Living in Abruzzo full-time sounds a glorious dream; however before deciding to move over to Abruzzo permanently there are a couple of things to consider. It’s the most fantastic place but like everywhere take off the rose-tinted occhiali before making up your mind.
If you are an ‘urbanite’ you should consider the choices that you’ll be giving up. Those choices mean having the ability to decide on perhaps up to 50 types of restaurants if you want to go out to dinner. In the countryside in Italy there is only Italian food offered in the agriturismi and local trattoria, if you get to a medium-sized town you will have the option of Chinese but not much more.
Don’t expect to have the option of popping out down to an art gallery, museum or local craft market – life here is functional – if you want to see local beauty, it’s here but with the onus on the surrounding countryside panorama or flora & fauna. Markets here are for the selling of food and cheap clothes only, do not expect anything like an Arts/Knick-Knack/ or Farmers’ Markets.
Just as in every country, particularly in areas facing hard times economically, racism & prejudice do unfortunately rear their heads in rural Italy. Issues with the Gypsy population, partly inflamed seemingly by the new right-wing government, have featured in the news recently, and in Abruzzo it seems it is the “illegal” Chinese workers accused of undercutting locals working in the manufacturing trades who have fallen foul of the collective sense of outrage. Previously it has been against Albanian & Romanian workers in the building and agricultural sectors all who work for less than the minimum wage and make one fat cat rich. Obviously if your idea of life in Italy is to come and sit by the pool and chat only to ex-pats then you won’t hear any of this, otherwise beware of your offended sensibilities – it is no different to home.
Further Reading
The Times – Is Living in the Countryside Better for You?
The Independent – Xenophobia in Italy: a fortress fights to keep out poor
Expat Forums – Expats in Italy, The Italy Mag
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Now if I was in Abruzzo today, I'd quite like to hop on a bus to Rome and see the snow clad Colosseum 
One Response to “Abruzzo Countryside Living”
lifeinabruzzo said on February 24th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Anthony that is a good idea, we try and mark the earthquake each year with a special feature last year it was Sophie's letter. and then we bang away on Twitter and Facebook as much as we can to try and keep people aware. Perhaps we could talk to your relatives?
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