A father who switched his life in the UK for southern Italy said it is the ‘best decision’ the family has ever made.
Luca Tagliaferro, who was born in Italy, moved to the UK in 2011 to study at university.
The 45-year-old built a career in the UK as an SEO consultant and settled in his university town of Portsmouth with his wife and son.
But after beginning to feel tired of his life in the UK, in 2023, he made the decision to resign from his job, sell his home and uproot his family to Italy.
He said the UK’s cost-of-living crisis was the tipping point.
‘Mortgage rates doubled, private school fees climbed to £20,000 a year, and even my GP was Googling symptoms,’ Luca told Manchester Evening News.
‘Italy wasn’t perfect, but the positives outweighed the negatives.’
In July 2023, Luca and his family moved to Lecce in the Puglia region, known as the ‘Florence of the South’, to start their new life.
In July 2023, Luca and his family moved to Lecce in the Puglia region, known as the ‘Florence of the South’, to start their new life
Luca and his wife bought their Italian home outright after selling their property in Portsmouth.
‘In Portsmouth we paid £385,000 for a new three-bed house. In Lecce, the average cost is half that,’ he said.
‘We have a small villa with a pool here, with 2,000 sqm of garden, five miles out of the city of Lecce. Renovation and building costs are also around half the UK price.’
Although Luca admitted life in Italy has ‘some drawbacks’, particularly bureaucracy, he said he has ‘no regrets’.
‘The UK cost-of-living crisis is pushing more families to leave. In Italy we’ve gained sunshine, social life, and time,’ he said.
‘My son’s international school is bilingual, the beach is five minutes away, and we’re surrounded by friends.’
Luca predicts that more UK professionals will relocate abroad in the next five years, particularly to Italy, which offers tax incentives for foreign residents.
He said: ‘It’s not about escaping, it’s about designing a better life. For us, it was the best decision we’ve ever made.’
Pictured: Ciolo Bay and Bridge, Gagliano del Capo, Lecce, Puglia, Italy
It comes as a picturesque Italian island is offering £13,000 to anyone who moves there, with houses sold for as little as one euro.
Sardinia is the latest Italian region to be hit by a declining population due to an exodus of young Italians moving to larger cities or overseas for work, meaning the towns from which they hail are somewhat left behind.
In a bid to repopulate the area, officials are offering couples up to 15,000 euros (£13,000) to buy or renovate a home and up to 20,000 euros (£17,400) to start a business.
They will also receive 600 euros (£522.46) for their first child, plus 400 euros (£348.31) for each subsequent child until they turn five.
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