Italy is back. The French are now talking of "the Italian temptation".
Let me tell you something: when the French say something like this about Italy, something is happening.
What's really happening is that, on one hand, the flat tax is pulling in HINWIs to Italy as we have discussed here many times. On the other, to be frank, completely normal people moving to smaller villages for a quieter life and warmer communities, or expats eyeing rural Italy with the idea of a farm, some land, overall a slower rhythm.
What's the common denominator among all people choosing Italy? I have this conversation constantly. After hundreds of those, I think that the "why Italy" can be summarised into a specific idea of life that you can't find replicated anywhere else in the world. Food, beauty, warmth, and above all the density of human relationships.
Now, let's be brutally frank. Italy is full of problems, genuinely full of them. But the density of culture and beauty, and therefore the intensity of daily life, isn't something you find elsewhere. That's why even the ones who left Italy and built a great life abroad, sooner or later, are attracted back, in a way or another.
The good news is that outside the large centres the cost of living is not high, and the quality is real. There are many places under 40 minutes from major cities where you can buy incredible properties at a fraction of Portugal or even Spain.
Abruzzo is the region everyone has written about lately, but there are many more.
I'll be there in September also for this reason and report back.