Americans are increasingly looking overseas toward Italy when it comes to buying a second home. U.S. buyers made up 11.3 percent of foreigners who inquired about buying high-end homes in Italy during the first quarter of the year, according to a Knight Frank report cited in the Wall Street Journal.

That was up from 6 percent during the same time in 2011 when Knight Frank started covering Italy’s luxury home market. “The love affair with all things Italian, history, culture and art, continues for many Americans,” said Amy Redfern, the report’s author. “They’re generally heavily involved in properties of historic nature and of architectural merit.”