Cost of Living for a family in Italy

[Jessicaboldosser]

Hello, My family and I (3 of us) are looking into moving to Italy this summer. We are finding it difficult to determine the basic expenses. If I make a list of anticipated expenses, could someone fill in the blanks? We are not sure what area we would be living in yet, but a general idea would be helpful. We tend to live a relatively "simple" life (i.e., not many nights on the town, etc.).

Rent:
Electricity:
Gas House:
Gas Car:
Car Insurance:
Hair cuts:
Income Taxes (I'm confused about how we'd get taxed):
Health Care:
Average grocery bill (mostly eating in)

Thank you,
Jessica

[Nardini]

Originally Posted by Jessicaboldosser

Hello, My family and I (3 of us) are looking into moving to Italy this summer. We are finding it difficult to determine the basic expenses. If I make a list of anticipated expenses, could someone fill in the blanks? We are not sure what area we would be living in yet, but a general idea would be helpful. We tend to live a relatively "simple" life (i.e., not many nights on the town, etc.).

Rent:
Electricity:
Gas House:
Gas Car:
Car Insurance:
Hair cuts:
Income Taxes (I'm confused about how we'd get taxed):
Health Care:
Average grocery bill (mostly eating in)

Thank you,
Jessica

At the risk of sounding overly aggressive, I can only answer "it depends".

Rent: It depends on where you want to live and the size of apartment you want, etc. An apartment in the centre of Milan might easily cost in excess of €10,000 per month, whilst a single room (monolocale) in Casserta would cost only a couple of hundred.
Electricity/gas/telephone: Again, it depends on how much you use. It is much more expensive than in the US, though.
Insurance: Home insurance is similar - depending on the area you are living.
Car insurance: Depending on car/ area you live. Much more expensive that the US. Most car insurance in Italy is third-party - not comprehensive.
Hair cut: It depends...
Health care: If you are employed, legally, health care is provide by the state - free. If you are not employed legally, or just here on vacation, the health care costs would depend on your insurance company.
Tax: Quite high, although it would all rather depend on your accountant and who/what he knows.
Grocery Bill: It depends on what you eat. If you want to eat American food, it is not cheap. If you want to eat local food, it is pretty good. How heavy are you - or do you want to be?

[k98_man]

Rent: Like Nardini said, it's going to depend. It will be similar to the US though. Big premium spots = a lot, while not so great spots = a little. The good thing about Italy is, good spots are relatively close and it's usually beautiful no matter your surroundings
Electricity: More than the US for sure
Gas House: Deffinetly more than US
Gas Car: A lot more than US
Car Insurance: - don't know -
Hair cuts: I would suggest learning how to cut each others. Will save money no matter where you are.
Income Taxes (I'm confused about how we'd get taxed): - don't know -
Health Care: - don't know -
Average grocery bill (mostly eating in): Learn to like Italian cousine and it'll be a lot cheaper.

Europe is just all around more expensive. The US is rich in resources and land so it's fairly cheap compared to other nations. When moving abroad you should almost always expect some costs to go up.

[luiss_in_basilicata]

Hey there, don't want to look little know-all but I am Italian so I can give you more info, being Italian:

from recent statistics: taxes around 43.3 % of your income; annualy you do your income-declaration (form 730, 740) and on that base, your taxes will be calculated!
There are many taxes so I don't bother you with a long list......

Health care: from the governement via Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, tessera Sanitaria and Medico di Famiglia (family doctor, a doctor has around 1,000 people in a list they can get in touch with him as soon as they have a problem, for free!)

Hope this will help!