We’re a few years off from retiring and moving, but we’d be looking for a townhouse or flat in a walkable neighborhood near buses and trains. We’d want 100 square meters and 2 baths minimum. I was looking to stay below 100k, but I’m starting to think that’s probably naive for something close to turnkey.

yeah, it doesn't have to be perfect, replacing appliances or redoing the kitchen would be fine. Honestly, it we needed to replace the heating/ac or roof and the price was right, we could do that. I do actually kinda like the idea of getting a place that needs a fair amount of work, and fixing it up like we want it. If the price was right and we had a contractor that was reliable and could do it cost effectively and at a reasonalbe period of time, I would consider it. I'm guessing for something like that, you want to steer clear of any property that has historical restrictions on what can be done and has to be overseen by the goverment. As retirees, we're planning to not have a car and instead to rely on public transportation, ubers, and taxis. Given that, we're looking to be in a walkable downtown that has stores, restaurants, and other amenities within walking distance or reachable easily. All that, and a short walk to the beach preferably. Some place like Lecce could work, since there are transportation options to get to the beach, but directly on the coast is preferable.

Yeah, my girlfriend had a decent shot at citizenship by descent, until they drastically changed the eligibility rules last year. Now its likely we'd need to go thru Ireland to get EU citizenship, or just go with the retiree visa in Italy and live with it. It takes 10 of living in Italy just to be able to apply for citizenship, and likely another 2 years for the application to be processed and approved or not. Not to mention the language test you have to pass.

are you completely out of southern italy now, just focusing on and around Florence? if so, I'd love to hear what lead to that decision. I'm pretty much just focused on the 7% tax regions. Puglia seems to be a sweet spot with better health care and public transportation infrastructure, but I'm keeping an open mind about other areas.

Hey Cruden, thanks for your kind offer. We're actually a few years away from making the move, both are still working but approaching retirement. I'm just trying to do some long range planning. I've actually contemplated trying to get my EU citizenship thru Ireland (it takes 5 years, with no language test), but its likely we'll just use the retirement visa and go straight to Italy and start putting down roots. It'd be nice to have EU citizenship, but not sure how much we'd get out of it this late in life.