{"id":34671,"date":"2026-05-12T13:26:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:26:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:26:02","slug":"i-left-britain-to-retire-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34671\/","title":{"rendered":"I left Britain to retire in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around half a million people leave the UK to live abroad each year. A survey by the British Council showed 72 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds would consider living and working overseas, with cold weather, the high cost of living, extortionate childcare, a lack of work-life balance and even poor romantic prospects<\/a> among their motivations for leaving the country. The i Paper\u2019s Expat Files follows Brits who have taken the leap and settled elsewhere, detailing the ups and downs of their journeys.<\/p>\n

Rosemary White, 68, a retired garden designer, left her home in London to live in Italy. Here, she tells Silvia Marchetti why her Italian dream was nothing like she hoped.<\/p>\n

When I tell my friends that Italy just did not turn out to be my ideal place<\/a>, they can hardly believe me. \u201cRosemary you\u2019re mad! The dolce vita, the ice cream, the sun, the pizza, the views, how can you not fit in?\u201d they exclaim.<\/p>\n

The truth is, my Italian relocation dream was a failure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing visiting Italy as a tourist, another actually living there. One starts to see beyond the fantastic architecture, the laid-back vibe and all the beauty. You learn to see through the eyes of a local and it\u2019s not all shiny.<\/p>\n

I have Italian heritage \u2013 my mother hailed from Piedmont \u2013 though I was born in London. I don\u2019t speak Italian fluently, but perhaps having an Italian background made me more aware of the country\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

I decided to relocate to Rome five years ago, after my dear husband passed away. I\u2019d retired as a garden designer, we don\u2019t have children, and I wanted to turn a page. I was spending my days in London mostly at home reading books, not going out much.<\/p>\n

We had always enjoyed our Roman holidays so I thought Rome was a natural choice \u2013 I have a few friends there and two distant relatives.<\/p>\n

I rented a two-bedroom apartment near Piazza Barberini, a stone\u2019s throw from the Spanish Steps, for barely \u20ac1,200 (\u00a31,038) per month \u2013 very affordable considering the location and the panoramic view.<\/p>\n

I spent my days in Rome walking around the city<\/a>, visiting museums, going to the fresh produce markets, taking in the views, the archaeology and savouring the delicious food at no-frill taverns on warm evenings.<\/p>\n

The cost of living was very low compared to London \u2013 I would spend about \u20ac40 a week for groceries, and I ate out three times a week, spending \u20ac20 for a two-course dinner and \u20ac10 for a quick lunch. Of course, the quality of the food was significantly better.<\/p>\n

But the Eternal City turned out to be too chaotic for me. The overtourism is hellish \u2013 it is swarming with just too many loud tourists year-round. It is a much smaller city than London and cannot cope with the numbers. There were days I could barely walk the centro storico or go shopping without bumping into silly teenagers taking selfies. Rome\u2019s subways, in my view, are inefficient. After a lifetime\u2019s work and my husband\u2019s death, I was craving peacefulness, and the wild rhythm of life didn\u2019t suit me.<\/p>\n

One day, about a year and a half ago, I was having an espresso with some American friends I had in the capital. They were telling me that Milan is a totally different city where you can expect a lot of efficiency in public services and transport, even if it\u2019s less beautiful and more rainy.<\/p>\n

I decided to give it a go. Milan is the capital of fashion and of finance \u2013 I wondered if it could be a better fit for me. I rented a one bedroom apartment near the Duomo for which I am currently paying \u20ac1,500 per month, a bit more than in Rome, but still less than what I would pay in London.<\/p>\n

My place is very central, and everything here in Milan works just perfectly. The buses run on time, the trains are super fast and I was amazed to find that there were more subway lines than Rome.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve traveled a lot around the city and the region, going skiing and visiting nearby countries like Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia. However, I have found the city to be very cold, and not just in terms of weather. I had a really hard time making friends \u2013 even among the expat community. I had picked up some Italian while in Rome, and I was getting better at the language, but found the Milanese to be very distant. <\/p>\n

Everyone is always rushing around, the Milanese all seem to be workaholics and are constantly looking at their phone. I didn\u2019t want to re-live the rat race now that I\u2019m retired. I started feeling lonely, and am missing my sister in London and my friends.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019ve decided to return to London next month, ending my Milan rental contract ahead of time.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I have been unlucky or have made a mistake in picking Italy\u2019s two largest cities. Had I moved to more authentic, uncrowded and pristine places in the south it would have probably been more fulfilling. But I was tired of moving around \u2013 and I had left my London home empty, so it feels like time to come back. I realised that social ties are more important than the actual place you live in, that it\u2019s the people who make it feel like home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around half a million people leave the UK to live abroad each year. A survey by the British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,1195,1416,6387],"class_list":{"0":"post-34671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-expats","10":"tag-features","11":"tag-the-expat-files"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116561836924654223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}