Hi everyone
I'm so sorry, I know its not the 'done thing' to barge into a forum asking questions without first reading and referencing past posts, but I hope you will forgive me.
I have 4 small children (5, 2, & 2x7 months) and I will trawl through everything on this forum in due course, but as you might imagine my free time is a little limited right now and I really need your help.
My husband and I would like to move to Italy in a year or two. At the moment this is as far as we have got. And so I am asking you if you can give us some ideas about where we might look at in terms of regions.
We would like to live in the outskirts of a small town. but within 30-40 mins driving distance of a city. I would prefer less heat, certainly less humidity, so maybe north?
We are at the very start of our research so all opinions/advice are welcome. My husband will need to find work in logistics/transportation but I'm leaving that to him!
We are planning on renting for a year or two before buying somewhere.
Any pointers appreciated.
Thanks, Rebecca

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Heat and humidity are awful at the moment, even as far North as I am. Weather warnings today say that temperatures will reach 36°C today and in the next few days. I'm packing a beach bag tonight and first thing tomorrow morning, I'm heading off up to the mountain lake with my kids.
It's not even 10am yet and I'm already hot and bothered just sitting here and typing.

Verona is a nice Northern city.

Hello and welcome. Work will be your main issue and will probaly dictate where you live. What line is your OH in? Start learning Italian now.

Hello and welcome from me too. May I ask why Italy?? Your reasons may influence what advice we can give.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

Hello and welcome!

I'm in the north, in the middle of the triangle made of Milan, Turin and Genoa. Beach and mountains both easily accessible.... but hot summers and very cold winters - best of both worlds in my opinion, but like what's been said before, work will probably influence where you settle. Jobs here are probably harder to find than in the UK, particularly if you don't speak the language. As regards to your children, the younger the better to cope with the change so don't wait too long!!! Good luck!

Since your husband will need to work, would it not be logical to find work first and then decide if, with regards whether you like the area where the work is, you want to move there?

Seems little point in finding out all the facts about less heat, less humidity if the ideal place for that has no work available for your husband.

...... and of course you will need to speak fluent Italian to work in logistics/transportation I should think.

Forget it .. move to somewhere else nice in the UK instead ...
..or Germany ..

Hi and welcome

I'm up north near Turin (& the mountains) and today the humidity is really unbearable.
I have to agree with the others in that the first thing to look for is definitely work and then you should base it all around that. Italy has very high unemployment and things dont look too good at the moment.

As you say - have a good trawl through the forum - especially the education thread seeing as you have children - unfortunately it might just put you off though - italian schools are very different to UK schools.

Sorry for the absence, minutes merge into hours, into weeks etc.

Reasons for moving:
1: I fancy a change of scenery, culture, a new challenge (apparently 4 kids and my own business is not enough :/).
2: In the UK I can only afford to live in a nice house if its in an overcrowded burb, I don't really want my babies hanging out with the local kids too much round here. I know we can afford something similar in Italy but with much better views and neighbours not in our laps.
3: Youth culture has got so poisonous in the UK I want to give my kids a better chance, I know Italy has similar problems with binge drinking etc, but pehaps not so widespread. Of course my babes are tiny so that'd be a big gamble, things might improve here and get worse there :/
4: I've loved Italy on previous visits, sun, pasta, pizza, who could ask for more?
I'm sure I have a lot to learn..

Errr, would you care to elaborate on that?


Anything specific you are alluding to? off to have a quick look now

Thanks x

exactly .. .make as many visits as you want . .but there's much more to Italy than sun, pasta and pizza. Stock up during your visits.

Sorry to be the wet-blanket sceptic but that's me.

Anyway just as a guideline, given your criteria, you might like to try the Bologna area..perhaps in the hills..but then folks in the Veneto and so on will probabaly suggest nice places too, although it seems that it's pretty hard to escape "heat and humidity" anywhere in Italy these days.
Yes to work in logistics/transport your OH will need good Italian - his fluent English (and maybe another language?) will put him in good stead, even though it's tough these days to find a job anywhere., but you're looking a few years ahead so maybe things will have improved.
Yes, youth culture going down here too .. binge drinking, violence, crime and so on going up.
Don't come with thidea that houses and so on are 'cheap' . .again, prices are going up all the time, plus as usual the market is a bit of a 'jungle' and you'll need to be on your toes all the time.
As far as kids, schools and so on are concerned you will get good advice from other people here, plus already existing threads ..

Good luck.

All I can say is have a really good read of the education thread. The italian education system is slowly going down the pan . There is no equivalent of Ofsted here, no school inspectors and being a teacher is a job for life. Each school does not have its own headmaster/mistress - at my sons school the headmaster was in charge of 7 schools and so we never saw him. Teachers can be good or they can be bad but nothing gets done about it. The lessons are based a lot on rote learning and things like Art, PE, music, drama and IT are not given a lot of importance in most state schools, lack of funds also being a reason. We parents supply the photocopy paper and sometimes even the toilet rolls.

Good Luck with your research Rebecca. Hats off to you for wanting to try something completely different, I totally admire your spirit.

I lived in Italy before and we have just recently returned here again. I have got a good family and friends network here and my OH is Italian, despite that we are both jobless, well my OH soon will be as he is back in the UK until end of Sept. I have put a few feelers out but no definite offers as yet. Pretty scary stuff but I am sure we will get there! So far no regrets....(it has only been afew weeks mind!).


It is very daunting moving abroad everyone on here has experienced that at some point, so lots of brains to pick when you come unstuck.

All the best.

[ I know Italy has similar problems with binge drinking etc, ]

what makes you say that? I only see binge drinking in the UK. On the contrary it is frowned upon here, especially for women.

After going the whole morning without drinking, I had 3 beers at lunchtime yesterday.

There is less humidity in the south than the north - obviously getting away from being at sea level or in a large valley will help with humidity. Im in Sicily, where its hot, but very low humidity - probably 4 or 5 sticky days a year. This wont help you though seeing you want work, education and other things which dont exist here!