Single parent in Italy?!?!

[Koalabear]

Hi all,

I'm a single parent who is just exhausted by the type of life I'm currently leading in the UK. I have no help with childcare so living here or living elsewhere won't make a difference. However, somewhere like Spain, where the working hours seem to be by and large very 'parenting unfriendly', may no be the answer either. Having said that, I would not be looking to move to a big city but hopefully somewhere where life goes at a much slower pace.
My son and I are off to Umbria only for 3 weeks at around Christmas. Of course, we are going as tourists but seeing that we will be staying at a friend's house and it's outside the main tourist season, hopefully it will give us a flavour of what it's like to actually live in that part of Italy - well, that is the idea anyway! And I'm assuming that finding work around there would also be a huge challenge...even once I get to a more advanced stage with my Italian.
Has anyone out there had a similar experience and can share some thoughts? It may just be a 'the grass is always greener' sort of situation but I read time and time again about how much more relaxed life is elsewhere (Perth in Australia and parts of New Zealand to name two). It just seems that those who have been able to make the move had the right level of financial stability to be able to afford it???
Thank you very much in advance!