Italy for expats to live?

[Oioiioi]

We are considering moving to Italy, looking at Lucca as it seems to be a beautiful village and good amenities and transportation. We wanted ti know of anyone has experienced living in Italy and where you lived? Would you suggest further south? We would be a couple with grown up kids who would visit. Villas with a pool, good community .. will def integrate but would be nice to have some expats around… any advice?

Emigrants/ immigrants

We are not retirees 🤣. Our kids are adults but are very much still working and travelling … I’m glad you have decided we don’t want to integrate .. I love this Forum for opinionated people

Why are people being so weird and negative?
it’s fine and normal to want to mix with both locals and other expats/immigrants.
moving countries is hard but worth it and she’s done it before. She’s not naive.
I’ve lived in Italy and it was hard at first but it was the best time of our families life and we made lots of amazing friends from various nationalities.

Get some decent tax advice. Outside the "7% villages" for retirees you will need to pay a whopping amount of tax on your worldwide income and assets. Its the main thing that puts me off moving there. Also checking about driving - normally there are restrictions for non-EU driving licences - you might need to pass a new test and then you are restricted by the size of car and you can drive. Agree that if you move with an EU citizen the Schengen shuffle doesn't apply, but your rights to stay are then linked to his.

It sounds intriguing OP!

What an opportunity.

I’ve lived longterm in five different countries, and I’ll probably live in others yet. Left to myself, I’d move frequently. I love a new culture, a new work environment, a new climate, landscape, architecture etc. But in past moves I knew the language fairly well, had friends from there/of that nationality living elsewhere, and had spent more than tourist time in the area of the country I was considering. Life is short, I agree — far too short to try to tackle Italian bureaucracy or healthcare with pidgin Italian, or to move to a small village or town in a country where you’ve only visited some cities.

My username tells you where I come from. Can you tell us where you have stayed in Italy before now and what you enjoyed about those places? I would say that small towns and villages in my country can be suspicious of foreigners who move in. It’s very important to have a good level of Italian as well as not many Italians outside the major cities speak English. Also compared with the UK beaucracy of every day life can be a real nightmare!

Thank you for your Resume… my original post was asking advice on locations to live in Italy… I see see that question has clearly been lost

Having spent many holidays throughout Italy, we returned to Lucca for a six week treat post retirement. It’s a large and beautiful place which is well placed geographically as it offers rail links to other places of interest. I’m not sure it’s what you’re looking for plus there are the concerns other PP have noted. Good luck anyway.

If I am correct I think OP that @Pissenlit was responding to your ironic comment about how people should stay in their own countries? I think this poster offers very useful advise.

We looked at living in Italy (Northern Tuscany), but decided against it and moved to another EU country instead. With all due respect, I think you need to do your research first, then look at areas.

When you say about having to go back and forth a lot, is that for work or were you thinking of using the Schengen 90/180 rule at first, or will you get a 6 month visa? Strictly speaking, you don't need either as an EU spouse, but if you travel using as a spouse, you'll need to start the paperwork for the long term visas and the EU passport holder will also need to get a permit.

If you're doing that for a few years, where will you be tax resident? What about healthcare during that time? House insurance? We've done it, it's not as easy as some might think and I'd say do your research on that first. Things like you won't get insurance on your UK house if you leave it empty for long periods unless someone inspects the property each week whilst you're not there.

I'd get the residency, taxes, healthcare and other issues clear in your minds then look for the area. I'd choose the Lucca province.

I’ve lived in Italy for 30+ years, first on the Liguria/Tuscany border, then in Northern Liguria, now on the North East border with Slovenia.
If I were to start again I’d probably move to the Marche. It’s just as beautiful as Tuscany with some great historical cities.
BUT I’d rent for at least 6 months, to get a feel for the area, understand the culture and rules for immigrants. I have a permanent Permesso di Soggiorno because I work and pay taxes only in Italy. Buying a house is complicated at the best of times and you really should find a paid expert to guide you through the fiscal obligations as well as the unmissable benefits.
Don’t rush into things, especially if you want to stay less than 10 years (those tax benefits are given as PAYE rebates), also because if you buy as a “First House” you have to live there OFFICIALLY RESIDENT for five years or lose the benefit when you sell.

Living in Italy is complicated, even without Brexit applying to one, not both of you…

Immigrant. Or migrant.

Not Italy but I’ve just moved to France with an EU spouse. I used YouTube a lot to get a feel for different areas, plenty of people posting about life in Italy and France.

Then I spent the last 3 years of school holidays looking at various corners of France. When we found our current location, I knew within 10 mins that this is where I wanted to be. Found property, found school and it all came together.

I also started improving my French 3 years ago and it has been invaluable talking to trades, Vets and neighbours. So would recommend finding a language course.

Good luck with it all. I’m so happy with our situation now.

Also I can’t work for the first 6 months here on my visa, but will do after that. You might want to check if it’s the same for you.

Thank you that’s very interesting and helpful ..glad you’ve found your perfect location

I think it’s great that you want to become an immigrant!
I am one - albeit not in Italy. Just an aside, culturally Itsly is quite difficult to integrate into as a foreigner (2 of my close friends lived in Italy for years).
I just wanted to say to make sure you’ve paid all your national insurance contributions in the UK or have a good private pension as you’ll get very little if you retire in Italy and I am not sure about claiming pension in the UK for post- Brexit emigration (I emigrated before the deadline).
Good luck! And yes, not ex-pat, immigrant 🙂

Thank you .. appreciate the information. We would definitely be living more than 5 years. We have already looked into all the tax, legalities and other factors that would impact us on this move

We live in Puglia. Queueing four hours to do something that in the UK you'd do online in two minutes, doesn't seem so bad in the sunshine, with the scent of coffee and jasmin in the air... That sums up life here.

Also I joined a whole load of Facebook groups to get a feel for different areas, what’s in, life etc. (yes expat groups). Then I left the various groups as I ruled a location out.

Hi, I am Italian and lived both in Italy and the UK. Lucca is a beautiful city and has a quite conspicuous English speaking community (mostly older Americans). Quality of life is high, lots of cultural events too. If anything it could be a bit difficult to interact with locals which might be a bit more closed to others than elsewhere, but if done organically through shared interests or groups it's definitely doable, provided one has the language skills. Weather is quite 'British' as it's a fairly rainy area.

Depending on your preferences for larger (Florence) or smaller (Viareggio, Pietrasanta) places, or cities which might be less sedate (Pisa), you might look into these other options. Southern Tuscany is more nature, rural oriented and you could also look into the Siena/Grosseto countryside.

Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions.

Yup. Or just Brits. Possibly even Americans. I've never heard any other nationality call themselves ex pats.

Immigrants 🤣

Immigrants? Surely you are emigrating to another country.

Thank you very much

@Oioiioi have a look north of Lucca at somewhere like Barga as it has strong Scottish connections so that means there tends to be more English speakers there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20250702-barga-the-most-scottish-town-in-italy

I have English friends who own property north of Barga (for many, many years now) and they speak intermediate Italian but aren’t fluent and they manage just fine. They employ a local housekeeper and estate manager who initially did a lot of the dealing with local workmen, pool maintenance people but they’re able to manage most of these comms themselves after so many years living there (not full time, just a few months a year and they rent it out the rest of the time).