12264 Where to move to?

as regards the regions you suggest as possibilities i would say they are virtually totally at odds with finding work...and even with long term planning i cannot see any major changes in that taking place...

in essence work in Italy is a north south extreme situation with more chances of work in the north

saying that it would require a specific qualification in something required here and most probably conversational Italian at least

the other option is an Internet based business not relying on being in any certain area.....

basically the same applies to schools...

so to put it bluntly if you are seriously planning on this i would limit my search to nowhere further south than Rome in terms of jobs,schools and travel...

i will maybe get flack from the southern population on the forum and its my opinion as i say... but its in essence a pretty real picture... and might save you wasting time...

[URL]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/general-chat-about-italy/12049-why-did-you-choose-your-italian-location.html?highlight=choose+location[/URL]

Hi Ian and Lucy,

Your timescales are the same as ours - but without the added headache of schooling and jobs.

This thread gives some useful things "to think about" when choosing where you want to live.

Good Luck

My experience of Calabria is that it is very beatiful, in parts, but very poor. If you have been on holiday in Sicily and then drive into Calabria and go into a bar the differences may hit as a bit of a shock. So may the lack of civic pride ...sorry but I'd rather not go on about this. Calabrian's I know try very hard to send their children to University in such places as Florence or Siena for example. So for what my limited knowledge is worth, save Calabria for a holiday and re read adriatica's advice.

Hi Ian & Lucy,

We have just made our purchase in Le Marche after much looking in Tuscany and Umbria.
Our original intention was to have somewhere to live, aswell as gaining an income from a B&B or holiday rental accomodation.
We were priced out of the Tuscany market and found that Umbria wasn't that far behind. We eventually went for our spot close to Fermo in Le Marche that has much lower property prices at the moment and is still reasonably near for major tourist attractions, the area is very picturesque and the locals seem very friendly.

Although jobs do seem hard to find in the area i would imagine that they are easier to get than "down south"

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Nigel & Amanda

Hi Ian and Lucy and welcome to the Forum. I agree with what has been said by other members regarding the north/south differences. One thing is to go somewhere on holidays and a totally different thing is to move permanently and if you have children to educate and jobs to depend on. The situation is completely different then. What looks and feels like paradise may become a nightmare.
Finding work in Italy is fairly difficult, even for Italians and in the south chances are very slim. This is why, traditionally, southerners have tended to go north looking for jobs.
I would advise you to carefully look at all possibilities. Life in Italy is not as cheap as it used to be. Prices have increased systematically since the introduction of the euro.
Anyway, visit different areas, get an idea of costs, do a careful research and then you can decide.
Best wishes.

Thanks for the quick and useful replies. Jobs are actually slightly less important than maybe implied in my original message. My wife and I both currently work in IT and are already looking into the legal, tax and logistical options around falling back on that - wife's ex-boss has already mentioned that he would offer her a job tomorrow even if she was living overseas (although very aware that an implied offer is [B][U]very[/U][/B] different to it actually happening). I guess that like Nigel and Amanda the intention is more on gaining an income from holiday rentals / tourism rather than getting more of jobs more similar to what we do in the UK.

Much as we loved Tuscany - the feeling we had was that the market was likely to be pretty saturated there and that maybe one of the less discovered areas might offer more - although with the added risk that either (i) it's undiscovered because actually no-one in their right mind would go there and (ii) that it carries on being undiscovered!

Anyway, key part of the holiday this year is to check out a region that we have yet to visit and as a result we could well change our parameters quite dramatically!

Have you looked at The Garfagnana in Tuscany ?

It still seems to be reasonable (IMHO) and we love it.

Jinty

I had been conming to le marche for 10 years to visit my brother and we have now lived and worked here since 2002. We absolutely love it, the people are warm and friendly and there is so much here to see and do. The boast of the region is that its the whole of italy in one region - adriatic coastline, mountains, lake, caves and grottos, designer shopping, medieval hilltop towns, castles...... and excellent food and wine with good prices.

check our web site for more info on le marche and feel free to write with any particular questions.

warm regards and good luck

You said your wife was less enthusiastic, was that about sicily or the move to Italy, I ask this because the divorce rate amongst x-pats is very high. People make the move then discover that only one really wanted it, and only one settles here.
It is a different thing to live here than to holiday here, it has been suggested before that it's a good idea to rent for 6 months just so you can be sure.
But if you do decide to do it the best way to find your new home is to let it find you, visit as many areas as you can and wait till it "feels right" you will know when this happens, good luck!

Regarding Tuscany, there are many differences according to the area and it will always be a focal point for any visit to Italy. Jinty mentions the Garfagnana and I would add Bagni di Lucca, Val di Lima and Val di Serchio. A close distance to main cities but with a rural feeling and frequent flights through Pisa and Florence airports, something that needs to be considered. Beautiful landscapes, kind people and good facilities within easy reach. And property prices are still quite good. If you do not know the area, do a bit of research.

hi, we made the move nearly 2 years ago... never looked back..
It is difficult at first but you are learning the langauge so that will help you.
Peopled do arrive thinking this life will be cheap and it is expensive but somebody on the forum gave me the advise when i was in your situation with 2 years to go, tighten your belts now and save as much as you can ( get used to it). Although we dont spend a great deal here in Italy because there is so much to do that doesnt cost money , we take the family for walks and to the beaches at weekends ( just take a picnic) . We are almost guarantteed the weather.
If you work in I:T can you work from home via internet, if so then you need to look at areas with good adsl.
if not then i am in agreement with the North South thing, I have family in Sicily and there is absolutly now work for them .

Enjoy researching now, i loved the build up and the excitement.

Can I suggest you take a TEFl course just so you can work when you arrive teaching English whilst looking for other work .

good luck ..any more questions use the forum they helped me so much..and i am forever thankful to them
Dont be afraid of repeating questions there are new people on here with new experiences aswell as previous posts ..

Hi
Firstly good choice of country !!
I think it would be wrong (Abruzzo) to influence you (Abruzzo) in anyway when you choose Abruzzo) an area because they all (Abruzzo) have their good and(Abruzzo) points, I think a good visit (Abruzzo) and see where you could call home (Abruzzo) would be the first move (Abruzzo) sometimes a good feeling is everything (Abruzzo).

If you need any advise I moved here with my wife and 2 young children last September so I can give you some advise on schools etc etc. If you PM me we could have a chat if it would help. If you were wondering we chose Abruzzo !!!!!!

It is very difficult ot find work here. Even if it is the same work you did in the UK. Local Italians (always the biggest market) have their own contacts and will continue to use them so it is a tough nut to crack.

You don't say what type of tourist enterprise you are thinking of but there are quite a few people posting on here who can give you good advice regarding that. I know few people who can survive on the income from a B&B here in Marche for example. Most people have more than one job/enterprise to support themselves or go back to the UK for regular top-ups of cash. Check out [url=http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk]Self catering holiday villas, apartments, cottages, for rental worldwide[/url] to see how much you can get for a villa rental, apartment rental and also to see how good bookings are in various areas. It is very interesting.

I too work in IT and via the internet work for clients in London. The drop in the value of the pound is making life very difficult. Will they pay you in Euros? I would thoroughly recommend that.

It is vital to check the ADSL connection wherever you are planning to live and do not put all your faith in statements like "it will be available in X village in September". I might or it might be another 2 years! Double check that ADSL is available at the actual property too as it depends on where the line comes from and your neighbour may have it but you may not.

Gala and Herealready give very good advice. I have said many times that we get very bored here in winter. Some people cannot understand that at all, but then we have been here for nearly 6 years and there are only so many times you can look at hilltop towns or the mountains (if you can see them through the mist), no metter ho wbeautiful they are! I crave a big town with a bit of life in winter. In my experience, univeristy towns (plus the obvious ones like Rome, Florence etc) seem to have a lot more going on. Consider being in the countryside near one of those. That way you have the best of both worlds.

Yes I must admit winter is boring, all the amazing Christmas festivities, new year, skiing, sledging, hot chocolate in a bar 9000ft high, amazing food, wine, burning log fires and all of this in 3-4 months, stay in the UK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quote=Vigneverde;118485]Yes I must admit winter is boring, all the amazing Christmas festivities, new year, skiing, sledging, hot chocolate in a bar 9000ft high, amazing food, wine, burning log fires and all of this in 3-4 months, stay in the UK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

I'm with Penny -- and the log fires can lose their magic if, like this year, you've been burning them 24/7 from October.:laughs:

This winter it feels like since October 2007!!! Is it ever going to end? I am writing this sitting in our shop with a thick polo neck and bodywarmer on & winter boots - still flippin' freezing.

Whenever I say that I get bored in winter, I get people telling me to go back to the UK. Why does it upset them so much?

Sorry Penny, did not meen you go back just my sarcastic northern humour. This winter is shocking I have been blamed for bringing the UK weather here !!

I think you are right with the town thing, we are about 20 mins away from Lanciano and Chieti so yes things are better if you have access to a larger town to get a little bit of a people fix.

Does anybody know when the sun will come out ?

:smile:Friday May 1st according to the forecast.......Vigneverde and it's a Public Holiday so I hope so.

[quote=herealready;118382]You said your wife was less enthusiastic, was that about sicily or the move to Italy, I ask this because the divorce rate amongst x-pats is very high. People make the move then discover that only one really wanted it, and only one settles here.
It is a different thing to live here than to holiday here, it has been suggested before that it's a good idea to rent for 6 months just so you can be sure.
But if you do decide to do it the best way to find your new home is to let it find you, visit as many areas as you can and wait till it "feels right" you will know when this happens, good luck![/quote]

My wife was less enthusiastic about Sicily as a potential destination than me - less in awe of the amazing history and more worried about volcanoes. Although she then started to suggest the Aeolian Islands. :no::reallyembarrassed:

But in terms of life plan then this is very much a family venture - although Freya (our youngest) has yet to say "si" - but then at four months she has yet to say anything about anything (other than feed me now!).

Definitely planning on having several trips out to Italy over the next couple of years - to try out a few different regions and see what each has to offer.

Many thanks for the tips on ADSL and TEFL - my wife is a bit of a linguist having spent a year in Spain at uni, teaching in Japan for a year and also working in Belgium. So that could well give us some excellent options to look into. Our plan is very much to learn as much Italian as we can here before we go so that we have some vague idea of what is going on.

We did exactly the same thing, my (then) 4 year old agreed to coming immediatly after experiencing her first Italian winter breakfast..nutella, nutella, hot chocolate oh and abit of Nutella..as soon as she realise you get spoilt by the Italians, she said I want to move here...it took 10 minutes :laughs:

Good luck..if have any specific questions like I said ask the forum , they are a great help......

[quote=ianandlucy;118679]My wife was less enthusiastic about Sicily as a potential destination than me - less in awe of the amazing history and more worried about volcanoes. Although she then started to suggest the Aeolian Islands. :no::reallyembarrassed:

But in terms of life plan then this is very much a family venture - although Freya (our youngest) has yet to say "si" - but then at four months she has yet to say anything about anything (other than feed me now!).

Definitely planning on having several trips out to Italy over the next couple of years - to try out a few different regions and see what each has to offer.

Many thanks for the tips on ADSL and TEFL - my wife is a bit of a linguist having spent a year in Spain at uni, teaching in Japan for a year and also working in Belgium. So that could well give us some excellent options to look into. Our plan is very much to learn as much Italian as we can here before we go so that we have some vague idea of what is going on.[/quote]
however much we love sicily (my wife is sicilian and my grandfather + great grandfather lived there and we have lots of family there) we wouldn't live there, as for the eolian islands (which we also love) wouldn't live there free!! even the islanders don't bother living there and have appartments in Messina o Milazzo for the winter when the island population reduces to a few dozen people so schooling would be next to impossible anyway.As has been said job opportunities in italy do exist and graduate level work too BUT it is more or less confined to the larger and more northern cities.it is difficult to reconcile a "rustic idyll" life style with working/housing and children's educational needs. B &B activities, interestingly enough, are also more renumerative in certain urban places (Roma,Venezia,Firenze etc) than they probably would prove to be in some rural venue where income might well be reduced to a few weeks in the summer months. i would really stress the importance of moving round the country a bit in the various "countries" which form Italy (all very different) talk to people who live there,visit in the winter too (that helps you avoid the "greek island syndrome" follow the internet job links in italian to see whats available etc..good luck

To check educational facilities in the areas you will eventually select is vital, as the children need to be happy in their school environment. If the particular school has a small number of foreign students it is generally a good sign.
Although the country side is great, I would advise you to find a place near a town. Preferably within walking distance from school, shops, banks, etc. It will foster your integration as you will be communicating with people all the time. You can still find such places in Italy.

[quote=ianandlucy;118317]Hi - first off we are newbies to the site, so apologies if there a million and one similar threads already in existance!

My wife and I are planning to move to Italy in the next two or three years (as soon as we can get as much of our UK mortgage paid off as possible). We have started evening classes already and are thoroughly enjoying the challenge of a new language! Anyway, this summer we are planning to expand our knowledge of potential areas for our future Italian life and wondered whether anyone had any top recommendations (either for places to live or just great places to visit on holiday).

We are currently leaning towards Calabria, Basilicata or Puglia and I will be checking out those regions in the Grand Tour area of the site - went to Sicily a couple of years ago too and I really loved it but my wife is slightly less enthusiastic. We are both more rural / small village type of people - but will need to earn a living (of sorts) somehow and also have two small girls so need to be fairly close to schools (another section on my list to check - although I have to say that my current preference would be for the girls to go to a local Italian school).

Trying to do further research on the areas at the moment - but very interested to get the "independent" views either good or bad of people who have spent time in the regions.

Many thanks![/quote]

[FONT=Century Gothic]Consider a visit to Liguria, but on ‘our’ side. We did not know this region of Italy at all. We found this delightful corner of Italy during an on line property search. We are a 30-minute drive away from Monaco, 50 minutes from Nice, an hour’s drive from a great skiing area. It definitely ticked all our boxes. When we were there in February, the average daily temperature was 20 degrees. Property prices are slightly less than the popular well-known areas but of course, it all depends on what your future needs and plans are. [/FONT]

[FONT=Century Gothic]We have British friends who run a B&B there. Send me a pm if you want further info.[/FONT]

[FONT=Century Gothic][IMG]http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/midi/froehlich/d020.gif[/IMG][/FONT]

I'm also a newbie on this site (never previously registered) but live in Sardinia for ten months of the year. The other two months (July and August) we rent out and the money received pretty much covers our living expenses for the other ten months. We have had our house for over seven years and in all that time we have only had two vacant rental weeks. Normally we are fully rented by the end of January but not once have we seen any interest from the UK. Our market is Italy, Germany and Switzerland. If you are thinking of running a B&B, I think many people on here make the mistake of basing their marketing campaign solely on the UK market. In my opinion, the demand for rentals or B&B from the UK is simply not that big. Much better to really work on your Italian language skills and try to find an Italian partner that you can work with. Good luck though.

Have a look into the Veneto region you’ll be surprised, we live in Treviso at the moment and are very happy, they also have an international school here which ours kids love.

As already stated on forum most of Italy is very beautiful and the lifestyle CAN be great. But you will have far greater opportunities for work in the North (Veneto region) than say in Marche, Umbria and Tuscany its important point to note if you might need the extra income one day.

Italy is not an easy place to live; great for holiday’s but living here is much harder than people tend to think my advice is keep researching, spent as much of your free time here as possible and don’t get carried away by the Italian dream keep those feet on terra firma and you will do OK.

For all the con’s of live here in Italy when the sun is shining and you have a glass of processo in your hand who cares about the con’s….

The huge amount of info on this forum will be invaluable to your research, these are the people who have been there, got T-shirt and everything else that comes with it……

take a look at Casa.it for housing

Good hunting

JW

[quote=jwareham;120114]Have a look into the Veneto region you’ll be surprised, we live in Treviso at the moment and are very happy, they also have an international school here which ours kids love.
[/quote]

Our au pair is from Treviso - looks like a beautiful city. Although interestingly the weather in the UK appears to have been much better than in Treviso since she has been with us! :smile:

Bear in mind that the cost of living in the north (above Rome) is twice that of the south - in Sicily 10000 euros a year gives you a good standard of living, and it wouldnt go far in the Veneto!

Perfect - you can quiz her all day long about life in Italy and you will not get a better resource than that!! Good luck.

[FONT=Times New Roman]I agree with Ram that 10k would not get you very far here maybe it would cover a few Ice creams and a piazza or two...:winki:[/FONT]

[quote=Capo Boi;120111]I'm also a newbie on this site (never previously registered) but live in Sardinia for ten months of the year. The other two months (July and August) we rent out and the money received pretty much covers our living expenses for the other ten months. We have had our house for over seven years and in all that time we have only had two vacant rental weeks. Normally we are fully rented by the end of January but not once have we seen any interest from the UK. Our market is Italy, Germany and Switzerland. If you are thinking of running a B&B, I think many people on here make the mistake of basing their marketing campaign solely on the UK market. In my opinion, the demand for rentals or B&B from the UK is simply not that big. Much better to really work on your Italian language skills and try to find an Italian partner that you can work with. Good luck though.[/quote]

Nice beach just up from you that we like to use.

Yes always seems to stay seaweed free even in the winter months unlike the Capo Boi beach. We are a 5 minute walk away and we regularly go there.

Haven't made the move (& probably won't) so can't comment as well as people who have made it but I hope that you are going to visit out of season when things are closed (if you chose a touristy area) and also at times when the weather is different - it's very different in the winter if you don't have adequate heating (all those lovely tiled floors are not so lovely in December) or you are worried about the cost of heating. That said we bought our house in Monte San Martino on our second visit to Le Marche (2 months after our first which was just a holiday with no thoughts of buying until after we came home); we have visited at different times of the year and don't regret it (other than the value of the pound plumeting before we had paid for our renovation)

Good luck with the move.

Chris

Acqui Terme (AL)