City or Village? Choosing Small-Town Life in Italy

Part 161: This week, let's explore some of the advantages of living in a small town in Italy.

It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I'll post some steps and what we're learning along the way.

We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life.

We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the year in California (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year).

Step 1: Discovering Italy

As we explore different areas, we continue to find gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, while others are small, quiet surprises that reveal themselves slowly—but all of them are amazing.

Step 2: Big City Life

I lived in Rome for eight years and loved every minute of it. Coming from Sacramento, the city felt like an entire universe—alive with history, art, and possibility. I still return often and feel a deep affection for its chaos and beauty.

When my partner and I chose Italy, we debated whether to live in a big city or a smaller town. Since my partner preferred something quieter, I agreed to give small-town living a try—a compromise that took some adjustment, but has since become a gift.

Step 3: Small-Town Living in Puglia

We wanted to build our life in Italy around friendships, so we chose Galatone in Puglia—home to several friends who had already made the move. We rented a recently renovated house from a local friend and began navigating daily life, one surprise at a time.

Spontaneity: In the small town in Puglia where our friends lived, life ran on spontaneity. An invitation to pizza or a festival might come just hours before it started. I'm not naturally spontaneous, but we learned to say yes—and that openness gave us some of our most unforgettable experiences.

A base for exploration: We'd imagined our home as a base for exploring Italy and beyond. A car was essential—we grew comfortable navigating narrow streets and roundabouts. We came to know southern Puglia well, driving its coast and countryside, and flew to Budapest for a taste of somewhere farther. But tucked into Italy's heel, the rest of Europe was a long way by road.

The beach: In the warmer months, life in Puglia revolves around the beach—our friends went nearly every day. The coastline is stunning, but after a while we grew restless. It all felt too familiar, too much like southern California. We'd come to Italy for something different.

Step 4: Small-Town Living in Tuscany

When we moved north to Tuscany, small-town life took on new shades.

Mountains: Monte Amiata rises above the quaint villages of southern Tuscany—an extinct volcano cloaked in one of Europe's largest beech forests. In summer, hiking trails wind through chestnut and beech woods to the summit, where the views stretch across the Val d'Orcia and all the way to the Maremma. In winter, the mountain becomes Tuscany's unlikely ski destination, with downhill and cross-country slopes threaded through the trees. It's modest compared to the Alps, but it's ours—and it's fifteen minutes away. We love to hike there whenever we can.

Santa Fiora: Like in Puglia, we're settling in a small town—Santa Fiora, in southern Tuscany. It's a quiet medieval village perched on the slopes of Monte Amiata, with a history that stretches back centuries; Dante mentions it in the Divine Comedy. The central piazza sits in the shadow of the old Sforza castle, and at the edge of town, the Peschiera—a Renaissance garden built around the springs of the Fiora River—is one of the loveliest spots in all of Tuscany. It's a quiet and lovely place, but its position opens up much to explore beyond its borders.

Our days here have a rhythm: coffee at our local hangout (after the gym!), a stroll through the historical center, and in the afternoons, a walk down to the Peschiera.

A base for exploration: France is only five hours by car; the Dolomites and northern lakes an easy drive. Closer to home, weekend trips to Pienza or Siena remind us that Tuscany itself is an endless museum.

Step 5: Advantages of Small-Town Living

For us, the main draw of small-town living is feeling connected to other people—and making friends here has been far easier than it ever was in Rome.

Just as in Puglia, we found that community here isn't unique to one town—it runs through all of Tuscany. From our local priest to our neighbors to our workout buddies at the gym, friendliness and openness run through everything. Shop owners remember your name; contractors become friends.

Even the dreaded bureaucracy that many expats lament has gone smoothly for us. Local friends and tradespeople all know each other, and those connections helped our renovation approvals glide through.

When we renovated our kitchen, the store owner and our contractor already knew each other—trust is simply built into the way things work. I always tell people thinking of moving to Italy: everything here runs on relationships.

Here, community isn't an abstract idea—it's the person at the post office who helps you fill out a form, or the realtor who calls your contractor directly when something breaks. It's the faces you see every day at your coffee hangout, acquaintances who slowly become friends. Your neighbors take an interest in your life, and the lady at the checkout counter tells you about her adventures in New York.

These relationships make daily life easier, but more than that, they make it richer—and here, we've found they come naturally.

Step 6: Limits of Small-Town Living

Of course, small-town life has its limits.

A car isn't optional—it's your passport to everything beyond the piazza. A hospital, mall, or train station will probably mean a drive, and for those accustomed to everything being nearby, that takes adjustment.

Cultural life requires effort too. In Rome, I loved stepping outside my door and stumbling onto a concert in a grand church, or a world-class exhibition near Piazza Venezia. In Florence, the Uffizi is a walk away. In a small town, these things mean a drive, and that was hard for me at first.

Many small towns also face a demographic challenge: younger people often leave for larger cities in search of work, leaving behind an older population. Some towns feel quiet during the week, a few almost deserted.

And the quiet itself can take getting used to. After Rome's noise and energy, a Tuscan or Pugliese evening at first felt almost too still. Local festivals bring the streets to life, especially in warmer weather, but between them, the calm is real.

Insights

After years in Rome, I've come to value the slower pace, the familiar faces, the way things get done through trust rather than pressure. And the big city is never far. Occasionally I want to immerse myself in Roman life again—the culture, the street life, the excitement—and a train ride later, I'm there. But I'm always content to return to our town, where I breathe deeper in the air of peace and beauty.

More next time.

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