Job Discussion Forums

[PC Parrot]

I'm afraid Eu500,000 would either mean staying in the Gulf for an additional 2 to 3 yrs to the 3 more we have planned, or eating into one's income generating assets - neither of which appeals greatly.

I saw a builders-finish farmhouse with garden 5 mins from Sansepolcro at Eu 130,000, which you could get finished up for an extra Eu 70,000+ ... that's a bit more like it. Nothing too fancy, but nothing too remote either.

For that money in rural France, you could get a Maison de Maitre in good repair with a sizeable chunk of land .. and have change to buy a new car or two ...

[Teacher in Rome]

It all boils down to personal choices, but I think I'm done with hilltop towns, medieval and historic whatevers in the middle of nowhere. They all look much the same, and you either get overwhelmed in summer with busloads of tourists, or are so far off the beaten track that your town risks becoming depopulated.

And towns in Umbria / Marche etc are really depressing in winter. Rain, snow, fog and ice sap the joy of life out of you. At least in the south you still get blue skies in winter.

You probably would get a lot more for your money in France, but if it's any way rural like some places in Italy, I'm sure the same problems would apply. Being somewhere on holiday is very different from living there year-round - as you probably know!

If I could change anything in my life, I'd have a place in Italy to escape to (preferably near the sea) and a place in London for work and a finger on the pulse.

[PC Parrot]

You should try living in a desert town in the Gulf for 9 years, where the nearest big town is 1 hr 45 mins away and has nothing of interest anyway! ... And we've still got 3 years to go.

Here, you simply have to keep yourself going. For me, this equals learning. And I'm sure that learning in an environment surrounded by people who speak one of the languages you are learning, and in an environment surrounded by the history, art & architecture about which you are learning beats learning in an environment surrounded by nothing.

That said, I too wouldn't be looking to live in the middle of nowhere. There's a reason rich people have both a city residence and a country house. But we are TEFLers, and if we don't want to live in a small flat bombarded by our neighbours' noise, we can't live in the big cities.

I figure that you want to get yourself within an hour of a big city, within 30 mins of a biggish town of 15,000+, and within 5 mins of a town of 5,000+. This way, you can still get your fix of big-city-life once a week or fortnight while enjoying the pleasures of country life and pottering around in your garden.

Where you are, Le Marche, looks a bit tricky. The mountains extend the travelling time between places, and from what you've said, you're limited to visiting just the smaller hill towns.

[Teacher in Rome]

It's about a 3 or 4-hour drive to Rome, and about the same to Bologna. I'd rather live about an hour out, to enjoy both the proximity to a decent-sized city, and the relative quiet of being in a smaller town. Whether that ever happens remains to be seen!

[PC Parrot]

Yes, it's either relocate or buy a helicopter.