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She went on vacation to Southern Italy and decided she’s never returning to the United States
That’s what happened to Michele Blackmon, a 68-year-old lifestyle consultant and former luxury realtor from Los Angeles, during a fateful trip to Italy’s Puglia region. Enjoying a post-Covid excursion around the country in 2022, Blackmon stopped in the city of Lecce, located in the heel of Italy’s boot, at the recommendation of a friend. It was love at first sight. The Baroque “jewel” of Southern Italy, full of elegant palazzos and cozy piazzas, bewitched her. “I had never traveled to the South of Italy, so on my way back to Florence after Covid, I took what I thought was a quick one-week holiday in Puglia,” Blackmon tells CNN. “I immediately fell in love with the Baroque architecture, the seasides and the organic lifestyle.”
Florence of the South
“I plan on living here as my retirement home, I’m definitely not going back to the US now,” she adds. “I am living my best life here in Puglia.” After a two-week stay in a hotel in the old district of Lecce, Blackmon began looking for a more permanent place to live and the vacation slowly turned into something bigger. Lecce, she says, turned out to be the love affair of her life. Blackmon proudly says she has given up the American Dream for the Italian Dream, even flying her Yorkshire terrier halfway around the world to be with her. Her first apartment in Lecce, just 400 square feet with high white dome-shaped ceilings, cost her 350 euros (around $368) per month. Recently, she moved into a bigger home — a mini palazzo with four bedrooms, office, side garden and roof terrace boast
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However, for Blackmon, Florence represented an extension of her lavish LA lifestyle, with the high prices to match. So, when she discovered Lecce that post-Covid summer, she was immediately charmed by its more down-to-earth vibe, as well as its beauty. “Strolling the streets of Lecce the first night I felt like I was on a Hollywood stage set, perfect lighting accenting the details of the baroque architecture,” she says. Now, having established her new life in Lecce, she says she’s still dabbling as a lifestyle consultant, helping foreigners who want to relocate to Southern Italy. She’s assembled a “dream team” of personally vetted attorneys, architects, interior designers, fashion designers, chefs, event planners and builders to assist.
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More used to the fast-paced LA lifestyle, she says it’s taken time to adjust to the slower rhythms of Italy’s south. In Lecce, the streets get filled with people only after 9 p.m. when kids, parents, grandparents, and entire extended families enjoy their evening stroll. Dinner, as per Southern Italian tradition, is never before 10 p.m. “Me, I am the first person starving for dinner at 7:30,” she says. “I still haven’t gotten used to the late eating tradition, but going to dinner with Italians is such a wonderful event: no cell phones, great conversations and lots of courses consumed, bread, wine, dessert and grappa.”