to view properties, they built their schedule around our narrow travel window as much as practical rather than the other way around (of course we did agree on a day ahead of time).

Claudia professionally fielded our questions and bridged English and Italian throughout, which was decisive — not just translating, but making sure both sides understood the same thing. They know how these purchases work when Italian isn't the buyer's first language, and it showed at the notary: the closing was straightforward and they were there to help every step of the way.

An unexpected bonus was their wider network — utilities, electricity, the practical items that come before and after the sale - including document translation into Italian. They had friendly people to help.

We closed on our villa and enjoyed getting to know them along the way, and we have made new friends in the process. Easy to recommend if you're buying from abroad.