A British Couple Is Raffling Off Their Calabrian Beach House in Italy

On Southern Italy’s western coast lies Pizzo Calabro, a historic town with a storybook piazza and sparkling beaches seemingly stolen straight from your daydreams.

For about $35 (and a little luck), you could actually live there. As Travel + Leisure reports, British husband and wife Jon and Annmarie Nurse are currently raffling off their recently renovated and fully furnished townhouse, worth about $240,000. Its two floors include two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and even a balcony where you can lazily sip wine and stare at the sea. Jon Nurse cites the sunsets as one of his favorite perks of the area, along with “fantastic restaurants and bars to savor amazing seafood and Italian cuisine at its very best.”

If you win, that $35 you spent on the raffle ticket won’t be compounded by a bunch of realty-related costs. Transfer taxes and legal fees will be taken care of, and the Nurses will also set you and one companion up with flights, accommodation, and even a car service so you can pop over to Italy and sign the paperwork. And if you don’t win, you can rest easy knowing that you coughed up $35 for a good cause. All the proceeds will go to Braccio di Ferro, a children’s hospice service in Italy.

The furniture is yours, too. | Jon Nurse

Balcony view, flowers included. | Jon Nurse

It’s not the Nurses’ first crack at such a venture. Just last year, the couple held a raffle for their Tuscan villa, which they had originally planned to put on the market. They changed their minds after reading reviews from visitors who had vacationed there.

“A number of them said how much they loved the house and they only wished they could afford a place like that. That got us thinking that maybe we could make someone’s dream come true—a real life-changing event,” Nurse tells Mental Floss. “The idea grew and then we added the charity element, as by that stage lockdown was happening and charities had lost a lot of the income streams they depended on.”

Pizzo Calabro as seen by a sea bird (or someone on a boat). | Jon Nurse

They ended up raising around $70,000 for The Children’s Society in London, and they’re hoping this latest raffle will do something similar for Braccio di Ferro. The contest is open through September 16, or whenever they reach 10,000 tickets. You can buy as many as you want, by the way—enter here.