'Family moves to Italy due to US fatigue.'

'a little over a dollar. The city advertises the available properties on a special Web site.

While reading about a home in El Paso, Texas, Nadine Dawkins, a former servicewoman and businesswoman, felt an attachment to her Italian roots. Her great-great-grandfather was Italian and came to America in the 19th century. "After hearing my nonna's stories, I always felt a connection to Italy," she tells CNN Travel. "When I served in the region many years later, I vowed to return. A few years later, my husband and I brought our children to see where we came from." Her Italian ancestor was given an American name when he landed in the U.S.: Clint Jeffrey. Nadine doesn't know much about her great-great-grandmother Lucinda, who was a plantation slave in Arkansas when''Geoffrey bought her, and "lived with her the rest of his days," as Nadine says. "Unfortunately, I have no further information about Lucinda. All I know is that she was a slave and he bought her. My grandmother and great-grandmother never told me anything else about her. I think it was because of the horrors like slavery and the memories they had of it; because, of course, being born in the 1800s and early 1900s was a hard time for all black people in America. "

Moving to Italy

Nadine and Kim Dawkins plan to move to Italy. The family decided to leave the U.S. in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. "It showed the world how we black people in America have been treated for centuries," Nadine says. "All the racial discrimination, all the division, all the''The "hatred that the last administration brought to the forefront" has caused black people to "exodus" from America if they have the opportunity, she says. "Basically, the reasons we are leaving the U.S. are police brutality against black people, mass shootings by domestic terrorists and just general hatred in this country. "

Their move follows Nadine's 30-year career in the armed forces, while Kim Dawkins works for the US government. The family will soon move to Panama before making the final move across the Atlantic to Latronico. Nadine doesn't know exactly where her ancestor came from, but buying one of the cheap houses in Latronico seemed like a good way to reconnect with her roots. "I was sitting in the middle of the''nights during Covida, with plenty of free time to read, when I came across a CNN article. We immediately emailed Deputy Mayor Vincenzo Castellano and looked at properties online. "We didn't expect this - he contacted us the very next day. We set up a video call and he sent us a video of our chosen house. That sealed our fate: we bought the house without seeing it in person, without going to Italy," she recalls.

Home in Latronico

Their home in Latronico was ready to move in. The family is grateful to have found a dream in Latronico - Castellano and his assistant, Mariangela Tortorella, helped them through the sales process and found local firms to restore and furnish their home. In fact, they had so much trust in Castellano - the creator''s home sale programs - that they gave him power of attorney for all technical matters, as well as for translating the sale into English.

Their home in the historic Latronico neighborhood required minor repairs to fit their needs, although the exterior had received a new coat of paint. The three-story home belonged to an "upper strata" resident, as Nadine describes the woman who gracefully decorated it with antique furniture. The previous owner had left two beds, a closet and "charms," including china teacups.