Moving to Italy or Spain with family.

[sadlybroke]

Hello, my first post here, it's a long one!

We are a family with 3 children (5y, 4y, and 9 months). We live in Bristol and have dual UK and Slovakian citizenship.

Me and my wife have been living in England for more than 8 years and we have been happy here. Our kids were born here. We do have a couple of issues with the country though:

1. Small houses and unavailable building plots. I would like to buy a plot at some point in my life and build a house, a forever home. We find the affordable houses in the UK tiny. We really like the large open plan living areas and spacious rooms but houses like this are way too expensive in the UK.
2. Rubbish, depressing weather.

For these two reasons we would like to try living in a sunnier country, ideally in mainland Europe (want to drive to Slovakia to see the family at least once a year).

The idea is to rent a house close to a major city, ideally close to the sea. We would try it for a year and see if it is for us and in case we miss England, we'd move back.

We have a house in Bristol which we'd rent out for around £1000. I own an online company and my business can move with me. I have one part-time employee, she would work from her home as a freelancer for me. My wife is at home with kids.

We have done some research and are yet to do some more. I have several questions and I'll post them in relevant parts of the forum. The following questions are not country-related so I thought I'd ask them here:

1. Schools

Our daughter will be Year 1 and our son in Reception class from September. I believe the compulsory school attendance in both Spain and Italy is from the age of 6 which means both kids would stay at home or go to a sort of pre-school in Italy or Spain. If we leave in September this year and decide to come back after a year, would they have to go to Year 1 / Reception in the UK, effectively a year behind their current peers? Is it possible to homeschool them so if we return to the UK after the year they would carry on with their friends? Would attending an international school be recognised in the UK for the year?

2. Accommodation

Although this is not an issue for now, do some people in Spain or Italy buy land and build their own houses? Is land available as it is e.g. in France or Central Europe?

3. Spain or Italy?

Which country do you reckon is better for a family and business? Which one is your personal preference and why?

We do not speak Spanish or Italian but our kids are trilingual, my wife is bilingual and can speak 1 foreign language, and I can speak 2 foreign languages so I hope we would pick up the new language after some time.

Thanks!

[xabiachica]

I've copied this in both Spain & Italy so that the poster can get specific info from each country!

[sadlybroke]

Thanks xabiachica.