MaryAnn,
Speaking Italian certainly gives you an advantage. Some of the non english speakers in our village are giving me a bad time because I can't speak it!
I don't know if it is worth it trying to ship furniture to Italy. Prices seem to be the same as here so we are just buying what we need there and we can't own a car because we don't have residency status. We've been renting whenever we go over but this fall I think we will try the bus service. My wife complains that with a car I make her travel everyday and she wants to just stay in the village and relax.
I don't know if I can talk her in to a permanent move. We also have a daughter and even more of a problem a new grand daughter. Currently we've been spending 2 months a year but hope to get that up to 6 months in the near future. The Canadians living in the village say it is pretty boring during the winter so for now we will travel back and forth.

Barry