• My husband and I moved from Hamburg, Germany to a small Italian town in August.
• The town offers homes for 1 euro and we were worried about the poor reputation these places have.
• However, we took the risk and we're so glad we did.

My husband and I became interested in the 1-euro housing schemes in Italy last year but were concerned about investing time and money into a house in a village that was dying out.

We are in our early 30s and had read online that the catch to these 1-euro homes was that they're usually falling apart and located in towns that are basically desolate retirement homes with little to no businesses.

We were coming from Hamburg, Germany, which has a population of 2 million and were nervous about what life would be like and being lonely in one of these small Italian towns.

However, after visiting some properties in one of these towns, we decided to take the risk, and it was worth it.

In the end, we avoided the 1-euro homes and bought a farmhouse for 29,000 euros, about $30,400, instead. Our worries about being lonely in a run-down town quickly disappeared after we arrived.

We were pleasantly surprised by how lively our town was

We moved to Sant'Elia a Pianisi, a village with about 1,500 residents in southern Italy.

When we arrived in August, there were festivals every day and night. There were parades, concerts, festivals with free food and drinks, sword fighting, and fire-breathing shows.

It felt surreal, moving to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Italy, yet hearing English and German everywhere we went.

Sitting at the local Irish pub, we were surrounded by older US Americans who had left during a diaspora between the '40s and '70s, when many Italians ended up in the US or Germany for work.

Now, as they age, many have returned to their hometown to enjoy retirement. Their relatives also come to visit and explore their heritage.

Many still have family homes here in the village and donate money to keep the village running well while they're away. This contributes to lovely projects, including handicap-inclusive playgrounds, parks, and holy places.

In August, we also met a lot of young people who have left the town for university or better work opportunities. Many expressed a longing to return to Sant'Elia and hope that the increase in remote work availability will allow them to come back sooner rather than later.

The town quiets down after August but is still full of life

We were afraid Sant'Elia would be a ghost town after August. To be honest, it did become much quieter, but not as much as we had anticipated.

There are still parades every month. The three restaurants are quieter but still full on Saturday nights with live music and sometimes karaoke.

When hanging my laundry outside on the clothesline, I hear children screeching and giggling. There are families, both young and old, and they are all so kind and warm.

Most people in town gather at an outdoor market once a week, which offers fresh cheeses, vegetables, fruits, plants, and new and used clothing and shoes.

We can buy these items any day of the week at the multiple little grocery stores, bakeries, butchers, and clothing stores in town, but the market also offers the opportunity to socialize with other residents.

We don't speak Italian, but can still communicate

My husband and I are learning Italian, but neither of us would say we speak it yet. That doesn't stop the townspeople from wanting us to feel welcome.

We use what little broken Italian we know, and they accommodate with their own broken English and German.

When the language barrier becomes too tough, we resort to hand gestures or a quick game of charades to get our point across.

Words aren't always necessary, though.

Many of our new neighbors have given us presents, from squashes and pomegranates to homemade cheeses and olive oil.

We feel very welcome and are happy to be part of this community.

We're not far from the city

If we want more action and entertainment, we don't have to go far.

The nearest city, Campobasso, has a population of about 47,500 and is a half-hour drive away.

One downside is the drive itself. It's a windy one through the mountains with a lot of sharp turns and steep hills. Almost all of our friends we've driven through it wanted to throw up by the end.

Campobasso, though, offers a beautiful historical center, shopping malls, nightclubs, movie theaters, markets, museums, and cultural events.

Even without Campobasso, there is never a dull moment. I recently joined an expat Facebook Group for the region where people post daily about coming wine and food festivals, parades, and musical performances in their towns.

Sant'Elia is a small town in a small region of Italy, but we have found everything we could have ever wanted from this community.

• My husband and I are in our early 30s and wanted to buy a home in Italy.
• We were both curious and anxious about Italy's one-euro housing program and the towns they were in.
• We're extremely happy with the tiny town we ended up in but glad we didn't buy a home for one euro.

Last year, my husband and I became intrigued by the one-euro houses in Italy.

We wanted to move to Italy for my husband's work, and between the options of renting an apartment for 500 euros, about $525, a month or buying a house for one euro ($1.05), the latter seemed like the more logical deal.

This one-euro housing scheme has been around for years. Certain Italian municipalities offer homes for as low as one euro in towns where much of the younger population has left to attract young families, businesses, and foreigners to re-bolster the town's waning economy.

I'm 30, and my husband is 32, so we were an ideal fit for the program.

In the end, we still bought a home in one of the towns that offers one-euro houses, but we're glad we decided against opting into the program for a few reasons.

There always seemed to be a catch

We checked out threads on Quora and Reddit and chatted with people who had bought cheap homes in Italy to get a sense of what to expect.

We also watched media accounts from BBC and Business Insider of people who bought these homes. However, we never went through one ourselves because, after our initial research, it just sounded like too risky an option.

We didn't want to end up like the man who bought one of these homes sight unseen and then found out the house's structure was crumbling or the couple who had to invest 300,000 euros, about $315,000, in renovations.

Plus, as we dug deeper, we discovered that each municipality had its own stipulations for purchasing one of these homes. These could include requiring you to start a business, finish renovations within two to six years, or live in the house for at least six months out of the year.

These legal stipulations just complicate the buying process and are typically only available in Italian, and we don't speak Italian.

We still moved to a town with 1 euro homes; we just didn't buy one

The Italian housing market is very inexpensive in the towns that offer these one-euro homes. However, like the homes, the towns also have a poor reputation for being lifeless places. We were pleasantly surprised that the rumors weren't true for our town.

We ended up buying a 3,121 sq. ft. farmhouse, which was more or less move-in-ready, with an acre of land for 29,000 euros, about $30,400.

The home is in Sant'Elia a Pianisi — a small mountain town in Southern Italy between Naples and Rome with a population of only 1,000.

Sant'Elia may be small, but the town is constantly hosting festivals. There are young families, restaurants, shops, schools, a library, and really everything we need to live comfortably.

Plus, during the summer holidays in August, the town's population triples. Family members and people originally from Sant'Elia who have moved away all return for a month of nonstop celebrations.

We also could not have asked for nicer neighbors. Everyone has been so welcoming — bringing us gifts of homemade cheeses and home-grown pomegranates, squashes, and plums.

Because we chose a house that didn't need to be completely gutted, we have the freedom to renovate when and however our budget allows and are already starting off further along than if we'd opted into the one-euro housing program.

I recommend hiring a property lawyer

I honestly think the one-euro housing program can be great for some people as long as they are aware of the stipulations.

What worked for us and what we would recommend is to hire a property lawyer who has experience in international sales.

We hired one for 6,500 euros, about $6,800, who helped us translate documents and navigate the legalities and many steps of the homebuying process.

It was a huge cost in comparison to buying our house, but we think the cost was worth it because the lawyer helped reduce the risks of buying a home in a country where we didn't speak the language.

We're glad we chose our own way toward buying a home in Italy and still ended up in a vibrant community.

Sant'Elia currently has several one-euro houses for sale.