Hi, I’m Peter, and you’re reading Anywhere Italy.
Our mission is to cover the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip, in person, one at a time. Come along for free, or pay to keep us on the road.
I know this is called Sunday Espresso and today is Tuesday, but hear me out. I started a monster series and didn’t want to send it out until it was finished. It is about where to live in Italy, written for expats. One guide, broken into six parts.
Two reasons I wrote it.
First, the readers. Anywhere Italy is a travel publication for slow travel, which is better for everyone: the local economy, the local community, and the traveler. So I skip the postcards like Venice and Florence and write about small communes and secondary towns outside mass tourism.
But more and more of you are asking not just how to travel in Italy, but how and where to live here. I can give an unbiased answer. I don’t sell services, consulting, or investment advice to expats, unlike most expat writers. I just love to share my journey and help you out. And I didn’t just move here. I started as a tourist, then a slow traveler, then an expat, and now I’m an immigrant. I live here, I pay taxes here.
Second, the method. When people ask where to move in Italy, they look for town names, regions, areas. Wrong. That’s the second step. First you decide what type of place you want: the end of the road, a small town, a city, a postcard. Then an area. Then a town in it. Italy also comes with dreams. The villa in the Tuscan countryside. The hilltop town. The Roman quarter. The Florentine palazzo next to the Duomo. The seaside village.
Most of these dreams are false, or they carry uniquely Italian factors nobody considers until they are living with them. I’m here to break those dreams a little and make them real, so you get fewer surprises.
That’s why it’s six parts. All of it comes from my own travels and experience: anecdotes, examples, stories. They run long. Don’t expect a lab-made list of practical information. After all, where we live is mostly emotional.
Part 1 - The end of the road.
The villa in the countryside. The small hilltop village. The micro-commune. Your family home in nature. This is where the gap between dream and reality is widest, and facing reality here is often cruel.
Part 2 - The small town.
The seaside town. The artsy medieval borgo with actual local life. The mountain town without tourists. With some careful steps, this is where the dream comes closest to reality.
Part 3 - The city.
The secondary city after Rome, Florence, Milano, Venice. The provincial capital, sometimes the regional one. The best of Italy: services work, life is comfortable, and you still get the Italian life you came for.
Part 4 - The postcard
Rome. Venice. Florence. Milano. Sometimes big cities, sometimes popular areas like Val d’Orcia or Amalfi. This is where the dream is shattered fastest, by fridge magnet vendors and hordes of tourists who have no idea what they are photographing.
Part 5 - The other half
The South, on its own. Full honesty from the expat’s point of view. It needs its own part because, if you are not careful, there is one step between dream and nightmare here. I know this is sensitive topic for Italians, so before I get hatemail, remember, I write for foreigners, and I am not here to solve the problems for Italians.
Part 6 - The best towns
The closest thing to a list. Some are towns, some villages, some cities, some entire areas. 100% personal, based on my own life, so this is where you will find the least objectivity. My list, my recommendations. But I lived in all of them, so I know what I’m talking about.
That’s it. No more emails for a week. You’ll be busy reading these. More expat content is coming to the site, but I’ll keep the travel pieces going, don’t worry.
This week I’ll wrap up Umbria, and though I don’t write about politics, given recent events in France and Italy I’m putting together a quickstart guide to Italian politics for expats. Will be fun.
A dopo,
Peter
