Reality of buying a €1 home in Italy: Netflix rom-com La Dolce Villa paints glossy picture...but pitfalls buyers face include asbestos, eye-watering bureaucracy and earthquake fears

Flying high in the Netflix chart this week is La Dolce Villa, a rom-com that, come its sugar-sweet finale, leaves you wanting to pack your bags and make for rural Italy in pursuit of a home that costs less than a coffee. The plot follows US businessman Eric (Scott Foley) as he makes a bid to stop his daughter Olivia (Maia Reficco) from snapping up a ramshackle home for at a bargain price.

Spoiler alert: she ignores her father and buys the house...and while the dad-and-daughter duo spend a small fortune on transforming the villa, they both, yes, you guessed it, fall madly in love with two locals. Romance aside, the film does has one truth running through it. Since 2017, it's been entirely possible to a home in Italy for the princely sum of one euro.

Thanks to the country's 'Case 1 Euro' scheme, which sees old, dilapidated houses sold off from, based on the current Euro to GBP exchange rate, around 80 pence, buyers from overseas can bag themselves what seems like a total unfathomable bargain. Since the scheme was introduced in a bid to restore inhabitant numbers in remote towns and villages caused by depopulation plenty have proved that it's possible - including TV's Amanda Holden and Alan Carr.

The first series of Amanda & Alan's Italian Job for the BBC saw the TV star friends renovating two seen-better-days apartments in Sicily after Amanda bought them for a euro each. And last year, British man George Laing documented his journey in buying a €1 home, three-bedroom cottage in the hilltop Sicilian village of Mussomeli - saying his purchase had made him 'happier than ever'.

Netflix rom-com La Dolce Villa, starring Scott Foley, centre, and Maia Reficco, left, follows the story of father and daughter Eric and Olivia as they buy a ramshackle villa for one euro. The film, in true rom-com tradition, has a happy ending...but overseas property buyers hoping to take advantage of the real-life 'buy a house in Italy for €1' scheme should be cautious, say experts.

Possessions: Many properties under the scheme are sold as seen, and include the previous residents' furniture. A property on offer in the Sicilian village of Mussomeli. Right: Another Sicilian property - now sold - that carried a one euro price tag. When Donald Trump won his second term in office in the US, a plucky village in Sardinia decided to use it as a selling point.

The picturesque mountain town of Ollolai has long been trying to persuade outsiders to move there after decades of depopulation, and decided to prioritise disaffected Democrats after President Trump was sworn in once more. The campaign website asks: 'Are you worn out by global politics? Looking to embrace a more balanced lifestyle while securing new opportunities? It’s time to start building your European escape in the stunning paradise of Sardinia.'.

Elsewhere, one American woman has been so entranced by the scheme that she bought not just one home but several houses in the tiny Sicilian village of Sambuca di Sicilia. Meredith Tabbone, 45, told CNBC, that she was keen to invest in a property in Sicily because of a family connection via her father - but admitted that it took a lot of work to take her ideas from pipe dreams to reality.

In a sobering account of what she faced when she arrived in the village, she says the first property was 'terrible at best' and other pitfalls included a roof laced with asbestos, no running water or electricity and nesting pigeons. Mrs Tabbone's experience is, it seems par for the course, with those considering snapping up a street of homes for less than a tenner advised to consider the following factors.

Here, MailOnline looks at some of the potential pitfalls raised by those who've bought via the Case 1 Euro scheme:. Amanda Holden and Alan Carr's €1 Sicilian flat went on sale for £127,500 after they bought it for a single euro and then renovated it for the television series Amanda And Alan's Italian Job.

Revamp: The 1,300sq ft apartment has been completely overhauled - after the pair first found it abandoned, filled with rubbish and used by squatters. Mind the red tape: Italy's property paperwork obsession - and time pressures. In La Dolce Villa, Italian bureaucracy is the butt of more than a few jokes, and the script writers aren't far off - Italian property buying, even when you're paying a regular price, can be mind-boggling.

If house buying in the UK requires a mountain of paperwork, then you can double that for a Case 1 Euro application. Most schemes also stipulate that you use local workers, and complete the works within three years. Safe as houses: The gamble on the work required.

A quick browse through the websites that show off properties for sale for one euro on Google gives a pretty clear picture of what potential homeowners face, with many properties on offer in need of serious structural repair - from the roof to the foundations.

Other problems faced include legacy pitfalls such as asbestos roofs and, if you choose a particularly remote location, sourcing materials and getting them where they need to be - many properties are in traditional hilltop villages often with restricted vehicle access.