A period around the amazing Italian scenarios, riding a vespa or an old Fiat 500; some month working from a terrace in Rome or in Tuscany, then moving with your laptop along the southern coasts of Puglia and Basilicata, replying to your client’s e-mails from a white shore.
It’s not a dream, it’s your digital nomad period in Italy!
Over than the postcard-like beauty of this country, there are things you might be interested to know, on a working point of view; for instance that there is a growing network of coworking and coliving spaces, that there are some regions where more and more startups are looking for foreigner and nomad partners and collaborators like you, as in the case of Puglia, the region where more startups have been created in the last 10 years.
But Italy is as beautiful as “complicated”, so you might need some tip and help about how to get around, where to stay, where to work and more.
So follow me in this post and if you have any more question, feel free to write it in comments and I’ll be back to you!
1 – Rent a car
Italy is a wonderful country, in spite of – and precisely because of – its “edges” and more complex aspects.
Among the many reasons why you will crazily love Italy, there is no public transport; to travel it freely is better – more convenient, cheap and practical – to have a private vehicle, whether owned or rented.
Among the best long time car renting services there is Finrent.
If you are train lover and decide to travel the distances purely by this means, take into account especially the medium-large centers well connected to each other such as Naples, Milan, Bari, Palermo, Turin, Florence, Reggio Emilia, Venice.
But consider that these cities are also those that tend to be more expensive.
Once you have decided the means to travel freely, you can decide a series of stages and places to feel like “home” or something similar for the following months.
(read more about car itineraries in South Italy)
2 – Need to change home often: the coliving solution
ph. Soroush Karimi – unsplash
Once we understand how to move, we need to find a place to stay (or more places, depending on how many cities do we want to live in for some weeks): how to find accommodations where a standard or long-term lease is not required?
I’m against the rental sublease with payments under the table: both for ethical reasons (the black market and the related tax evasion is a serious problem for Italy, so not feeding it is an act of love for this country), and for practical and economic reasons: for freelancers with regular vat code, living costs and travel expenses are tax-deductible.
Accommodation with regular traceability can be found with AirBnb or, even better, by the Co-Living solutions.
Variation to the theme “co-working”, coliving are housing solutions designed for digital nomads, always traveling startuppers, professionals who need flexible rental contracts at lower costs.
In Italy there are not yet dozens of them but you might already find interesting experiences, destined to be increasingly and vastly growing just like it happened for coworking spaces.
Would you like to teach english in Italy? Read this post!
3 – Coworking networks: where to go and how to choose?
ph. Helena Lopes – unsplash
And then you’ll need places to work and to do it well.
Warning! To make a good co-working, one that is truly useful for wandering professionals, seats and a wi-fi connection are not enough (for this, nowadays, any pub is more than sufficient).
There is a difference between renting a desk or subletting an office and managing a coworking.
A Coworking is a place that works for the benefit of freelancers, organizing events, courses, socialization meetings, business meetings and speed dates aimed at the birth of new professional partnerships.
learn How do freelancers and digital nomads
manage to find new clients
In my opinion, when planning your life and work tour across the Italian peninsula, looking for new clients and inspirations, you could (should) start from mapping all the cities that offer at least a couple of good coworking spaces suitable for your purposes.
4 – Cities or villages?
Great question! It is better to choose the main cities, with their lively activities and opportunities for international meetings, or small to medium-sized cities or even villages, to savor the most authentic, typically local life, taking advantage on their true willingness to emerge from their peripheral soul?
In my opinion, the ideal is to plan an itinerary that includes both and that, above all, crosses north, center, south and the Italian islands.
If cities like Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples and Palermo give excellent opportunities in terms of international exchanges, more co-wo spaces, industry fairs and conferences of possible interest in your industry, other smaller cities, such as Pisa, are distinguished by the widespread presence of fast Wi-Fi public connections, a fervent theatrical activities and social life and the opportunity to meet and socialize with people of different ages, even outside of work spaces.
If in regions such as Puglia, Bari is home to the Fiera del Levante (one of the most important cultural and business events in Italy) and gives space to one of the best coworking spaces in Italy, Salento is defined as a true paradise for digital nomads, due to the local beauty, white beaches and low costs of living, and thank to the vibrant and accessible cultural life and, most of all, to the growing amount of young startups.
Have you ever thought about a period around Italy, not just as a tourist but as a digital nomad worker?
23 Comments
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Lexie Lane
I really love this post so much! My friends and I were talking about going to Italy next year and I know this would really help me out to know where to go especially when I’ve got the digital world on my mind all the time! lol!
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Nina
I would have never thought about the car thing for Italy. However it makes total sense. Did you find that you needed basic Italian or was using your English just fine? I live in Spain (not quite as a digital nomad as I have an English teaching job here) and I find that many parts of Spain are hard to live in without Spanish.
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
Let’s say Italian people are not “queen’s english oriented”. I mean, old people in smaller villages hardly speak Italian (you know, the dialects issue..). IN larger and/or tourist cities it’s easier… But I mist tell the truth, Italians can always find a way to communicate. I can surely state that for a foreigner it’s easier to communicate with a non english speaking Italian/Portuguese/Spanish person than it is with a Danish perfectly English speaking one.
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Alison Rost
I never thought of doing this before! It’s good to hear someone with experience with all this. It’s a huge adjustment but it’s possible, it’s exciting, and best of all it’s totally worth it!
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Sabrina - In My Suitcase
I’m so sure you’d enjoy so much. If you’ll ever plan to live a nomadic period in Italy message me and I’ll tell you the perfect places to join cooking classes suitable for your already high cooking level
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Denni
because i live in a small town i tend to prefer big cities but sometimes only in villages you will find the true spirit of a country
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David Allen Elliott
I’m sure it would be quite a life traveling all over Italy. I will definitely have to remember this when I finally make it out there.
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Autumn Murray
I completely agree. By choosing both villages and cities you can then get to experience the best of both worlds!
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Laura Dove
I love all of these tips! I have been travelling a lot of late and yet still have deadlines to meet, this was so helpful!
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Danielle
Coworking networks sound great. I wonder if they have those here in the UK too as that would be great for my work life.
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Kate Andrews
I am a city girl, but I do love going out to local villages to get more of a taste for what life is really like in another country. Sometimes the cities can be too “Anglified.”
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Oliva wilson
I haven’t visited Italy till now, But after reading this I will surely plan my next visit to Italy 🙂
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Elaine
I would love to work and live in Italy! What a fun adventure. I’m sure the coffee must be really delicious in the co working spaces. 🙂
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MELANIE EDJOURIAN
I totally agree. I think choosing both villages and cities is a great idea as you then get to experience the best parts of both options.
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Nayna Kanabar
I really like the idea of travelling but being able to work also , the co living idea is fab as is the co working place and the advantage is that you can also meet people doing a similar thing to mix with.
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DEEKSHA TRIPATHI
I loved all the tips you have given in this post. The pics are all beautiful anyone would dream of flying to Italy.
Eloise
I would love to go explore Italy. I’ve seen so many amazing and beautiful photos taken all over Italy… thanks for the info on the ‘know hows’ I’ll keep that in mind when the time comes for me to travel there ; )