Why People Finally Take the Leap and Move to Italy

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Thousands of people say they want to move to Italy. Most of them never do.

It is not because Italy is too complicated, too expensive, or too foreign. For most people, the real barrier is that they cannot name the one thing — the single factor — that would push them from dreaming to doing.

We asked our community that exact question, and the answers were more specific, more honest, and more useful than any travel guide we have ever read.

Here is what people said, and what it actually means if you are seriously thinking about making the move.

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The Pace of Life Is Not a Cliché — It Is a Structure

The most common answer we received was something about slowing down. But people did not mean it in a vague, romantic way. They meant it structurally.

In Italy, many shops close in the early afternoon. Lunch is often two hours. Sunday is genuinely quiet in most towns and cities. These are not cultural eccentricities — they are built into the working week and the social calendar.

For people coming from the UK, Australia, or the United States, where the working day stretches indefinitely and meals are eaten at desks or in cars, this structure is genuinely different.

Italians call it dolce far niente — the sweetness of doing nothing. But it is not really about doing nothing. It is about choosing, intentionally, what your hours are for.

If the thing that would make you move is the pace of life, be specific about what that means to you. Does it mean working fewer hours? Having a proper lunch break? Walking to a market on a weekday morning? Being around people who are not constantly checking their phones?

Italy can offer all of those things, depending on where you live. But it requires choosing a location that supports them. A high-pressure job at a Milan tech firm will not give you the slow life. A rented flat in a small Umbrian town very likely will.

The Food Changes How You Shop and Cook

Several people said that Italian food — not restaurants, but everyday food — would be the deciding factor for them.

This is worth taking seriously, because Italian food culture is not about fine dining. It is about the supply chain. In most Italian towns, you have access to a butcher, a baker, a market, and a cheese seller within a short walk. The produce is often local and seasonal. The bread is fresh that morning.

This is not nostalgia — it is a logistical reality that changes how you spend your time and money.

In Britain, most people do one large weekly shop at a supermarket. In Italy, daily or twice-weekly shopping from smaller producers is still the norm in many places. You buy less, waste less, and eat better for roughly the same cost.

The upside is obvious. The downside is that this takes time and requires some Italian. You cannot point at things indefinitely — eventually, you need to know what you are asking for.

If food is your reason to move, the most important thing is location. Cities like Bologna, Parma, and Florence sit in some of Europe’s finest food-producing regions. Southern regions like Puglia and Sicily offer extraordinary fresh produce at low prices. The north has different strengths — richer, heartier food and excellent wine from Piedmont and the Veneto.

The Cost of Living (In the Right Places)

A number of people said the one thing that would make them move is cost — specifically, the possibility of living well for less money than they currently spend.

This is partly true and partly misleading, so it is worth being direct.

In major Italian cities — Rome, Milan, Florence — rent and the cost of living are not dramatically lower than in equivalent UK or Australian cities. Milan in particular has rents that rival London in some districts.

However, in smaller cities and rural areas, the numbers are genuinely different. In parts of Calabria, Sicily, Abruzzo, and Molise, you can rent a solid flat for a fraction of what you would pay in most Western European capitals. Some municipalities have offered houses for one euro as part of repopulation schemes, though these come with renovation obligations that add up quickly.

The practical cost advantage in Italy is often in food, wine, and the cost of leisure. A good restaurant meal in a small Italian town can cost a fraction of the equivalent in London or Sydney. Coffee is cheap. Markets are cheap. The sun is free.

If cost is your reason to move, the equation works best if you can work remotely on a foreign salary and spend it in a lower-cost area of Italy. Italy introduced a Digital Nomad Visa in 2024 for non-EU citizens who work remotely and meet an income threshold. It is worth researching if that applies to you.

The Healthcare System

This came up more than we expected, particularly from followers based in the United States.

Italy has a public healthcare system — the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, or SSN — that is available to registered residents. Once you are legally registered and enrolled, you access a GP and the public hospital system at very low or no cost for most treatments.

The quality varies significantly by region. Northern Italy, particularly Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, consistently ranks among Europe’s best for healthcare access and outcomes. Southern regions have improved over time but still lag on some measures.

For people coming from a country with expensive private healthcare, the SSN can be a significant practical draw. But it is not automatic — you need to register, meet residency requirements, and navigate Italian bureaucracy to access it. Many expats also take out private health insurance as a supplement during their first year while they get established.

The Community and Sense of Belonging

Less talked about, but mentioned repeatedly: people said they wanted to live somewhere that still had a real community — neighbours who knew each other, piazzas where people gathered in the evenings, local festivals that the whole town attended.

In many Italian towns, especially outside the major cities, this is still genuinely how daily life works. The evening passeggiata — a slow walk through the town centre — is not a tourist performance. It is how people catch up with their neighbours.

For people who feel isolated in large, car-dependent cities, this is a meaningful draw. Italian towns are built for walking and for casual interaction. The bar on the corner, where you drink a standing espresso and nod at familiar faces, is a real social institution.

This will not suit everyone. Some people find the social closeness of small Italian towns suffocating rather than welcoming. But for those who want it, it is one of the genuinely distinctive things about daily life in Italy that you will not easily find elsewhere in Western Europe.

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What Actually Gets People to Move

After reading through hundreds of responses to our question, a pattern emerged.

The people who actually made the move rarely had a single reason. They had a combination: a job opportunity or remote income, a location they had visited and loved, a language class they had already started, a friend or partner connection, or a specific life event that made them say now or never.

The people still dreaming tend to wait for a single definitive sign that it is the right time. That sign rarely comes.

If Italy is genuinely calling you, the more useful question is not what would make me move but what is actually stopping me right now. Is it language? Visa complexity? Income uncertainty? Fear of the unknown? Most of those barriers are solvable, one step at a time, before you ever pack a bag.

Start with the visa rules for your nationality. Then the income question. Then a specific region. Then a specific town. Specificity is what turns a dream into a plan.

Where to Start If You Are Serious

Here are the most practical first steps for anyone genuinely considering a move to Italy:

Research your visa options. EU citizens can move freely. Non-EU citizens need to look into the Elective Residency Visa, the Digital Nomad Visa, or other relevant pathways. The Italian consulate website for your home country is the best starting point.

Visit the region you are considering — properly. Not as a tourist, but as a prospective resident. Stay for two to four weeks. Go to the supermarket. Deal with the post office. Sit in the town square on a Tuesday morning and see who is there.

Learn at least basic Italian. You can manage in tourist areas without it, but daily life — doctors, landlords, bureaucracy, neighbours — requires functional Italian. Start now, before you move.

Talk to people who have done it. There are large expat communities in most Italian regions, many of whom are honest about what they got right and what they got wrong. Find them online before you commit to anything.

Italy does not require perfection to work. It requires a clear head, realistic expectations, and a willingness to do things differently than you did at home. Most people who make the move say they would do it again. But almost none of them say it was easy.

That, perhaps, is the most Italian thing about it.

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