[Toto_16]

Are you EU citizens? If not a visa won't be easy.

I'm not sure you'll really find a huge difference in the cost of living. The people that really would notice the difference wouldn't qualify for a visa.

Italy is surrounded by sea. The areas "far" from the sea are maybe ninety minutes away by car.

There are hidden or not obvious costs. That home out of town will mean at least one car and likely two. The more remote you put yourself the more you'll spend on dealing with that. The kids will likely want to go to university elsewhere. That means rental costs. You may decide you want to take the family somewhere for a vacation and that might mean flying out of Rome . Costing you time and money. Most of this is slight friction but you need to understand that the "cheaper" areas can end up costing you in other ways.

Obviously employment options will be more limited.

IMHO unless you have family or other reasons to move near St. Nick it wouldn't be my choice. There are plenty of smaller towns up and down the country with low priced property. Avoid looking at places like Chiantishire where prices have been driven up by rich foreigners. But normal towns the price difference won't be huge between most of the Italian regions.

I assume you're worried about winter weather? Summer is hot everywhere and if anything Puglia might be too hot for some people.

We are all Italian citizens with Italian heritage hence the move. Not worried about the heat (coming from Australia.)
We need to be within 10/15 mins of one of the larger cities of Puglia, it’s how we prefer to live. Our kids are only 3 and 4 so we aren’t thinking about university at this point. Just the family friendly place to live.

Again, just looking on pros and cons between the two places I’ve mentioned, not for suggestions of other towns

 

[Toto_16]

EDIT
We are a family with two young children wanting to move to Puglia from Australia. We are all Italian citizens through our family heritage and my husband and I have both lived in Italy during our younger years.

The plan is to rent for a year in a city centre and if all goes well, buy a larger property outside of the city centre to live permanently.

We chose Puglia for the sea, weather, access to beautiful parts of Italy, the food, cost of living (vs big Italian cities further north) and the pace of life. However being a young family, we do need to consider good employment opportunities, education and safety as well as value for money and quality of life.

We’d love some opinions on Bari vs Brindisi. We have narrowed it down to these two as we do appreciate good access to bigger cities. What are the pros and cons for a family like ours in both of these places? Property prices seem less in Brindisi but would love more insight than this. Thank you in advance!