Douglas Ritter long envisioned retiring in Rome with his wife, Nancy. Born in New York City, then raised mostly in the Italian capital thanks to his father’s career, he eventually made his own career as a marketing executive in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
His life was set on a new course when Nancy died in 2017, leaving Mr. Ritter, then age 64, at a crossroads. The following year he moved to Bassano del Grappa, a small city at the foothills of Italy’s Dolomite Mountains. At that point, he said, “I planned to bicycle my life away in retirement.”
But his story took another turn in 2019 when a local friend introduced him to Rosaria Silvano, who was then 60 years old and living in Milan.
[Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]
“It was colpo di fulmine,” said Mr. Ritter, using the Italian expression for “love at first sight,” but which literally translates to “lightning strike.” The two dated long distance for a few months, and in March 2020 he proposed. That night, Italy went into pandemic lockdown and the couple were separated for the next six months. When the restrictions were lifted, they were married in a small civil ceremony and moved into a one-bedroom that Mr. Ritter had bought in Milan.
The place was too small for the both of them, and the couple wanted a big-city lifestyle, so they agreed on Rome. They bought an 800-square-foot flat there, but it was also a bit tight, especially when hosting guests, including Ms. Silvano’s 43-year-old daughter.
After looking at dozens of apartments in neighborhoods close to the city center, the couple homed in on Trastevere, Rome’s ancient working-class neighborhood, now a popular spot for newcomers and tourists.
“We saw every two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that came on the market for a year,” Mr. Ritter said.
With a budget of up to $950,000, they were looking for “an apartment already restored, with a terrace and two bathrooms,” Ms. Silvano said. And they hoped to be near the cycling path along the Tiber River.
Among their options:
Find out what happened next by answering these two questions:
