42-year-old American pays $1,850 a month for a 3-bedroom apartment in Italy: ‘People actually use their vacation time here’


Back in 2003, I spent a semester in L’Aquila, Italy and fell in love with the country. That study abroad experience changed the trajectory of my life. 

Two years later, I returned to pursue my master’s degree in marketing management and communications at Bocconi University in Milan. Fashionable, fast-paced Milan was miles away from the sleepy, neighborly L’Aquila, and the city’s nightlife actually reminded me of my hometown of Miami. 

After I finished school, I knew I wanted to stay. It was the beginning of a two-decade-long, and counting, love affair with Italy. I moved here permanently in 2012 after I married my Italian husband, Diego.

Today, we live in Milan with our six-year-old son, Lorenzo. I run a company called Doing Italy to help other Americans make a home for themselves here.

How we made a home of our own

A look inside our newly renovated Milan apartment

Why I love living in Milan

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

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

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