Hi there, I´m currently living in southern Spain but am ready to move on, and would like to try out Italy for a while....just not sure where. Would ideally like a picturesque manageable sized town (with clean air) where I could get by without a car, that has a train station and is good for walking and bicycling, preferably on or near the coast. I will be coming on my own (well, with 2 cats) so will also need somewhere where I can meet people and get involved...so not somewhere too small. Hope my wish list isn´t too long. Any suggestions are welcome.

It all depends on what kind of lifestyle you want: City or country or something in the middle. Oh, and mountains vs ocean, cold vs warm.

I live in Le Marche (Jesi) which is close to the Adriatic and mountains. There are buses and its quite affordable. Train stations here heads for all major cities.

This past weekend though, I went up to Viterbo, Conigliano which is very beautiful. Closer to ski areas but still in wine country!

How about Cefalu'?

Cefalù too, Bill.

Goodness me! Where *are* our moderators with this kind of language?!

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Cefalù too

I was on MapQuest and found a small town in Sicily by that name. Pretty close to your neighborhood.

Yes, Cefalù is a lovely town on the northern coast of Sicily; quite well-known actually, if one judges that sort of thing on whether a town makes it into travel guides. Also tends to show up on Italian TV programs like "Italia che vai" and the like.

It's an excellent suggestion from Bill, IMHO.

Nice beach, not too touristy (well, as of 22 years ago).

Thanks for the suggestion - Cefalu looks gorgeous, and in fact a number of people have been recommending Sicily to me (never made it that far south), so I will definitely consider it.

Wondering about practicality though, for example for travelling around. In some ways it would be more practical to live further north - Tuscany?, Le Marche?, Liguria?, so I could hop on a train and be in say, Milan (for the airport), Florence or even the French border, in a few hours.

Any suggestions further up the peninsula?

Try Liguria La Spezia is great for the beach, shopping, stunning countryside, history & culture, near to Cinque Terre, public transport links to major cities, etc. etc. Smaller towns nearby are Lerici and Sarzana. These are equally desireable locations for your wish list!

We go to the beach at Tirrenia (north of Livorno) occassionally. Also a nice beach near Marina di Pisa.

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Originally posted by linaluz:

Wondering about practicality though, for example for travelling around. In some ways it would be more practical to live further north - Tuscany?, Le Marche?, Liguria?, so I could hop on a train and be in say, Milan (for the airport), Florence or even the French border, in a few hours.

Instead of taking the plane out of Milan use one of the Scilian airports. The discount airlines aren't much more expensive then the train.

You're right Nick. A flight from Palermo (a short train ride from Cefalu) might be cheaper/faster than driving from Le Marche to an airport and flying to Milan. Possibly he prefers to be within driving distance of the border (Liguria).

Okay, lots of good advice. So what are the cheap airlines that travel out of Palermo by the way? I guess I was thinking Milan airport since I know from Granada or Malaga I can get a cheap flight (Ryanair) there and there are plenty of other destinations in Europe. But if there are just as many flights out of Palermo, perhaps it doesn´t make much difference.

I figure I´ll take a trip to Italy in the next two months to check a few places out, but it would be short so I couldn´t go everywhere, which is why I want to narrow it down a bit beforehand...

This is great though, all this advice, sure wish there had been something similar when I was moving to Spain (there is now for Spain as well).

saludos,

Carolina

Palermo

You could try that. But you can always hop one plane to Rome then go anyplace.

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/dests.php?flash=chk <-- shows you Ryanair's destinations and flights.

That is one neat map.

Thanks, that is a great map - sure makes travel planning easier.

I vote for Bagheria near Palermo, walking/biking distance to the beach and great facilities, stores, internet access, train, etc.

Plus if you go off season, you can probably get a great price on a rental in Aspra right on the beach.

Also a language school there, Solemar Sicilia.

I fell in love with my husband here, so you could say the city changed my life.

And the sea, OMG.

Cefalu in my opinion is TOO BIG, TOO TOURISTY,TOO EXPENSIVE. and TOO BIG, TOO TOURISTY, TOO EXPENSIVE.

and did I say too bigh, too touristy and too expensive?

Wow, it's really changed then. Marilyn and I stopped there for a night back in 1983. It was very quiet and uncrowded. Thanks for the update.

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Wow, it's really changed then. Marilyn and I stopped there for a night back in 1983. It was very quiet and uncrowded. Thanks for the update.

A little culture shock? Ever speak to a sailor that visited Pearl Harbor after 40, 50 or 60 years? My neighbor had tears in his eyes when he told me how the Island had been ruined by money.

Thanks, I will check out Bagheria as well. Though Cefalu looks beautiful when I was looking at hotels and places to stay etc, they did seem surpisingly expensive.

Any other suggestions?

Carolina

Okay, so I´ve booked a flight for a factfinding mission in Italy - flying into Palermo on December 28th and then heading to the mainland to check out a few places along the coast. I will only have a week so won´t be enough time to see very much, but its more to give me ideas.

If anyone (in Sicily/Amalfi coast, Tuscan coast) has time and inclination to meet up, let me know. It would be great for me to chat with someone has already moved to Italy.

Ciao,

Carolina

Hello again, Just thought I´d finish off this post with a bit of a trip report, in case its of use to anyone else deciding where to live. As mentioned in the previous post I took a week around New Year´s for a (very) rapid-paced trip from Sicily to Milan mostly staying on the coast and visiting a number of towns, based on some of your suggestions and on my research. I´ll give you some of my impressions, which naturally are completely biased and are from the point of view of a Canadian who has lived in the city of Granada for three years (an exceptionally beautiful city), who is not at all keen on traffic or cars, and who is longing to live by the sea for a while.

I started in Palermo, which as expected was pretty crazy (especially traffic-wise) but intriguing and the markets were fabulous. Made a quick trip to Bagheria which had been suggested by someone, but quickly realized it wasn´t my thing - to me it felt too much like a huge parking lot full of unattractive buildings.

Cefalu is beautiful as expected, especially the beach area. The historic centre is wonderfully preserved and was all dressed-up for the season, but it felt a bit superficial, since as soon as you wandered out of the centre area (which is quite small) you were back into traffic and unpainted ordinary (newer) buildings. And as mentioned it is very touristy now, at least the centre part, with plenty of new construction around the outskirts of town. Nice, but not quite right.

Managed to fit in a quick stop to Taormina, and although its even more touristy and flashy than Cefaul, I just loved the area, with the sea views and Mount Etna and the incredible ampitheatre. Wish I had had more time to explore the area, as it could be nice to live in one of the towns nearby on the coast, say between Taormina and Catania.

Next was Salerno, which I must admit did not meet my expectations. Mind you I was there for the 31 and New Years Day when everything was closed and not much was happening (except the insane fireworks and concert New Years Eve), and I never in fact saw the sunshine, so my impressions may have been different on a normal, sunny day. I just found Salerno to be dirty (lots of litter and lack of paint) too big to get around on foot, and lacking of real charm. The best thing about it were the paths and gardens along the seafront.

Lucca by comparison was incredibly beautiful and charming. Loved the bike paths along the city walls. It would be a very easy city to live in, though I left wondering how open and friendly the people would be. Its only 20 minutes from the coast by train, though not the most beautiful part of the coast, and I´m starting to feel I would like to be right on the coast (have missed that in Granada).

Then I found Camogl, on the Ligurian coast, which is absolutely stunning. Not sure if it would be big enough for me to live in but it is close enough to Genoa by train as well as the whole Ligurian region. And would be wonderful for swimming, hiking, snorkelling and kayaking...

Thats all I had time for, and I´m still thinking things over. I figure most likely I´ll head to either Sicily (near Taormina?) or Liguria (Camogli or one of the other towns) for about 6 months to try it out and learn some Italian.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

As I don't live that close to the sea I have only just looked at this thread. I just wanted to say how beautiful Granada is! I love the views from the Alhambra over to the Sierra Mountains. My OH is in Spain most of the week before returning here for a longish weekend. He is in Mijas on the coast. For flights he reguarly uses Alitalia from Rome to Malaga and back if you need to come visit again before you leave. Another beautiful coastline I don't think was mentioned is the one that runs south from Grosseto and includes the Maremma National Park. Very beautiful and worth a look.