Where to live in Italy for 3-4 months?
 

Hi guys! I'm planning on going to Europe next summer from May-August but as most places I want to go only require a few days, I'd like to have a set house/place to stay amidst all my travelling. I was planning on this house being in Italy, but I'm having a hard time figuring out which city to set my roots in and am hoping you guys can help!

I'll be a twenty year old female solo traveller, so a relatively safe city is a must. I'm planning on hitting all the major stops while in Italy (Rome, Naples, Florence, the Amalfi Coast, Venice, etc.) but I'd rather live in a medium size city to really soak up the Italian culture and community feels. As well, I'm planning on travelling to France, Switzerland, Austria and potentially Greece and Spain. To accommodate for the closer countries, I was thinking about finding a city in Northern Italy so the train rides will not be so long?

I speak very little Italian but plan on having phrasebooks and apps to help. Also, I won't be renting a car. My main source of transportation will be walking, taxi-ing, or taking the train.

Any information, comments, or suggestions are very much appreciated!!

Depending on your nationality, it's likely you're limited to 90 days in the Schengen Zone (all of the countries on your list) without a visa.

At your age, you may find it difficult to rent a house, and, even if you wanted to rent a car for parts of your trip, the under-age surcharge would probably make it cost prohibitive.

For all that you plan to do, there is no single location that would make all of the other destinations within a short train ride (or whatever you think is not "too long"). You should do some research on train timetables and low-cost air fares to Greece and Spain. The German railway website is a good place to start for European train journeys, but you should confirm timetables on each individual country's railway website. The German site is sometimes not complete for other countries.

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

To first thing is to realize that you can't stay for more than 90 days. You can go via train anywhere you want to go. Some places might be better with a cheap flight with one of the discount airlines.

Guess Jean and I were posting at the same time, except she gave more information. 😀

Another helpful website for planning purposes is www.rome2rio.com, but this site also gives info that is sometimes incomplete or out of date, so you need to verify everything.

That's for sure. Recent information I got from that website was not accurate.

How large a budget do you have, excluding flights from your home country?

Verona is lovely and safe medium size city, with excellent transport links to all over Europe.

The airport has direct flights to Greece and Spain, and Venice, Bologna and Milano airports are not too far either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona...franca_Airport


The railway station has direct trains to almost every city of Italy plus international trains to France,Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Czechia, Poland, Belarus, Russia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona...ailway_station

In addition to the above point about Schengen visas, you will also need to have health insurance to cover you for the time you are in Europe, and will not be allowed to work, so you will need to have sufficient funds to support yourself for your entire stay.

If you want to live in Italy for upto 4 months
 

If you are planning to visit Schengen, including Italy for travelling as a tourist, then don't panic because you can easily stay there and enjoy the full of it without availing of a visa. However, if you will be working during all these time, only then, you have to approach teh Italian embassy/consulate which is in your country of residence.
For more vivid information watch out for an authentic source like that of the official website of the Italian Embassy.
So, enjoy your trip!

I would spend a few weeks in Como if I had the opportunity. Easy access to Switzerland -- in fact the city limits go to the Swiss border.

I know you said small but that basically implies either Rome or Milan. Spain and Greece are to say the least on the challenging side by train. Even northern France will be a long train ride. It's far easier and cheaper to hop around by low cost airline. That basically means looking at flying out of Bergamo or one of the Rome airports. The further you get from these two the less likely you'll find a cheap flight. Not that anything across the Swiss border will seem cheap

There is a huge disconnect between wanting to settle down in one place - be it a big city, a small city, a town, or a village - and wanting to travel all over Europe as you seem to want to do. Not only would it be totally impractical from a day-to-day logistics point of view, it would be ridiculously expensive, necessitating constant fees for travel to and from your base.

I would suggest you re-think this plan and do something more conventional, easier, and less expensive - pick a few places in Europe to lay your head and travel between them, making smaller trips as you desire.

I agree. I don't understand how practical it is to try and "live in Italy" when you plan to visit "Rome, Naples, Florence, Amalfi Coast, Venice, etc. France, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Spain" all via a train ride from a single Italian city. I guess Milan could work?

Also how do these places only "require a few days"? When you're talking about entire countries?? :-)

And as everyone has already reminded you 3 months is the limit of a normal tourist stay (not 4) depending on your home country, which you don't mention.

Even Schengen citizens can only stay 90 days in a country without having to register with the appropriate authority. They also need health insurance as the Ehic only covers emergency treatment to the level locally. There are plenty of private hospitals you can be taken to that aren't covered by Ehic.

In theory they need to register. Italy has never even thought of enforcing that requirement. Even if it did all they can do is impose a modest fine. Spain tried to enforce it but honestly unless you make a pest of yourself the odds an EU citizen will even get noticed are fairly low.

BTW I don't think the OP plan is that extreme. But I'm assuming

France means Paris and maybe the riviera.
Spain means Barcelona and maybe Madrid
Austria Viena
Greece one of the famous islands.
The Swiss stop? A couple of days in the alps?

Over four months is that really pushing it? The OP would basically be taking a long weekend every other week.

Now I'm not going to say it's my idea of fun or that the OP will be really seeing those countries but those are different questions.

not sure how 90 days just became 4 months, but ....