A hospital doctor from rural Kentucky with a lifelong passion for European history has purchased and meticulously restored a centuries-old apartment in Venice, Italy—and now divides his time between landlocked Appalachia and one of the world’s most water-bound cities.
Two years ago, Dr. Alexander Gabrovsky, a physician who also holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature from Cambridge University, decided to become a homeowner. Instead of purchasing a single-family home or a condo in the U.S., he set his sights on faraway Venice—a fairytale destination renowned for its canals, palazzos, and timeless beauty.
“It was absolutely a spur-of-the-moment decision—it just felt right. Carpe diem,” Gabrovsky tells Realtor.com®, reflecting on his unexpected leap into international property ownership.
Once Gabrovsky decided to invest in Venetian real estate, he set out looking for an apartment with the quintessential Venetian feature: a water door, known in Italian as a “porta d’acqua,” offering direct access to a canal where he could dock a boat at his doorstep.
The other item on the American house hunter’s must-have list was that the property needed to meet all the strict legal requirements to be rented out while he was back in Kentucky.
“Remarkably, I found one apartment that met both criteria,” he says. “In fact, it has two water doors, each with its own small balcony. Only a handful of properties in Venice have that distinction; even many of the grand palazzos on the Grand Canal have only one.”
The apartment
Located in the historic Castello district, Gabrovsky’s apartment building is surrounded by three canals and sits across from a medieval church.
“The spot is so distinct that I can locate it on historical maps and even in early paintings,” the proud owner says. “At the Museo Correr [museum], I once spotted a 17th century aerial view of Venice and could identify my own water door and bedroom window!”
The building has foundational brickwork and carved wooden beams dating all the way back to the 14th century, with later additions from the 18th and 19th centuries. The property also includes a medieval courtyard with an ancient water collection system.
The apartment itself features a bedroom, a mezzanine sleeping area, a living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and two balconies. Gabrovsky says when he first toured the unit, he found some of the walls crumbling, but otherwise the living space was “in solid condition.”
However, the water doors, one of Gabrovsky’s top priorities, were in need of complete restoration. Undeterred, he put in an offer 60,000 euros below the 440,000 euro asking price, and it was accepted.
The quirks of a foreign real estate purchase
To realize his dream of owning a piece of Venice, Gabrovsky says he had to navigate the complexities of the Italian legal system—and Venice’s specific rules concerning ground-floor properties, boat parking permits, and short-term rental regulations.
To do that, the Kentucky doctor enlisted the firm Italian Real Estate Lawyers (IREL) to help him not only with the purchase, but also with the everyday realities of homeownership, from setting up utilities to understanding property tax payments.
“As magical as Venice looks from the outside, buying property here can be surprisingly complicated,” IREL manager Linda Balboni tells Realtor.com. “In Venice, every stone has a story—and every property comes with layers of laws, history, and environmental challenges hiding behind the beauty.”
To start, the team at IREL made sure that Gabrvosky’s chosen property did not fall under Italy’s strict cultural heritage laws, known as the “Beller Arti” restrictions, which apply to buildings with historical or artistic significance.
With that hurdle cleared, the lawyers moved on to reconciling Gabrovsky’s dream of owning a ground-floor apartment directly on the water with Venice’s flooding problem, which makes such properties especially vulnerable to the elements.
Balboni says her team hired a local surveyor specializing in below-sea-level homes to conduct a thorough due diligence inspection, focusing on water-related risks such as the apartment’s elevation above the canals, the presence of water pumps, and historical flood data for the area.
“Venice has its own rhythm and rules, and even the most charming home can come with hidden maintenance challenges if the buyer doesn’t check these things thoroughly,” warns Balboni.
The next challenge was to secure a mooring permit for Gabrovsky to park his boat right outside his door, which in Venice could be a tall order.
“While in most cities, a parking spot is easy to arrange, in Venice, a boat parking space—or posto barca—is a whole different adventure, and not an automatic right,” explains Balboni.
The buyer’s attorneys helped him submit an application for one of the limited mooring spaces, complete with all the necessary documentation proving boat compliance and safety certificates, within a limited time frame to make sure he could tie up his vessel outside his building.
The restoration
Venice has captivated Gabrovsky from the time he first visited the city as a 5-year-old with his family. Later, during his father’s academic sabbatical, he spent part of his childhood living in a medieval village in France—an experience he credits with sparking his fascination with southern Europe.
As a Ph.D. student researching the life and work of medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer, Gabrovsky criss-crossed Italy on academic grants, studying in Bologna and Pisa—but it was always Venice that held him utterly spellbound.
“The idea of owning and caring for a small piece of European history never left me,” says Gabrovsky.
It was with a deep sense of awe and respect for history that the doctor and scholar embarked on the daunting task of restoring his newly purchased Venetian property to its former glory.
“The hardest part was restoring the apartment’s character without compromising its structure,” shares Gabrovsky.
One night in a Venetian wine bar, he met a local woman whose parents turned out to be architects, and they became his collaborators on the restoration project.
“Together we worked to preserve the apartment’s soul, bringing back details like the water doors and hand-forged ironwork,” says Gabrovsky, adding that he even hired a Venetian blacksmith to recreate the water doors’ original details and “bring back their historic charm.”
The homeowner says that any modern features added to the apartment—from fiber-optic internet cables to contemporary kitchen appliances—were mostly hidden from view, concealed behind traditional cabinetry to preserve an “authentically Venetian” appearance.
But the renovation process was not without its challenges and Venice-specific quirks, Gabrovsky concedes.
“Everything, from old cabinets to chunks of plaster, must be loaded onto a boat and ferried to the mainland for disposal,” he reveals. “Every new piece of furniture must make the same journey in reverse. That logistical ballet adds layers of complexity to even the simplest task.”
However, Gabrovsky says he also encountered some pleasant surprises along the way.
“One day, we decided to open a small section of ceiling just to see what was behind it and uncovered stunning hand-chiseled wooden beams,” he recounts. “They added both height and history to the space, likely brought centuries ago from the forests of Croatia.”
Living ‘La Dolce Vita’
With the restoration behind him, Gabrovsky can now fully enjoy his globe-trotting lifestyle. He says that he typically spends three to four weeks out of the year in Venice, followed by weeklong trips to London or Paris, before returning to Pikeville, KY, where he stays in a hotel while working 12-hour shifts at an area hospital.
“I love the contrast: Treating complex medical cases among coal miners in the rugged mountains of Appalachia, then reading a Manzoni novel beside the tranquil canals of Venice,” says Gabrovsky.
When Gabrovsky is not in Venice, he rents out his property on Airbnb to tourists, with his neighbors-turned-friends managing all the bookings and check-ins.
Gabrovksy says that what he loves most about living in Venice is the wide variety of experiences he gets to enjoy.
“On any given day, I can take my boat through the quiet back canals, then cross the lagoon to explore hidden islands—a vineyard, a secluded monastery, or a tiny beach near the Adriatic where I can swim or fish,” he says.
He adds: “Venice constantly surprises me; every journey feels like a small adventure through time.”
Looking to the future, Gabrovsky says that being the son of a European-born father, he could potentially obtain a European Union passport and secure a path to residency, but for now, he enjoys working in the U.S. while investing in Italy.
“I’m currently single and without children, so I keep an open mind,” he says. “Life often surprises us.”
When asked what advice he would give other Americans considering buying a home in Italy, Gabrovsky says not to be discouraged by the legal complexities.
“If you’re passionate about Italian culture, go for it,” he urges. “Passion will carry you through the bureaucracy.”
Meanwhile, Balboni, with Italian Real Estate Lawyers, offers a dose of reality and a reminder to manage expectations.
“Buying property in Venice is unlike buying anywhere else in Italy,” she says. “It’s part art, part engineering, and part patience.”
