About
Why Abruzzo? What This Region Offers and What It Does Not
When most English speakers think about moving to Italy, they picture Tuscany. I live in Abruzzo, and I think it offers something better for most people considering this move. But "better" comes with conditions, and this page is as much about the conditions as the advantages.
Not Tuscany (And Why That Matters)
The Tuscany dream is well established. Rolling hills, cypress trees, Renaissance cities, Under the Tuscan Sun. The problem is that everyone had the same idea, and Tuscany now reflects what happens when a place becomes more famous for attracting foreigners than for being itself. Property prices average around EUR2,500 per square metre, roughly double the Abruzzo average of EUR1,360 (source: Agenzia delle Entrate OMI, 2024). Some villages have more foreign residents than Italian ones. The local economy has reorganised around tourism and expat services, which means you are paying tourist prices for daily life and integrating into an expat community rather than an Italian one.
Similar dynamics affect Umbria, which has absorbed Tuscany's overflow, Puglia, which has been heavily promoted in UK media over the past decade, and the Italian Lakes, where wealth concentrates around tourism infrastructure. None of these are bad places to live. But if what you want is authentic Italian daily life at a price that does not require a London salary, they are increasingly difficult places to find it.
Where Abruzzo Sits
Abruzzo is on the Adriatic coast, east of Rome. It is less known internationally, which is the source of both its advantages and its challenges. Property is affordable because demand is lower. Communities are authentic because tourism has not reshaped them. You are more likely to be the only foreigner in your village, which means genuine integration is possible but also that the support network of other English speakers is thinner. Whether that trade-off works for you depends entirely on what you are looking for.
What Abruzzo Actually Offers
Geographic Diversity
One region contains three distinct landscapes. The Adriatic coast has beach towns and a mild Mediterranean climate, with Pescara averaging seven to eight degrees even in January. The hills inland offer the classic Italian village experience with olive groves and vineyards. The mountains, including Gran Sasso and Majella, provide dramatic Apennine scenery and winter sports. You can drive from the coast to a ski resort in about an hour. This variety means options when choosing where to live, and it means that the region does not feel monotonous the way single-landscape areas can after the novelty wears off.
Affordable Property
A habitable village house for EUR50,000 to EUR80,000 is realistic. A substantial property with land for EUR100,000 to EUR150,000 is common. These are not ruins requiring six-figure renovations. They are liveable homes in functioning communities where you can move in and make improvements over time. The same money in Tuscany gets you either a tiny apartment in a tourist town or a ruin that will cost EUR100,000 or more to make habitable. Abruzzo property at around EUR1,360 per square metre (Agenzia delle Entrate OMI, 2024) represents some of the best value in central Italy.
Authentic Communities
Most Abruzzo villages are still primarily Italian. The social life revolves around the bar, the church, the seasonal festivals, and the extended family networks that have existed for generations. You will be lo straniero, the foreigner, and that status takes years of consistent presence and language effort to move beyond. But when acceptance comes, it is genuine. The community you join is the actual community, not an expat enclave that happens to be located in Italy.
Lower Cost of Living
The affordability extends beyond property. Restaurant meals, coffee, local produce, tradespeople, and daily services all cost less than in the more established expat regions because Abruzzo has not been inflated by tourism demand or wealthy foreign residents. What Italians pay is what you pay. A realistic monthly budget for a single person is EUR1,800 to EUR2,500, and for a couple EUR2,500 to EUR3,500, which represents genuinely comfortable living rather than bare survival.
Accessible Location
Pescara airport has budget airline connections to the UK and northern Europe. Rome Fiumicino is two to three hours by car or bus. For a rural region, Abruzzo is reasonably well connected to the outside world. You are not as isolated from international travel as deeper southern regions like Calabria or inland Sicily.
Natural Beauty
Three national parks. The highest peaks in the Apennines. Wild coastline with the traditional trabocchi fishing platforms. Wolves and bears in the mountains. Abruzzo is not photogenic in the manicured, postcard way of Tuscany. It is wilder, more dramatic, less cultivated. One third of the region is designated as protected parkland, which is the highest proportion of any region in Italy. If landscape matters to you, Abruzzo delivers it in a way that feels earned rather than curated. (Source: Federparchi, the Italian Federation of Parks and Nature Reserves.)
Honest Limitations
If I only told you the good parts, I would be doing exactly what the content I criticise does. So here is the other side.
The Winters Are Real
Inland Abruzzo has proper cold winters. L'Aquila, the regional capital at 700 metres, averages zero to minus three in January with nights regularly below minus ten. Higher areas like Roccaraso can reach minus twenty. Heating an old stone house costs EUR250 to EUR600 per month from November to March. It is dark by half past four in December. Winter tyres are legally mandatory from 15 November to 15 April. If you buy an inland property based on a summer visit, you are making a decision based on the best four months of the year.
Almost Nobody Speaks English
Unlike established expat regions where English is widely spoken in shops, offices, and social settings, rural Abruzzo operates in Italian. The comune, the ASL health office, the bank, the builder, the neighbours: all Italian, all the time. You need to learn the language, and A2 CEFR is a realistic minimum to begin functioning independently. Without it, you are dependent on translators for everything that matters.
Infrastructure Has Limits
Broadband coverage is uneven, particularly in smaller villages and remote areas. Public transport is sparse outside the main routes connecting larger towns. A car is not optional in rural Abruzzo: it is a necessity, and that adds EUR2,100 to EUR4,200 per year to your budget before fuel. Services that exist in wealthier regions, international schools, specialist shops, diverse restaurant scenes, may simply not be present here.
Some Villages Are Dying
Italy's population declined by 37,000 in 2024, fertility is at 1.18, and projections suggest the national population will fall from 58.9 million to 54.7 million by 2050 (ISTAT, Indicatori Demografici 2024). Rural Abruzzo is at the sharp end of this trend. Young people leave for cities. Some villages have average ages above seventy and no open businesses. Buying cheap in a depopulating village has consequences that go well beyond the purchase price, and knowing how to distinguish a viable village from a dying one is essential.
Traditional Culture
Rural Abruzzo is conservative in ways that can surprise people arriving from progressive urban environments. The church remains central to village life. Gender roles are more traditional. Social expectations around appearance, behaviour, and participation are real. Fare bella figura, the concept of making a good impression, governs interactions in ways that feel unfamiliar and sometimes constraining. None of this is hostile, but it requires adjustment and respect.
Smaller Expat Network
There are English-speaking expats in Abruzzo, but the community is scattered rather than concentrated. You will not find the established social infrastructure of Tuscany or the Algarve, where English-speaking groups, events, and services have been built over decades. In the early months, when you need support most, the English-speaking network is thinner than in more established destinations. This can be isolating, particularly through the first winter.
Who It Fits
After years of living here and watching who thrives and who does not, the pattern is clear. Abruzzo works well for people who want real Italian life rather than a version of it designed for foreigners. People who are willing to learn Italian properly, not just survival phrases but enough to hold a conversation and navigate a bureaucracy. People who value authenticity over convenience, and who find the idea of being the only foreigner in a village exciting rather than frightening. People with realistic budgets who understand that affordable is not the same as cheap, and that running a household in rural Italy has costs that do not appear in the headline numbers.
It also works for people who enjoy nature and outdoor life, who are comfortable driving everywhere, who can handle some degree of isolation and fewer services, and who are self-sufficient enough to solve problems without always being able to call someone who speaks English.
It tends to disappoint people who:
Want the Tuscan postcard aesthetic and the cultural prestige that comes with telling people you live in Tuscany. Need a large, established English-speaking community from day one. Expect everything to work smoothly and on time. Do not want to drive for every errand. Resist learning Italian or assume they will pick it up passively. Want international restaurants, diverse nightlife, or urban cultural offerings. These are not character flaws. They are legitimate preferences that happen not to match what Abruzzo provides.
The Bottom Line
Abruzzo is not better or worse than other Italian regions. It is different, and the differences matter. If what it offers matches what you genuinely want, not the holiday version of what you want but the Tuesday-in-February version, it can be an excellent choice at a fraction of the cost of more famous regions. If it does not match, no amount of affordable property will compensate. This site exists to help you figure out which category you are in before you commit.