Here at The Local we’re an international team living in Italy – which means we’ve either grown up navigating Italian bureaucracy or been through the simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking process of moving countries.

Our new newsletter is aimed at people who are in the process of moving, have recently moved and are still grappling with the paperwork or perhaps are just thinking about it – and we’ll share a regular selection of practical tips. Our team is also available to answer questions from subscribers to The Local.

Can you really get paid to move to Tuscany?

With its rolling green hills and soft valleys, Tuscany is one of Italy’s most popular destinations – so is it really true that people are being offered grants of up to €30,000 to relocate there?

The answer is yes – with some major caveats.

Despite its broad appeal, Tuscany, like many other parts of Italy, has its fair share of remote and underpopulated hill towns, and this is the regional government’s answer to the widely adopted one-euro homes scheme to bring new residents.

The grants of between €10,000 and €30,000 are being made available to those who want to buy and renovate a property in one of the region’s 119 mountain towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.

To qualify, you must already be resident in Italy, must not live in a mountain town elsewhere in the country, and must either be an EU citizen or have a long-term Italian residency permit.

You’ll also need to get your application in quick – the scheme closes on July 27th, 2024, so there’s just a few days left to apply.

Your Italy questions answered

From bureaucracy and banking to cultural norms and surprising rules affecting everyday life, there’s a lot to learn about life in Italy, and many new residents tell us their preconceptions turned out to be wrong.

Some of the same questions about what it’s like to move to Italy come up time and again, so we tackled 12 of the most common.

If you’re a non-EU citizen then yes, you will need a visa to relocate, and unfortunately buying property doesn’t give you the automatic right to Italian residency – though proof of accommodation is a prerequisite for some visa applications.

It’s also true that Italy’s high unemployment rate makes job hunting a challenge, even if you have a high level of Italian, though you can expect to have more luck in cosmopolitan Milan than in Rome.

As for acquiring Italian citizenship, many non-EU residents say it’s worth doing, though you’ll first need ten years of residency or two of years marriage to an Italian (three if you live abroad), plus a B1 Italian language certification.

Questions

The Local’s Reader Questions section covers questions our members have asked us and is a treasure trove of useful info on all kinds of practical matters. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, head here to leave us your questions.