Buonasera, we need your help as my wife and I are in a quandary. I intend to take early retirement next year and will receive a monthly pension of around 1200 Euro. We will be mortgage free. Until recently our intention was to move to France. However, following a number of recent trips we have both fallen in love with Italy. The question is, can we afford to live in Italy. I read about the price of energy (particularly gas) and other necessities and wonder if my meager pension will be enough. I intend to grow as much of our own fruit and veg as possible to suppliment our income. Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you write " we will be mortgage free" does that mean you have already bought a property here or are you still deciding where to move to so that we can give you an idea of the local prices?

If you can buy a property here outright so you have no mortgage and no rent then yes you could live here on 1200 a month, if you have to pay rent out of that then no, 1200 wouldnt cut it, not to have a decent lifestyle anyway IMO.

IMO Italy is considerbly more expensive than the UK, especially if you like a beer or drinking in bars as i do, its very cheap to drink at home though and buy your booze from the supermarkets, especially wine ! i think general weekly shopping is way more expensive than the UK but fruit and veg are cheap as chips, infact trying to save by growing your own wouldnt save you much at all and is not worth the hassle unless you enjoy that type of thing and do it for a hobby. Tomatoes,olives, oranges and lemons grow freely outside and you dont need a greenhouse or anything like that, just stick em in the ground and leave them and watch them fly up !

Hi, Many thanks for your replies. We intend to sell our house here to buy a property. My pension is index linked. We are particularly interested in the Emilia Romagna region as my grand parents came to the UK from there. So, I meant the general day to day cost of living, utillities, food and fuel. We know we can afford to live in France but, is Italy really that much more expensive? We don't drink or smoke although we do like to eat out. Bob.

Your biggest outlay will be utilities such as heating lighting and telephone, anything to do with a car and the various taxes there are to pay connected with running a house, rubbish collection, condo charges, the new IMU etc. By the way living in Italy isn't the same as coming on a two week holiday, unless you speak Italian you will find it hard going and difficult to carve out a social life.

come down to Salento: wonderful weather (hot summers, mild and short winters, no FOG) cheaper houses especially in the seaside villages (marinas), fantastic fruit, veg and flowers a gardener's dream (red soil), beautiful clean sea, Carribic beaches, amazing food, friendly people, gorgeous scenery of olive groves surrounded by stone walls. 1200 € a month would be enough to live on if you buy a house with a cisterna and use gas bottles for cooking ,so you save a lot of money on not paying fixed rates. Just need to pay for the electricity if the house hasn't got solar panels. Fruit and veg ( 1 euro a kilo when it's in season) and bread (€ 2,10 -2,50 kilo) are really cheap down here compared to northern Italy. Eating out is particularly reasonable, especially if you eat the Salentine cuisine but of course it is difficult to resist the fresh fish! Definitely follow the advice to learn Italian though (the local dialect is very widespread). Two airports (Bari and Brindisi) have direct flights to Stansted.

Emilia Romagna is quiet an expensive part of Italy to live in but the health services are very good . The weather is pretty grim unless you go to the coast and its definately not not the same sort of appeal as the Salento/umbria - unless you've got family here I'd say its more a place to work than retire .

Hi from the France forum!
An income of 1200€ per month is cutting it fine for a couple to live "comfortably" in France. Recent figures suggest that this sum represents the official "poverty level" for a couple, i.e. the basics, no eating out, no travelling, no treats... Don't forget the various annual insurances and property/inhabitation taxes, monthly top-up healthcare (up to 150€ monthly for a couple), car-related expenses, the unexpected.... With an average of 40€ per day between the two of you, I would advise against coming to France if you decide that Italy isn't for you!

I live in Emilia Romagna in Cesena (Romagna) and it is not cheap.... Average rent in Cesena for a small 2 bedroom flat 6-700 euros a month.... ER is split into two regions Emilia and Romagna, They hate each other...Both very rich regions 1 for Tourism and the other Industry

If you take Cesena as the heart of Romagna that is the most expensive place...move out some and it starts getting cheaper.. About Emilia I would not know sorry..

Have you considered living in the Marche region? It's cheeper, you might find more choice for homes with a bit of land and not too far from Emilia-Romagna.
Regards
H&G

come to abruzzo most beautiful region with mountains and lovely beaches friendly people and very low prices for food and housing

Hi, thanks again for all your replies. Having looked at the current exchange rate my pension would actually be 1400 Euro per calender month. So, would be slightly higher than we thought. Of course this rate may well change with all the turmoil in the Euro zone and Mr Camerons stance on the UK's relationship with it. We are both committed to learning the language and wouldn't think of living in another country without doing so. I'm very interested in the suggestions of Marche & Abruzzo. Bob.

Hi Bob,

We live in Le Marche and would recommend it.

I think you could live reasonably well on €1400 per month.

We plant all our own veggies and it saves a few pennies.

Utilities such gas and electric are likely to be your biggest outgoings but dependent on what you have to heat the water in your house might depend on how much you spend. ie a gas boiler is more expensive to run than a wood or pellet boiler.
If you can afford the luxury of solar panels then you can heavily reduce your electric bill.

I dont suggest that €1400 per month will afford you fine dining every night and trips abroad, etc, but i think you could live in comfort on that budget if you arent paying a mortgage.


Good luck. - If you need any more info on Le Marche let me know.

I thought to suggest Le Marche because of the close distance from Emilia-Romagna and also because a couple of friends are planning to move from Rome and Milan to this region, and they keep telling me prices there are much cheeper than Toscana, Emilia and Umbria. There's also good land for vegetables and wine. Check also places in relation to airports linked to the UK. You might want to pop back once in a while to see family and friends.
H&G

....must be all those little dickie birds there.....sorry, couldn't resist.