Before I get into this I want to be upfront about something. Everything I am about to share is based on my personal experience living in the south of Italy, specifically Puglia and the Salento region. Italy is a massive country and the experience of living in the north is genuinely a different world from living in the south. Same country, completely different reality. So if something I say does not match what you have heard from someone else living in Italy, that is probably why.
With that said, here is what nine (nonconsecutive) months of living here has actually taught me.
Italy is not “cheap”
Before I moved here I had absorbed the same content everyone else has, affordable groceries, cheap real estate, the low cost of living. And on the surface the numbers are smaller, yes. But the cost of living in Italy is calibrated to Italian salaries. The average Italian earns around €1500 a month, so when the prices look low to us, it is because they are low relative to Italian wages, not because Italy is inherently inexpensive. If you compare what Italians earn to what things cost here it ends up being roughly the same equation as it is in the US. The only way the cost of living in Italy actually benefits you is if you are earning in US dollars and spending in euros.
Also, taxes in Italy are around 44% unless you qualify for one of their special tax schemes. And you cannot avoid Italian social security contributions even if you are already paying into the American system (and it’s more than the income tax.) You will pay into both and you will likely never see that money again.
“In Italy they do blank” is almost always wrong
Italy is not a monolith. It is a country of deeply distinct regions with different cultures, different mindsets, different ways of operating. When a content creator who lives in Milan says something about Italian life it has almost nothing to do with my life in Salento. I have caught people who live in northern Italy saying things about Italy that simply do not match my reality and I am in Italy. It is like taking someone’s experience of New York City and applying it to Alabama. Same country, completely different world. Apply the same skepticism to anything you read or watch about life here including this article.
Dolce far niente has its limits
The sweet art of doing nothing sounds dreamy and it is, right up until you
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