Millennials inherited a dusty old apartment in Italy. They renovated it — only to be told they should have left it alone.

• A millennial couple spent 17,000 euros, or about $18,400, remodeling an old apartment in Rome.
• When they shared the renovation on social media, they were shocked to hear from many critics.

Flavio Fabiani knew he had his work cut out for him when he stepped into the apartment in Rome's colorful, bar-lined neighborhood of Pigneto.

The fully furnished home had been abandoned for 12 years with the windows flung open, so leaves and dust coated the floors, walls, chairs, cabinets, and sofas, said Fabiani, a 27-year-old architect.

He'd inherited the 785-square-foot, one-bedroom home from his late aunt, who had struggled with dementia in her final years. Wardrobes housed bags within bags, and near-life-size dolls lay propped up on a chaise lounge, evidence of her tendency to hoard.

The worst was the only bathroom. There, Fabiani was greeted by a sea of cockroaches that had crawled up through pipes that hadn't been flushed out in over a decade.

Renovating the apartment on the third floor of a 14-unit building without a functioning elevator was going to be no easy feat — especially as his first solo project as an architect.

From May to August, he worked alongside contractors to turn it into a home fit for him and his longtime girlfriend, Victoria Craparotta, whom he met in 2019 on a study abroad program in Malaga, Spain. The project cost him roughly 17,000 euros, or around $18,400.

Nearly a year later, Craparotta decided to share the renovation in a lighthearted TikTok video with before-and-after footage.

Neither Craparotta, a 26-year-old e-commerce lead originally from Canada, nor Fabiani expected to get what they called "death threats" from TikTok commenters critical of their decision to modernize the home.

Comments on the clip, which has racked up over 7.4 million views, ranged from people who claimed they "destroyed the house" to users who told them they'd turned it into an "Airbnb" devoid of personality.

"We were shocked by the reaction," Fabiani said.

Major changes included knocking down two walls separating the tiny kitchen and the living space to create an open-plan layout, digging up the floors to install a new heating system, and installing double-paned windows to increase energy efficiency.

Less cumbersome tasks included removing green kitchen tiles and painting some of the beige walls shades of plum purple and sage green.

They also replaced some of the old furniture, like carpets and mirrors, that some members of Fabiani's family wanted to keep for themselves.

"I am still quite surprised at how dramatic people can be over a renovation," Craparotta said.

The couple suspects their critics don't have much experience with renovations

Craparotta and Fabiani's most outspoken critics seem to believe they didn't think twice about saving the home's old-timey aesthetic.

But the couple told Business Insider that's a gross oversimplification.

First, as twentysomethings, they couldn't afford to restore it in the way their critics would have preferred with their budget.

Moreover, the couple was required to modernize parts of the apartment to receive a tax incentive (known as a "superbonus") the Italian government issues to renovators who make homes more energy-efficient and sustainable.

Money aside, they said the vintage aesthetic their critics were raving about them protecting is pretty common for "nonnas" (Italian for "grandmothers").

But among younger Italians, it's standard practice to remodel apartment in old buildings like theirs, which was constructed in 1956.

"A lot of our friends have done similar renovations where they're gutting these 'nonna homes' and making them more modern," Craparotta said.

"Not even my mother would have lived in that house, and she's, like, 60," Fabiani added.

When it came to furniture, Fabiani and Craparotta said their critics were quick to assume the furniture they saw in the TikTok's "before" footage was vintage.

But in reality, they said, most of the pieces in the apartment were cheap replicas that an antique dealer told them had "zero" value. They ended up giving away some of it for free and kept a few pieces they liked.

Americans seem fascinated with old homes, they said

Craparotta and Fabiani said their experience taught them that Americans, particularly young Americans, seem much more nostalgic about old architecture and home design than Italians of similar ages.

"This video went mainly viral in the US, where there aren't a lot of historical homes, and people have very strong ideas about saving them," Craparotta said.

She has a point — most of the oldest homes still standing in the US date back to the 17th century, while in Italy, some ancient towns thousands of years old are still inhabited.

Since owning a slice of history is less common in the US than in Italy, Fabiani said he believes Americans put a lot more "value" into maintaining old homes.

"I'm used to vintage things," he said. "For me, this is not anymore a rarity."

Many young Americans seem intrigued by the prospect of living in an old home. In 2022, the National Association of Realtors found that over 80% of millennials in the US were willing to buy a "fixer-upper that needs major repair."

Craparotta and Fabiani aren't the only ones to get heat for updating an old home.

A young couple renovating a starter home in Rhode Island told BI in May that they received "flak" online for making their 1950s bathroom, covered with bubblegum-pink tile, more neutral.

For Fabiani and Craparotta, modernizing the apartment reflects who they are: a young couple who don't want to live in an apartment from a bygone era in Italy.

Instead of a closed-concept apartment where it would've been impossible for more than one person to cook in the kitchen — an activity they enjoy doing together — they wanted it to be a space where they could welcome friends and family for big dinners and parties.

"A lot of people see Italy as this idyllic place and that it's all vintage," Craparotta said. "We're younger people. We don't want to live in a house that looks like it's from the 1800s."