This San Jose couple moved to Italy to save their marriage. Here’s how that worked out

By Silvia Marchetti | CNN

Buying and renovating a home in a different country is a decision that would put any relationship to the test.

But this couple, previously based in San Jose, California, snapped up a dilapidated house in a picturesque Italian town with the hope of saving their marriage.

Christina and Pete Sobolev, both in their 60s, bought a ruin in the hilltop village of Santa Domenica Talao, near Scalea in Calabria, a southern Italian region filled with depopulated towns, in 2011 after seeing an online advertisement.

Now the couple, who’ve been married for 35 years, are working together to help revive dying Italian villages by bringing in new residents who want to live La Dolce Vita.

Marriage lifeline?

“A little over 15 years ago, Pete and I made the decision to purchase a property in Italy,” Christina Sobolev tells CNN.

“Our lives in California were great but as I talked to friends who were at the same point in life, their kids were grown and starting out on their own, I noticed a disturbing pattern.

“Many of these couples were getting divorced.”

Christina Sobolev felt that she and her husband needed a shared goal “to keep us united and excited by life.”

“It was then that the plan formed to purchase a home in another country with another language, another culture and a completely different look at life,” she adds.

They then moved to Santa Domenica Talao, a village they’d first visited in 2009, and spent three to four years renovating the two-bedroom home.

In 2015, the couple set up their own business, Super Savvy Travelers, which began as a travel agency, and eventually developed into a service offering packages for those wanting to purchase property in the area.

The Sobolevs, who had already been spending much of the year in Italy, opted to make Calabria their permanent base in 2021.

They say that the Covid-19 pandemic was a big factor in their decision.

Christina Sobolev, who previously worked as a music teacher, had been selling cruises shortly before the global outbreak of coronavirus in early 2020.

“Although selling cruises was fun, it was not a huge life goal for me. When the pandemic hit, that whole industry shut down for years,” she says, explaining that she and her husband both had real estate licenses while in California, and were experienced with buying and renovating houses.

“At that point I had to pivot and after looking at our interests and where our skills lie, getting involved in Italian properties was a natural fit.”

She and her husband now work together, buying abandoned dwellings in nearby villages, restyling them, and either renting or selling them to expats, mostly Americans, who’ve chosen to settle in Calabria.

Passion project