Plan your move to Italy — the visa, the budget, and the 7% tax towns, mapped out with someone who's done it.
Before you sell a house, book a flight, or fall in love with a listing, you need a plan that survives contact with Italian bureaucracy. Stage 1 is where we build it — together, month by month.
Start with a free one-hour callEverything a move to Italy from the U.S. actually requires
The internet gives you ten conflicting answers to every question. Stage 1 gives you one plan — specific to your income, your family, and your timeline.
Your visa & residency route
Elective residence visa? Digital nomad visa? Citizenship by descent? We map which path fits your income and situation, what the consulates actually require, and the order to do things in — before you commit to anything.
Taxes — including the 7% flat tax
Italy taxes residents on worldwide income, but foreign retirees in qualifying southern towns can pay a flat 7% instead. We identify whether you qualify and which towns fit, then connect you with a cross-border tax professional to confirm it.
A budget that's honest
What life actually costs in an Abruzzo town versus what blogs claim: housing, healthcare, utilities, the car question, and the one-time costs of the move itself — in real numbers, not vacation math.
Healthcare & documents
How Italy's national health service (SSN) works for new residents, what private coverage the visa requires, and the document gauntlet — apostilles, translations, codice fiscale — sequenced so nothing expires while you wait.
Your town shortlist
Coast or hills, town or village, near an airport or gloriously far from one — we narrow Italy down to a shortlist worth visiting, drawing on Nick's on-the-ground knowledge of Abruzzo and beyond.
The U.S. side of the move
Selling or renting your American home, timing it against your visa application, and what to do about U.S. taxes as an expat. Nick is a licensed REALTOR® in NJ & FL — this part really is his job.
Italy's 7% flat tax: real, legal, and bigger in 2026
Since 2019, Italy has offered foreign retirees one of Europe's most generous tax incentives: move your residence to a qualifying town in the south, and your foreign-source income — pensions, Social Security, dividends, IRA and 401(k) distributions, even foreign rental income — is taxed at a flat 7% for up to ten years, instead of Italy's standard progressive rates.
And in April 2026, the door opened wider: the population ceiling for qualifying towns rose from 20,000 to 30,000 residents, adding 74 mid-sized towns with hospitals, train stations, and real infrastructure to the eligible list.
Here's the part we love: Abruzzo is one of the eight qualifying regions — and the 2026 expansion brought five of its best-connected towns into the regime for the first time: Ortona, Sulmona, Giulianova, Roseto degli Abruzzi, and Francavilla al Mare.
Tax rules are technical and personal. We explain the regime and shortlist qualifying towns; a licensed cross-border tax professional confirms your eligibility before you commit. That's not fine print — it's how it should be done.
The 7% regime at a glance
- Flat 7% on all foreign-source income, for up to 10 years
- You receive a pension from outside Italy (Social Security, 401(k)/IRA periodic payments can qualify)
- Not an Italian tax resident in the previous 5 years
- Residence in a qualifying town of up to 30,000 people (raised from 20,000 in April 2026)
- Eight regions qualify — including Abruzzo — plus designated central-Italy towns
- No Italian wealth taxes on foreign assets while in the regime
Abruzzo's 7% tax towns — a sampling
Nearly every Abruzzo comune under 30,000 residents qualifies — which means most of the region. A few we know personally:
Newly eligible in the April 2026 expansion
Long-eligible favorites
Eligibility depends on official ISTAT population figures at the time you elect the regime — one of the things we verify during planning, town by town.
Three conversations a month. Progress you can see.
Planning isn't a PDF you download — it's decisions made in the right order. Each month runs on a simple rhythm:
Meeting One
Where you are
We take stock: what's decided, what's changed, what's worrying you. Then we set the month's focus — visa file, budget, town research, or whatever the move needs next.
Meeting Two
What we found
Between calls, we do the digging — requirements, numbers, town research, the right professionals. Meeting two is where you get answers, not homework.
Meeting Three
What happens next
Decisions get made and written down. You end every month knowing exactly what's done, what's next, and who's doing it.
Planning your move: what people ask us
Is the Italy 7% flat tax for retirees real?
Yes — it's written into Italian tax law (Article 24-ter of the Italian tax code, introduced in 2019). Foreign pensioners who move their tax residence to a qualifying town in one of eight southern regions — including Abruzzo — can elect a flat 7% tax on their foreign-source income for up to ten years. In April 2026 the rules expanded, raising the town-size limit from 20,000 to 30,000 residents, which brought Abruzzo towns like Ortona, Sulmona, Giulianova, Roseto degli Abruzzi, and Francavilla al Mare into the regime for the first time. It's real, but it's also technical: you must elect it correctly in your Italian tax return, pay on time, and meet every condition — mistakes can forfeit it permanently. That's exactly the kind of thing Stage 1 planning gets right, alongside a licensed tax professional.
Which visa do I need to move to Italy from the U.S.?
For most American retirees it's the elective residence visa, which requires proof of stable passive income — pensions, Social Security, investment income — at levels each consulate sets. Remote workers may fit Italy's digital nomad visa instead, and if you have an Italian parent or grandparent, citizenship by descent can change the picture entirely. There's no universal answer — the right route depends on your income type, your family, and your timeline, which is why it's the first thing we map in Stage 1.
How long does it take to plan a move to Italy?
Most clients spend two to four months in Stage 1, depending on how much is already decided. Visa appointments alone can have multi-month waits at U.S. consulates, so the planning clock and the bureaucracy clock run in parallel — one reason starting the plan early costs nothing and waiting can cost a season.
Do I have to do Stage 1 before the other stages?
No — the stages are independent, and you book only what you need. But most people start here, because the plan determines everything downstream: which towns to search in Stage 2, what the budget allows, and which visa path the whole timeline hangs on. If you've already done the planning yourself, you can start wherever your move actually is.
Can you guarantee my visa gets approved?
No — and no honest consultant can. Visa decisions belong to Italian consulates and authorities. What good planning does is make sure your application is the right type, complete, correctly documented, and submitted at the right moment — which is where most applications actually fail. We prepare; the consulate decides.
What does Stage 1 cost, and how does billing work?
Stage 1 starts at $1,500 per month and includes three scheduled video meetings monthly plus the research and coordination between them. It's month to month — you continue only as long as it's useful, and you're never billed for anything you haven't started. All payments go securely through Stripe. If you'd rather ask something first, send us a note through the contact page or book the free call — that hour costs nothing.
An hour with Nick now can save you a year of wrong turns.
Tell him the Italy you're imagining. He'll tell you honestly what it takes — and whether Stage 1 is where you should start.