Where to live

Best Places to Live in Italy for Americans (2026)

By Steven DavisFacts checked October 24, 2026

Top quality of life (Il Sole 24 Ore, 2025)

Trento 1st, Bolzano 2nd, Udine 3rd of 107 provinces

Highest big-city rent (idealista, Q3 2026)

Milan, €22.4 per m² a month

Lowest rent among the 8 cities compared

Palermo, €9.5 per m² a month

Best climate (Il Sole 24 Ore, March 2026)

Bari, 1st for the third year in a row

Healthcare (Ministry of Health, 2024 data)

All regions pass all 3 areas except Calabria, Sicily and Bolzano

Busiest airport (2025)

Rome Fiumicino, about 50.9 million passengers

7% flat tax for foreign pensions

Southern towns of up to 30,000 residents

How to compare places to live in Italy

Italy has no single best place to live. A city that suits a retiree on a fixed pension can be a poor fit for a family. It can also be wrong for a remote worker who flies home every few months.

This guide compares candidate cities on published, dated data. Each measure covers something different:

• Quality of life is ranked by province, not by city.
• Rent is a city average from listings on one property portal.
• Climate is ranked by provincial capital, from 2015 to 2025 weather data.
• Healthcare is scored by region, once a year, by the Ministry of Health.

Pick the 2 or 3 measures that matter most to you, then read the profiles further down.

What the quality-of-life ranking shows

The newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore ranks all 107 Italian provinces each year on 90 statistical indicators. Its 2025 "Qualità della vita" (quality of life) ranking, published December 1, 2025, is the most recent edition.

Trento came 1st, followed by Bolzano and Udine. The whole top 10 was northern: Trento, Bolzano, Udine, Bologna, Bergamo, Treviso, Verona, Milan, Padova and Parma.

The 22 lowest-ranked provinces are all in the South. Reggio Calabria finished last for the second year in a row, and Cagliari, in 39th place, was the highest-ranked southern province.

Among the big cities, Florence placed 36th, Rome 46th (up 13 places), Turin 57th, Bari 67th, Palermo 97th and Naples 104th.

The ranking averages a whole province's statistics. The newspaper's own report notes the South's strengths in demographics, climate and a much lower cost of living.

What rent costs in 8 candidate cities

idealista, one of Italy's main property portals, puts the national average at €14.6 per square meter (m²) a month in Q3 2026. Milan is the most expensive provincial capital at €22.4, and Caltanissetta the cheapest at €4.8.

At these averages, a 70 m² apartment works out to about €1,568 a month in Milan and €665 in Palermo. Actual listings vary by neighborhood, size and condition.

Turin's €13.5 is a record for the city, after rents there rose 5.6% in the quarter. For the lowest-cost options across the country, see the cheapest places to live in Italy.

How the main cities compare

Sources: Il Sole 24 Ore, idealista, the Ministry of Health (totals as reported by AGI and Sky TG24) and EF, dated as in the column headers. A lower rank number is better.

City guides: Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Sicily and Puglia.

Which cities have the best climate

Il Sole 24 Ore's climate index, published March 9, 2026, ranks provincial capitals on 15 weather indicators averaged over 2015 to 2025. The data come from the forecaster 3bmeteo.

Bari ranked 1st for the third year in a row. Several Adriatic places follow, led by Barletta-Andria-Trani in 2nd, then Pescara, Ancona and Chieti. Trieste (8th), Venice (15th), Naples (24th), Cagliari (33rd) and Rome (37th) also made the top 40. Milan (71st), Bologna (72nd), Florence (78th) and Turin (90th) sit in the second half.

Details that matter day to day:

• Turin has the worst air circulation of any provincial capital, with 162 periods of stagnant air a year.
• Belluno gets the fewest hours of sun: 6.8 a day on average, against 9.2 in Agrigento.
• Cagliari and Catania no longer record cold days, defined as a perceived temperature below 3°C (about 37°F).
• Terni, inland, has the worst heat waves. Sea breezes soften summer peaks in coastal cities such as Savona, Pescara, Imperia and Genoa.

For how climate, costs and services differ across the country, see north vs south Italy.

How healthcare differs by region

The Ministry of Health scores each region every year on 3 areas of public care: prevention, assistenza distrettuale (community care) and hospital care. Each area is scored from 0 to 100, and 60 is the pass mark.

The 2024 results, published July 10, 2026, show every region passing all 3 areas except 3:

• the autonomous province of Bolzano and Sicily fell below 60 on prevention
• Calabria fell below 60 on community care

All regions passed on hospital care. Community care scores remain lower in the Center and South, according to the Ministry's summary.

AGI and Sky TG24 added up the 3 area scores from the Ministry's data. Veneto scored highest with 288 of 300, followed by Emilia-Romagna (282) and Tuscany (280). Calabria was lowest at 189.

These are regional averages of public-system indicators. They do not rate individual hospitals or private clinics.

Airports and flights to the US

Italian airports handled more than 229.7 million passengers in 2025, according to ENAC, the civil aviation authority. Rome Fiumicino is the busiest, with about 50.9 million passengers, or 22% of the total.

Southern airports have added direct routes to the US. In 2025, Naples flew to New York (Newark and JFK), Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago. Palermo's New York route carried 40,000 passengers, and Catania launched direct New York flights.

The table lists airports whose 2025 totals appear in the sources used for this guide; Milan Malpensa and Bari are not included. Check current schedules before you pick a city for its flights.

Where English is most common

The English Proficiency Index, published by the private education company EF, gives Italy a score of 513 for 2025, 59th in the world. Friuli-Venezia Giulia scores highest among the regions (553) and Calabria lowest (482).

Among cities, Bergamo (575), Brescia (571) and Verona (567) score highest, followed by Milan (562) and Turin (559). Palermo (551) scores above Rome (538) and Naples (528).

Best places for retirees on a budget

If rent and winter weather matter most, these cities stand out in the data:

• Bari ranks 1st on the climate index, rents average €12.6 per m², and Puglia passed all 3 healthcare areas in 2024. The province ranks 67th for quality of life.
• Lecce, also in Puglia, averages €9.1 per m².
• Cagliari is the top-ranked southern province (39th), ranks 33rd on climate and averages €13.9 per m². Sardinia passed all 3 healthcare areas.
• Udine is the lower-rent option in the North: 3rd for quality of life, with average rent of €9.2 per m². Friuli-Venezia Giulia scored 248 on healthcare.
• Palermo and Catania are cheaper still (€9.5 and €9.6 per m²). Sicily fell below the pass mark on prevention in 2024, and the 2 provinces rank 97th and 96th for quality of life.

Retirees with foreign pensions who move to a town of up to 30,000 residents in 8 southern regions, or in some central earthquake areas, can opt for a 7% flat tax on foreign income. They must not have been tax resident in Italy in the previous 5 years. The rule is Article 24-ter of the income tax code, which becomes Article 247 of a new code from January 1, 2027. The 7% flat tax guide covers the regions and conditions.

Best places for families

Candidates for families, on the published data:

• Trento ranks 1st for quality of life, rents average €13.9 per m², and the autonomous province of Trento scored 271 on healthcare.
• Bologna ranks 4th overall and 1st in the ranking's demographics, society and health category. Rents average €16.6 per m², and Emilia-Romagna scored 282 on healthcare.
• Padova ranks 9th, rents average €13.8 per m², and Veneto had the highest healthcare score (288).
• Milan ranks 8th and leads the wealth and the business-and-jobs categories, at the highest rent in the country (€22.4 per m²).

If your children need an international school, shortlist schools first and compare cities second. Places, curricula and fees differ by school.

Best places for remote workers

Candidates for remote workers who need fiber and flights:

• Bologna: 11.1 million airport passengers in 2025, 4th for quality of life, rents at €16.6 per m².
• Turin: rents at €13.5 per m² and an airport that passed 5 million passengers. The trade-off is climate: 90th on the index, with the worst air circulation.
• Naples: direct flights in 2025 to New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago, rents at €14.7 per m², but 104th for quality of life.
• Palermo and Catania: rents under €10 per m² and direct New York routes in 2025.

Before you sign a lease, check the exact address on AGCOM's Broadband Map, run by Italy's communications regulator. It shows which internet technologies reach each address. Under Law 50 of April 20, 2026, providers must give you that information, based on the map, before you sign a contract.

Best places if you want a big city

• Milan ranks 8th overall and leads the ranking's wealth and business-and-jobs categories. Lombardy's hospital scores are among the Ministry's most stable, and rents are the highest in Italy.
• Rome has the busiest airport and climbed 13 places to 46th. Rents average €19.2 per m², and Lazio scored 237 on healthcare.
• Naples ranks 24th on climate, with rents at €14.7 per m². Its province is 104th for quality of life, and Campania scored 209 on healthcare.
• Turin has the lowest rent of the big northern cities in the chart (€13.5 per m²). It ranks 57th for quality of life, and Piedmont scored 272 on healthcare.

Common problems and fixes

Choosing a small town for the view, then feeling cut off. Newcomers report isolation in small towns. Fix: before a long lease, rent short-term in the off-season and run your weekly errands without a car.

A rural house without fiber. Remote workers report homes without fiber, or waiting for installation after the move. Fix: check the address on AGCOM's Broadband Map and ask the provider for its pre-contract statement before you commit.

Assuming any southern town qualifies for the 7% tax. Newcomers' questions show confusion over which towns count and whether savings qualify. The law sets the regions, the 30,000-resident cap and the foreign pension requirement. Fix: confirm the comune's (town's) population and your income type against the law before you choose.

Summer heat in an apartment without air conditioning. Newcomers, especially in Florence, ask how to cope with summer heat at home. Fix: ask whether the apartment has a climatizzatore (air conditioner) before you sign, and check the city's heat indicators in the climate index.

Do you need help choosing?

Most people can build a shortlist on their own from this data and 1 or 2 scouting trips. It gets harder when the choice hinges on a town-specific rule, such as the 7% tax. It also gets harder when a lease, schools and residency must line up at once.