New York became ‘too crazy’ so she moved to an Italian village, met her husband and started a family

Caroline Chirichella met and married Vito Pace after moving to a quiet town in Italy. (Courtesy Caroline Chirichella via CNN Newsource)

Sometimes, relocating abroad can feel like a gamble, a leap into the unknown.

For Caroline Chirichella, a 36-year-old New Yorker, the move to a quiet corner of central Italy was more than an escape. It meant building a family, buying an affordable home and creating a new life — at a fraction of the cost of her old one.

Tired of the expense and pace of New York City, Chirichella moved in 2014 to Guardia Sanframondi, a little-known village near Naples.

Today, happily married to an Italian man, and mom to two children, she says she’s living a perfect life in a town so obscure that even many Italians struggle to place it.

The move was serendipitous. One evening, television property show “House Hunters International” caught Chirichella’s attention, specifically the episode’s location — Guardia Sanframondi.

“My mom and I had already planned a trip to Italy, but my mom suggested we add it to the itinerary since it looked so beautiful,” she tells CNN. “When we came here the first time in October of 2014, everything just clicked and I knew this was where I wanted to live.”

A change of scenery

Although she saw herself as “a proud New York City girl,” and had been living rent-free in her parents’ apartment while running her own business, she says she’d already become jaded with life in the Big Apple.

“I had no time for real connections with people, the city became too crazy for my taste and while I was successfully running my own private catering business, it didn’t give me much flexibility to fully experience life,” she says.

“I was living my life, but I didn’t feel like I was experiencing it. I wanted a place where I could live life to the fullest and become a part of a community. I wanted a complete change of pace and scenery.”

Arriving in Guardia, a community of barely 5,000 people located northeast of Naples, in Italy’s Campania region, Chirichella says she was immediately won over — so much so that she set about buying a house there.

“On my first visit, I knew this was a special place,” she says. “I felt it in my heart. It was like I was coming home. Guardia has a sense of community that I feel was lacking, coming from NYC.”

Taking advantage of the cheap property prices that can be found in many rural Italian communities, Chirichella found a three-story house with a terrace offering views of valleys and mountains. She paid just over US$50,000, which she says she was able to afford without a mortgage.

A chance meeting

It was also her first encounter with Vito Pace, an artist who happened to be there exhibiting in an art show. The two met as they were strolling past each other in a piazza.

“Once I got home to NYC a month later, he sent me a friend request on Facebook and we started talking every day until I came back to Guardia six months later.”

The pair enjoyed their first proper date on Chirichella’s return. They then had a long-distance relationship before she decided to make the move to Italy permanent in 2016.

In New York, Chirichella had once harbored ambitions to become an opera singer, but the city’s frenetic pace had worn her down and stripped away her dreams, she says. Guardia, well away from the tourist trail, offered her the opposite of New York: quietude, intimacy and laid-back rhythms. It also gave her different dreams.

“Guardia is slow living, la dolce vita at its best,” she says. “I’ve met so many amazing people, both expats and locals. Everyone looks out for one another, which is exactly what I wanted when it came time to raise a family.

Chirichella’s relationship with Pace moved quickly once she was living in Guardia. After another six months they were living together and within a year they were engaged, followed by marriage one month after that. They’ve now been married for over seven years and have two children: Lucia, age 7, and Nicola, 2.

“I knew I wanted to find a way to live on my own terms. I wanted time to enjoy with my family first and foremost since I knew being a mom was always in the cards.”

Chirichella now juggles parenting with running a public relations company.

“Living in Guardia was the best decision I ever made because it gave me my future — my husband, my children and my own business.”

A family reunion

Chirichella’s house, located just outside Guardia’s historic center, underwent many renovations and upgrades as the family grew, with Pace handling much of the work. Eventually they outgrew it, putting it on the market earlier this year, moving into a second four-bedroom property purchased for just over $80,000.

When she’s not running her agency, Chirichella spends her days with friends, taking long walks in the countryside, bringing the children to the park, eating and drinking “amazing foods” and enjoying Italy’s convivial pace of life.

With Pace she enjoys day trips to surrounding towns to explore the area. Immersion in the town also helped her learn Italian — she is now mostly fluent, if not perfect.

Her move has also reconnected her with family roots. As an Italian American dual citizen, she has ties to the Campania region through her great-grandfather, who came from Sala Consilina near Salerno, south of Naples.

And now her New York family — mom Elvira, age 72 and dad Bob, 73 — has decided to follow in Chirichella’s footsteps and move to Guardia, wanting to be closer to their grandchildren and share in the peaceful life of her new home.

“My parents also live in town and we often meet for dinner,” she says. “They are a huge part of our lives. They babysit the kids so I can work and my husband and I can occasionally have a night out alone.”

Even with added children, costs are low. The family spends about $3,500 per month, covering utilities, groceries, car insurance, and even dining out three times a week.

“This doesn’t include traveling, going to the movies, taking our kids to amusement parks,” she explains. “But if we were to live in NYC with two children, what we live with here wouldn’t even cover our rent.”

Working for herself, she adds, gives her the flexibility she long imagined having.

‘My own version of happiness’

Chirichella says that adapting to the quirks of living in Italy hasn’t always been easy. Punctuality, for instance, is not typically a national trait, she says. “If you’re expecting someone for a delivery or to do work in the house, I always know that they will be at least 20 minutes later than the time they give.

When it came to purchasing the homes she realized that timelines had a tendency to stretch, but soon came to terms with the fact that it’s all part of how things work in Italy.

“Working with Italians is very different than working with Americans, and that’s OK. If I wanted things to operate the same as they do in America, then I should have stayed there.”

Even basics like electricity and water can cut out without warning. But other surprises have been more welcome. She has grown to love the impromptu encounters that are part of small-town life — running into neighbors for a quick coffee or aperitivo.

“It adds color to the day,” she says. “Little, random interactions have become a favorite part of living here.”

After nearly a decade in Guardia, Chirichella says she can’t imagine going back to New York. “When I was younger, I would ride the subway to school and see so many people who looked miserable and I told myself, I never wanted that to be me,” she says. “I have found a way to create my own version of happiness.”

By Silvia Marchetti, CNN