This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kat Moore. It has been edited for length and clarity.
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In 2022, my husband and I visited Sicily for the first time. I fell in love with the island and told my husband I wanted to buy a house there to live in one day. He thought I was insane, but I was adamant.
People in Sicily tend to lead a slower pace of life. In the US, there’s a huge emphasis on work as your identity. It’s stressful and overwhelming, and I craved a different way of life. A different pace.
Three years later, in March 2025, we were in Sicily for spring break, and I viewed 50 houses to get an idea of what was on offer and how much we’d be spending.
When we saw one of the last places we viewed, an apartment in Ortigia, the historic heart of Sicily, with a balcony overlooking the sea, I just knew — this was the house we’d buy.
I was ready to sell the house I grew up in
I wanted to put in an offer right away, but my husband questioned whether it was a financially sound move. I told him I was ready to sell my mom’s house in Miami — the family home I’d grown up in.
I was connected to my mom’s house, having held onto it even though my mom had died 14 years prior. She was Cuban and moved to the US during political unrest in Cuba in the 1950s and 1960s. She risked everything to find a better life in the United States, uprooting herself and starting fresh in a place and culture she didn’t know.
Courtesy of Kat Moore
If there was any reason to sell her house in Miami, buying the apartment in Sicily would be a reason my mom would have approved of. I knew it was the right thing to do.
We put the house in Miami on the market, and it sold within a month. We used the money from the sale of the house to buy the apartment in Sicily at just under $600,000, in June 2025.
It needed a lot of work
The apartment needed a lot of work — a kitchen, new plumbing, electrics, and floors, and decorating throughout. The work alone (without any supplies) would cost about $96,000.
As I spoke Italian, I was able to find local contractors to carry out the work while we returned to California for our jobs. All the work was finished in about six months, with me going back and forth to Sicily at any chance I could to oversee the work done.
Courtesy of Kat Moore
As my husband is in the military, he can retire in four years, and our plan would be to move into the apartment full-time then.
Even after he retires, I’d want to keep working. Perhaps I could teach English to locals, Italian to English-speakers, or work alongside local contractors as an interior decorator.
Until we relocate, we are going to rent the apartment out and visit as often as we can.
Courtesy of Kat Moore
We also bought an orchard
In December 2025, on one of our trips to Sicily, my husband and I viewed an olive tree orchard. It had always been a dream to own land, and the 16 acres, full of olive, citrus, and nut trees, a small farmhouse, and within view of the apartment, would be the fulfillment of this dream. It came at a relatively low price — only $288,000. We bought it.
Both the apartment and the orchard are investments in our future. We’ll live in Sicily soon, and use the land and the apartment to supplement our income.
I get quite emotional when imagining what my mom would think of all this. I haven’t lost everything as she did, but I am leaving everything I know to live in a new place, as my mom and the rest of my family did.
Courtesy of Kat Moore
I’m chasing my dream, seeing the potential of risk. I know that if my mom were still here, she’d be moving with me — she’d love the adventure. I feel connected to her more than ever as I dream, plan, and commence this adventure. If she could build a life from the foundation up, so can I.
