HGTV's 'My Big Italian Adventure': Lorraine Bracco buys 200-year-old house for $1 using her 'celebrity card'

"1 euro what do I expect," says ‘The Sopranos’ star Lorraine Bracco as she takes on the adventure to renovate houses in the Italian island of Sicily which lies in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. "When Lorraine called us saying she wanted to (do this), we jumped on board to join her from beginning to end," says Loren Ruch, HGTV's senior VP of programming and development.

After buying a major fixer-upper for just a single Euro ($1.10) in the hilltop town of Sambuca, which is home to 6000 people, Bracco takes on the challenge of making a home out of this place. The houses are really just crumbling down from what used to be a civilization 200 years ago. Quite frankly, it looks more like an archeological site with ancient ceilings and tiles and toilets. "That’s not a toilet, that’s a hole," the actress said. 

For the first episode of ‘My Big Italian Adventure’, the Oscar-nominated actress goes back to her Italian roots, 4,500 miles away from her current home in New York City. As part of Sambuca's plan to attract new, more diverse residents to the municipality, 16 houses were made available for €1 and there were over 100,000 applications for it, as confirmed by the Mayor of the town. Bracco admits she capitalized on her fame to improve her chances. "This is where I'm happy I'm an American actress. I don't really use that celebrity card often, I'm gonna use it today!"

The 9-month shoot started with the ‘Goodfellas’ actor meeting the Mayor of the town and they visited all the demolished houses. At one point, Bracco asks the mayor to "hold my tushie" so she can climb up and take a good look at one home's lake view.

Bracco chooses a 1,800 sqft property that has beautiful natural light and tiles that are original to the 200-year-old house. While the actress is completely swooned by the architecture and the landscape, she soon realizes she has taken on a mammoth job that requires an immense amount of patience. Bracco pays an additional €45,000 ($52,544 approx) to buy the private home next door so that she can expand the kitchen. With a renovation cost of €87,000 ($1,01,585 approx), Bracco’s total expenditure adds up to €132,001 ($1,54,196 approx). 

At one point Bracco breaks down in tears when she sees things are not going as planned. Like the time when her contractor Piero removed all the ancient tiles from the floor for plumbing purposes that Bracco specifically asked not to do. Overcome with frustration, she exclaims, "I wanna wring his little neck!"

Producing partner Monica Castellanos and Angie Harmon, who played Bracco's daughter on ‘Rizzoli & Isles’, show up to offer emotional support. As the demolished property begins to take the shape of a house, they bring in a Sicilian sandstone from Sambuca to make a wash basin and flooring for the courtyard. Once the house is ready, Bracco brings in her furniture and other accessories to design the house into a vacation home for her and her family. Piero manages to use the reclaimed tiles for the flooring. At the end, she says, “It’s better than I expected.”

Catch HGTV series ‘My Big Italian Adventure’ every Friday at 9 pm ET/PT.