'La dolce vita' beckons Americans on the Web

People around the world are logging on the Internet to buy Italian properties

June 16, 2000
Web posted at: 5:54 a.m. EDT (0954 GMT)

In this story: Bilingual Website finds most clients outside Italy Espresso on the Net RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Rome Bureau Chief Gayle Young.

ROME (CNN) -- The almighty dollar is meeting "la dolce vita" ("the sweet life") as Italians wake up to the idea that the Internet can be a valuable new way of selling to Americans.

Kornel Marton was searching for the good life, Italian-style, and found it on the Web.

"We decided we wanted to live in beautiful Tuscany and, being Americans, started to hunt on the Web," he said.

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e_europe: Building a Digital Future

"After 10 or 15 minutes we found our friend Ricardo (real estate agent Ricardo Pessini). From the pictures we saw of the site we had to see it for real."

Villas under the Tuscan sun are part of a new trend -- selling Italian goods and properties on the Internet

Villas under the Tuscan sun are just part of a new trend ... selling Italian goods and property on the Internet -- not to Italians, however, but to Americans.

Pessini's five-year-old venture targets an American audience. His Website is in English and Italian, but nearly all his Internet clients are from outside his native Italy.

"The Italians are pretty much behind on the Internet," he admits.

In his country most people still do their shopping in small, specialty, family-owned stores.

They pay utility bills by standing in line at the post office because they don't trust putting a check in the mail, so the idea of shopping over the computer is somewhat alien.

But some Italian businesses, eager to get rolling, have started advertising in English for an international clientele.

Shopping on the Net is still unfamiiar territory for many Italians

For example a 50-year-old company that specializes in the espresso coffee that Italians so love has just created an e-business to sell its products on the Web.

Directors say it is an experiment. They are not sure it if will be profitable.

An international magazine recently rated Italy as one of the least prepared countries in Europe for e-commerce, mostly because of problems with infrastructure.

E-businesses in Italy say shopping costs are high so it is difficult to market their goods at competitive prices.

But they have something unique to offer -- an Italian lifestyle that captures the hearts and pocketbooks of so many Americans.