Foreign Property News | Posted by Zarni Kyaw
Now based just half an hour outside Milan, Jordan Kamelleri, 36, and Emanuele Neri, 32, have embarked on their most ambitious journey yet: transforming a 16th-century Italian palace into a private residence.
With roots in different countries but a shared love for history and design, the pair is pouring their time, energy, and savings into breathing new life into the abandoned estate.
“We’ve pretty much put every spare penny back into what we do,” Kamelleri tells PEOPLE exclusively. “We haven’t had a holiday abroad in years, which is really uncommon for Europeans. But at the same time, staycationing in Italy is no hardship.”
Their journey began almost by accident in 2018, when they realized their rent in Florence exceeded what a mortgage would cost on a small, rundown apartment. That realization prompted their first renovation project, setting off a series of unexpected developments.
(Jordan Kamelleri and Emanuele Neri's Italian palace. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
“In 2018, we found a Florentine apartment that had a beautiful frescoed front room, and then a few other rooms that were separated by a corridor,” Kamelleri shares. “We renovated it to allow us to Airbnb the front room while living in the rest of the apartment, and that’s part of what funded us in those early days.”
Over the next six years, one property led to another, each more ambitious than the last.
“I have probably an unhealthy fixation on finding these kinds of rare, beautiful properties,” Kamelleri says. “Instead of playing Sudoku in my downtime, I’m finding that needle in a haystack searching through Italian property listings just for fun.”
The path ultimately brought them to an abandoned Italian palace – their most ambitious restoration yet.
The estate, built sometime in the 1500s, has over 21,500 square feet of living space and boasts 14 bedrooms.
“Almost every home we bought, we deluded ourselves into thinking was going to be our home, at least for the medium term,” Kamelleri admits.
(Emanuele Neri cleaning the palace. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
Drawing on years of experience navigating Italy’s real estate market, the couple negotiated the purchase price down to roughly half the original listing, ultimately paying around $750,000. Additional fees and taxes added another 15% to 20% — an unusually high rate for Italy.
(Ceiling details inside the palace. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
“Since our restoration works are being funded by the rental income of our villa in Tuscany, which is our only source of income, we take it week by week,” Kamelleri says.
(The couple's Tuscan rental property. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
While their primary focus remains on creating a home for themselves, they aren't ruling out sharing part of the space down the line. “We could open the palace for occasional events like weddings, too, but it will first and foremost be a private home,” Kamelleri shares. “Our first, really.”
(Jordan Kamelleri moving a couch into the palace. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
(A room inside the palace. Jordan Kamelleri | @jordankamelleri)
