Organic farmer and innkeeper Ashley Bartner admits that her move to Italy "didn’t really make sense". She and her husband Jason decided to relocate to the rural Marche region from New York in their mid-20s, having only visited the country once on their honeymoon. "We signed a six-year contract on the building and just thought ‘OK, we’ll see what happens next’," Bartner tells The Local.

The couple have now reached the ten-year milestone in Italy, and with their agriturismo business, La Tavola Marche, still going strong and Italian citizenship applications in process, they have launched bootcamps for would-be expats and innkeepers. The aim is to demystify the process of moving abroad and setting up a business, by highlighting what the reality of the 'dream life' in Italy is like.