Where to live in Italy

Italy’s big survey by a respected national financial newspaper is a handy starting point if you are trying to pin down the best places to live in Italy for quality of life.

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.

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.

Picture a medieval Tuscan hill village where the council helps pay for your move—up to €20,000 towards buying a home. Olive groves, proper trattorie and a calmer rhythm without big‑city aggro.

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.

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.

Naples is a city of contrasts: historic streets and modern elegance, vibrant urban life and serene seafront vistas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Looking for unique things to do in Palermo? Tucked away beside the iconic Norman Palace, the Royal Gardens of Palermo offer a tranquil, leafy escape steeped in centuries of history and culture.

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.

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.

When it comes to visiting Italy's lakes, most people head straight for Como or Garda. But there's a quieter and arguably even more magical spot: Lake Orta. Tucked away in Piedmont, it's a pre-alpine lake with a serene atmosphere and a collection of sleepy, olde-worlde villages.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Thinking of investing €200,000 in Italian property? It’s a smart move—but where should you buy, and what kind of home can you afford?A recent study by the Tecnocasa Group has mapped out what your budget can get you across Italy’s major cities and most desirable holiday spots.

If you’re planning a move to Italy but don’t fancy blowing your budget on big-city living in places like Rome or Milan, you’re not alone.

Finding your feet in Italy doesn’t have to mean shelling out for a city flat or jostling with tourists on the coast.