Newbie here...researching plausibility of retiring in Italy.

awesome80mc Member

Member since 11 March 2024

awesome80mcMember11 March 2024 13:22:50

Hi folks.

Happy to have found this site.

We are a couple nearing retirement and we are contemplating a move to reside / retire in Italy to escape Canadian weather and taxes. We currently reside in the Montreal QC area.

We are in the very beginning stages of this research and we are focusing on the Emilia Romagna region...for now.

Have any of you used the Smart Move Italy as a resource and how did it go?

Thanks very much for any insight you can provide.

R and K

nsamotis New member

Member since 05 December 2023

nsamotisNew member13 March 2024 00:05:57

@awesome80mc

We are retiring to Italy in a few weeks after working for several months to obtain our Elective Residency visas here in the US. My husband and I used SMI to locate our apartment and negotiate a 15 month lease in Puglia (Lecce). Working with SMI obviously cost more, but after trying in vain to get the attention of realtors and landlords online through sites like Idealista, it was well worth the investment.

Because we've found a large discrepancy between online photos and reality when renting VRBO properties in Italy in the past, we chose to travel to Italy for the month of January and worked directly with one of SMI reps, Marco Montini. Being there in person made a big difference for us, however, we are very picky so others may not need this extra step.

Marco is very knowledgeable (check out his YouTube channel Just Dream Italy) and he was a perfect match for us. Working on the billing and other aspects with the SMI admin was easy as well. We would recommend.