A year ago, after agonising for years about buying a property in Italy, we took the plunge.
The idea had occurred to us several years ago, and in 2015 we actually planned a trip around a reconnaissance mission. But after that trip we shelved the idea, largely because we were intimidated by the ferocious reputation of the Italian bureaucracy.
But circumstances changed. After retirement I needed a project, and if I could make it my full-time job perhaps the bureaucracy might prove penetrable. Some quick research showed that property prices in the region we had looked at in 2015 were still low – or indeed still falling – and although the exchange rate between the Australian dollar and the Euro was not as favourable to us as it had been, we could still aspire to buy somewhere that could be lived in, for about the cost of a lock-up garage in inner Melbourne or Sydney.
We found a place in June 2018, and bought it a couple of months later. It is a small apartment in a town in central Italy, with a magnificent view. We spent several weeks in it in the latter part of last year, and propose to spend a few months each year there.
Thanks to the long-standing tradition of English people buying property in Italy, there are a good many resources available. This book – “Buying a Home in Italy” by David Hampshire is written for an English readership, but the terminology used is sufficiently similar to what Australians are used to that it is still very helpful.
There are also online forums aimed at expats where you can ask questions – this is one that I have used.
This is not going to turn into a blog on the theme of “English speaker moves to charming place in Italy, meets charming locals and eats nice food” (although all of those things do indeed apply in our case). I have no desire at present to enter what is already a somewhat crowded field. Nor do I wish to presume upon the good nature of our new friends and neighbours by compromising their privacy, even under pseudonyms. Lou is reading an e-book by an American lady in Italy which started out as a blog in which she thought she had anonymised herself and others, but she was pretty quickly busted.
It will however allow me to make observations on Italian life based on a slightly deeper acquaintanceship than are the necessarily superficial impressions of the traveller who is just passing through.