Living in Italy Guide

Considering a move to Italy? Our Living in Italy Guide provides essential information on visas, healthcare, housing, and everyday life. Explore detailed articles about living in regions and cities across the country, from Rome, Milan, and Florence to Tuscany, Sicily, and beyond. Whether you're relocating for work, retirement, or the Italian lifestyle, find expert tips to help you make a smooth transition.

How to make the most of a property viewing trip in Italy

Italy has long been a dream destination for those looking to buy a holiday home, investment property, or permanent residence. From the rolling hills of Tuscany to the serene lakes of Lombardy and the sun-soaked Amalfi Coast, Italian real estate offers something for every taste.

Smart ways to save money when you move to Italy

Moving to Italy is a dream for many, but the cost of relocating and settling in can quickly add up. From housing to daily living expenses, it’s easy to overspend if you’re not prepared. Fortunately, there are practical strategies to save money and make your move more affordable.

Living in Bergamo: a quieter alternative to Milan

Living in Bergamo feels a bit like stepping into a quieter, more low‑key cousin of Milan that happens to have a medieval hilltop town attached. You have the UNESCO‑listed old town sitting on its hill, the modern city spread out below, and the Alps rising in the distance.

Living in Bolzano: life between Italy and the Alps

Living in Bolzano feels a bit like slipping into a pocket of Austria that somehow ended up in Italy. It’s closer in spirit to Innsbruck than Naples, with street signs in Italian and German and the Dolomites looming over the city.

Understanding the different types of rental contracts in Italy

Renting property in Italy can be a complex process, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the local rental system. Whether you are planning a short-term stay or considering a long-term relocation, understanding the types of rental contracts available is essential.

Living in Tuscany: daily life, cost of living and moving abroad

Living in Tuscany means swapping rush‑hour habits for a slower, more grounded rhythm. In central Italy’s patchwork of Renaissance cities and sleepy hill towns, days settle into a loop of coffee at the bar, market errands and long lunches that quietly steer the week.

Buying property in Italy as a foreigner: complete guide 2025

Italy remains one of Europe’s most desirable destinations for property buyers.

Living in Lazio: settling in Central Italy

Living in Lazio means waking to Rome’s cobbles, slipping off for salty‑air Saturdays, lingering over lunch, then swapping to crisp winter hikes when the season turns. It’s an easy rhythm of city, coast and countryside, with market days, trattorie and ancient stones as your everyday backdrop.

The pros and cons of buying property in Italy

For many foreigners, the idea of owning a home in Italy is a dream, with a sunlit terrace in Tuscany, a quiet stone house in Umbria, or a seaside escape in Sicily, sounding like heaven. While the dream is real, so are the practicalities.

Living in Radicondoli: get paid to enjoy real Tuscan village life

Up in the Siena hills, Radicondoli is the kind of Tuscan village where evenings still revolve around the piazza and summer theatre spills into courtyards.

Living in Lucca: life in Tuscany’s historic city

If you’re thinking about living in Lucca, this small Tuscan city delivers a big daily-life dividend. Its intact Renaissance walls form a leafy ring for walking or cycling, the lanes inside are calm and flat, and cafés cluster around Piazza dell’Anfiteatro and San Michele in Foro.

Living in Latronico: affordable homes and peaceful life in Basilicata

Latronico is a small mountain town in Basilicata, tucked into the Lucanian Apennines. It’s been getting fresh attention lately, with interest in homes here having spiked hard, helped by word spreading about good-value property and a local push to match empty houses with buyers.

Living in Mussomeli: life in Sicily's famous 1 euro town

Deep in the heart of Sicily's Caltanissetta province is Mussomeli. The town’s famous 1 euro houses scheme has made the idea of living in Mussomeli a tempting prospect for people across the world.

Living in Verona: a real-life love story

Everyone knows Verona as the stage for Shakespeare's most famous love story, but there's so much more to the city than balconies. You’ll find its real heart in the gorgeous medieval streets and the incredible Roman Arena.

Living on the Amalfi Coast: an honest look at daily life

The picture-postcard image of the Amalfi Coast is one of the world's most recognisable. Pastel-coloured villages clinging dramatically to cliffs that plunge into the glittering Tyrrhenian Sea.

Living in Piedmont: where Alpine views meet vineyard valleys

Piedmont sits in Italy's northwest corner, sharing a border with France and Switzerland under the watchful gaze of the Alps. Its Italian name, Piemonte, translates to 'foot of the mountain', a fitting description for a region of grand landscapes and sophisticated cities.

Living in Turin: life between the Alps and the arcades

The capital of the Piedmont region is a place of understated elegance, a city of royal palaces and grand arcades that also served as the engine room of Italy's industrial heyday.

Living in Pisa: life behind the Leaning Tower

When you think of Pisa, one thing springs to mind, but there's so much more to this Tuscan city than its famous architectural mishap. Sitting on the banks of the River Arno, Pisa is a proud, historic university town with a character all of its own.

Living in Bari: life in Puglia's capital

Bari is a spirited port city on the Adriatic coast, constantly enlivened by its university population. Bari Vecchia—a proper olde worlde maze of timeworn streets—sits right next to the neat, grand grid of the 19th-century Murat district.

Living in Monza: life in Milan's elegant neighbour

Monza is known worldwide for the roar of Formula 1 engines, but the reality of living in Monza is far more serene. The city serves as a cornerstone of Lombardy's elegance, defined by its vast royal park and a historic centre that holds the ancient Iron Crown.

Living in Udine: the guietly good life in Friuli

Udine is one of those understated places, full of elegant Venetian architecture and quiet, cobbled squares, but without the tourist crush you get elsewhere. It's tucked away in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region in Italy's far northeast that borders both Austria and Slovenia.

Living in Bologna: real life in ragù land

Located in the Emilia-Romagna region, Bologna is a city of real substance. With a population of just under 400,000, it feels lively and important without the intense tourist crowds you might find in Florence or Rome.

Living in Parma: life beyond the deli counter

Sitting squarely in the Emilia-Romagna region, this gorgeous city, home to just shy of 200,000 people, has a name you’ve probably heard, even if your mind doesn't jump to the city itself If you're pondering living in Parma, you'll soon discover it's a place where life moves at a lovely pace, steeped

Living in Sicily: guide to costs, towns and real life

The thought of living in Sicily is about more than just moving to an island in Italy. It’s about stepping into a place that has been a crossroads of the Mediterranean for thousands of years. The layers of its past are everywhere, from ancient Greek ruins to Norman cathedrals and Baroque towns.

Living in Catania: Sicily's underdog city

When people ask where most American expats live in Sicily, many will point to Palermo or the tourist towns. However, the underdog city of Catania has a significant, if less conspicuous, international community, partly thanks to the nearby NATO base.