ToujoursVoyager

yes! I saw the Mandali retreat center, and my mother jokingly started to pretend teaching her yoga class in Italian...
Anybody else has suggestions for where they would like to retire in Italy? My parents love a pedestrian core in a village/small town near a body of water (lake, sea). I love looking at places and reading about them.

annhig

Have you thought about the area of southern Tuscany around Orbetello? not just an ancient city by the sea but with a sheltered lagoon surrounded by woods wonderful for swimming, cycling and walking. Food is fab, lots of places to explore, and good train connections. Only snag is that the Romans found it first so it's popular with weekenders. And I don't know about the yoga situation.

bilboburgler

I'd look at Sardenia again, while it is an island it is a very big one with everything you might need on it. I chat to a Italian who lives there often and he only leaves for the Opera.

ToujoursVoyager

Annhig: Thanks for mentioning Orbetello. I did come across that city when someone suggested Monte Argentario and we were looking at Porto Ercole, especially since there is a classical music and opera event in the summers. We will look at it again, and will definitively include the tuscan coast in our future travels.

Bilboburgler: Yes, Sardegna is still very much on our radar. Any villages that you would recommend?

HappyTrvlr

Regarding Lake Orta.. we were there with friends during a hot and humid September and were bothered by acrid smells from nearby paper plants. I wonder if they’re still operating? This was 8 yrs ago. We were happy to leave.

kitbag

A small town or village with a water view that is pedestrianized describes about 90 percent of all coastal settlements in Italy (and Italy is 90 percent coastline!), and as for lakes, Italy has close to a dozen scenic lakes in the north beyond the most famous 5. You need some way to prioritize what your parents want for their retirement town beyond those basics. Maybe a train station? Someplace that doesn't get below freezing more than 5 days per winter? Less than an hour to a major airport? What kind of food? Pasta or polenta? Goat cheese is not readily found in many many parts of Italy. Some places are very very expensive, others cheap. Many coastal and lake towns go dormant from Oct to April. Others have a year-round resident population with stores and services.

If you find a village or small town with a sea view in Sardegna that isn't a Club Med (and isn't choking with cruise ship tourists half the year), let us all know! It's kind of the holy grail of Sardegnan tourism. Most of the beaches in Sardegna are off limits to develpment, and there are few towns and villages directly on the coast.

In the mean time, if Bordighera hasn't been mentioned, it's a nice spot for watercolor artists, gardeners and close enough to France to go shopping for goat cheese.

bvlenci

I'm not a Sardegna expert, having been there one week total, on two separate trips. However on one of those trips, while my husband was meeting with clients in Olbia, I spent a pleasant day in Golfo Aranci. It was the off season, and a bit quiet, but not closed up for the season. It was definitely not a Club Med type of town. The scenery was lovely and there were some remains of ancient civilizations. I don't know a lot about the town, but it was a place I wouldn't mind returning to. It's connected by train to Olbia.

kitbag

i don't know if posting this link will work but I'll try anyway.

https://books.google.com/books?id=gT...20town&f=false

Golfo Aranci is the major car-ferry docking port for that part of Sardegna, so it gets a lot of car traffic in the season. But other people see what bvlenci saw, so no doubt worth checking out if Sardegna stays high on the list of retirement destinations

https://www.sardinianplaces.co.uk/bl...o-golfo-aranci

I didn't visit Sardegna to find my "perfect place" because, like I said, I didn't want to first need to get off an island before going sightseeing in other parts of Italy or Europe, or to get medical care. But in trying to find the perfect holiday location in Sardegna, finding the right mix of traditional town with traditional architecture with seaside strolls was elusive. //kit

ToujoursVoyager

Thank you all for your input. Happytrvl, we can do hot and humid but not the smell from a factory. I guess we will see when we get there. I bought a few guide books, studying the italian lakes. Lake Maggiore stands out.

As far as Sardegna is concern, my prelim research points us (maybe erroneously) to check out the Golfo di Orosei area, Oristano, Bosa. Alghero looks nice but might be too touristy. La Maddalena looks nice but even more isolated.

kitbag

Bosa is very atmospheric and charming, with a great old town for walks, cafes, shopping, etc, but the water you look at there is not the sea but a river, although the seaside is only a few minutes away by car or bus. Definitely worth checking out. especially since the whole surrounding area in that corner of Sardegna is filled with interesting historic towns. Alghero is touristy in the oldest part of town, but the rest of the small city, away from the tourist crush, is very cheerful and pleasant and relaxed. I really enjoyed the sociability of Alghero outside of the tourist strip.

No view of the sea in Orosei itself, but again, it's easy to get there, since it is so close by, and this too is a great part of Sardegna for atmospheric towns (inland), historic interest, authentic food. I know Cabras sits right on a lagoon. It has always looked like a nice place to me, and has beautiful flamingoes and world-famous bottarga (which I love), but I didn't even visit because the only time I was right near there was in high mosquito season and I'm just a magnet for those critters. I just assumed that being right at the lagoon would be the worst for an evening cocktail or dinner al fresco, or finding a hotel with air con or screens, so I gave it a pass. (I was in the river delta of Bosa in the morning through lunch). I would think that there is a municipal mosquito abatement program in towns like Cabras or Bosa, so I'm not sure it is such a problem for residents who have ways to avoid them. But I'm a real fussbudget about a lot of things. Being someplace without a lot of mosquitoes is one of them.