# Relocating to Bari / Brindisi



## Toto_16 (Apr 10, 2014)

We are a family with two young children wanting to move to Puglia from Australia. 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. The pros and cons for a family like ours. Thank you in advance!


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

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.


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## Toto_16 (Apr 10, 2014)

NickZ said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


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


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## Toto_16 (Apr 10, 2014)

Toto_16 said:


> 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.
> ...


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

You need to define what you want/hope to do.

Not trying to be mean or anything but in European terms you'll be in the middle of nowhere. Not the Amazon jungle nowhere but relatively.

If all you hope to do is watch the garden grow, take the kids to the beach on Saturday, go to lunch with Grandma on Sunday that might be a positive.

OTOH if you need to work or worse if you both need to work it'll be a problem sooner or later. Have you got jobs lined up? Have you thought what will happen if those jobs end?

That house 10 minutes out of town might only have slow fibre internet or DSL or worse nothing more than cell service. Again this is only a negative if you need high speed data.

Not wanting to be a downer but if you wake up feeling like crap and your doctor tells you the specialist you need to see is in Rome or worse Milan that's something you need to accept and deal with.

Heat? How much A/C do you expect? I know people who can't even turn the A/C on in their cars. They've never bothered to figure it out. I'm not kidding. The new energy saving rules have put a floor at 27C for public buildings. I know many North Americans would melt with the A/C set at 27. I'm talking about people from hot areas but they use A/C 24/7 . All that before the current price hikes.

Like I said. Some people will be thrilled to sit in the garden watching the grass grow. Others expect something totally different. You can't talk about pros and cons in an absolute sense.


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