- Brad Allan and his wife moved to Montepulciano, Italy, to live out their retirement years.
- Italy's low-cost healthcare was a big draw coming from the US.
- Allan said having a home base in Italy has made traveling throughout Europe easier and cheaper.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brad Allan, an American who relocated from Austin with his wife, Olivia, to Montepulciano, Italy, to retire. Allan, 60, now gives advice to other expats in Italy through his YouTube channel, BradsWorld. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
In the US, I owned a chain of furniture stores and dabbled in investing in multifamily real estate.
For me, retiring in Europe was about being able to keep up the lifestyle that I had when I was running my stores and owning multifamily and actively working in the US. Without being cliché, we wanted to be able to lead a Champagne life on a beer budget; to be able to stretch our dollars.
When you look online, it's so inexpensive to buy nice properties in Europe. I can remember at least 10 years ago looking at real estate listings and daydreaming about retiring in Italy, Southern France, or Spain.
We're big travelers — my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to take three or four international trips a year. We went everywhere, but we always gravitated back to Southern Europe.
So Italy was always on the radar. We got serious about it just before COVID. We took a six-week trip in the fall of 2019, and drove around all of Italy from the very northern part all the way down into the heel of the boot.
We ended up choosing to buy property in Southern Tuscany, specifically right on the Umbria border. The other areas are nice, but we felt most comfortable here — we had been here a lot and knew a lot of people.
We moved here full-time in 2023 and love it. We just felt at home.
The natural beauty here is otherworldly. We've found the people to be very friendly, and people always talk about la dolce vita, the slower pace of life. Plus, we really like wine, and the quality here is second to none.
Italy's healthcare is inexpensive compared to the US
The No. 1 thing to know is that in general, healthcare in Italy is very inexpensive. Even if you're not on the national healthcare plan, you can come here.
When you're retired, you're not having anybody paying into the system for you. So we paid 2,800 euros [about $3,228] for our buy-in to the national healthcare system for the year. What was our payment for one month in the US pays our healthcare for the year, and we don't really have to pay for anything unless we wanted one expedited service.
For example, my wife needed an MRI, with and without contrast, and we went to the local MRI private clinic not through the healthcare system. I believe it was 200 euros for two different MRIs. I had to get an X-ray, and it was $30. A doctor's visit is 50 euros, and a specialist visit is 120 euros. So it's very inexpensive.
At 60 years old, I'm still five years away from being able to get Medicare — my wife's 15 years away from that. So that's a long time when you're unemployed — as you are when you're retired — to be paying $3,000 a month in healthcare costs in the US. So that's a huge deal.
People say, "Well, the taxes are so high in Italy. It's six points higher than the top line in the US." And yes, the scale maxes out much lower than the US, but taxes aren't just federal income tax; it's also property tax, and I consider healthcare costs to be a tax, especially when you're retired.
So all those things together, Italy is much more affordable, because when you're retired, you're not making as much income. And yeah, maybe we paid an extra $5,000 in federal tax here, but we saved $20,000 in property tax, which is what we had to pay in Texas. And we saved over $20,000 in healthcare costs. That's huge savings.
Living in Europe is calmer, and traveling is a lot easier
Nobody here asks you what you do.
"How much do you make? What do you do for a living?" You don't get personal questions like that, which I find to be refreshing.
It is a slower pace of life. You eat dinner so much later, and it's not just about chowing down on the food.
And the prices are different. If you go out to dinner here, you'll be amazed. You go out to town here with a good bottle of wine — and this is a tourist town — and your total bill is probably going to be $60 out the door.
We're also able to take trips to really interesting places with Italy as our home base. Two weeks ago, we decided to go to Tenerife for a week because it was $29 each way to fly — of course, by the time they hit you with bags, it's not $29 each way.
But you can just hop on a plane and go to so many really unique places, and you don't have issues with five-hour waits from TSA. There's an ease of getting around.
We never take trains in the US. But when my brother-in-law's visiting, we're going to pop down to Naples; it's only two and a half hours by train — that's like 180 miles away.
Last year we went to Scotland and London on two different trips. We went twice to the French Alps in the summertime, because it gets pretty warm here. We have two big dogs, and we took them French Alps so they could swim in the river. It's beautiful.
We drove to go do that, and it was a six-hour drive. And that's all within the last 12 months.
It's really nice that we're now able to do those kinds of things.
Facts Only
Brad Allan and his wife Olivia moved from Austin, Texas, to Montepulciano, Italy, in 2023.
They purchased property in Southern Tuscany, near the Umbria border.
Allan previously owned a chain of furniture stores and invested in multifamily real estate.
They paid €2,800 (about $3,228) annually for Italy’s national healthcare system.
An MRI with and without contrast cost €200 at a private clinic.
A doctor’s visit costs €50, and a specialist visit costs €120.
An X-ray cost $30.
They previously paid $3,000 per month for healthcare in the U.S.
Property taxes in Italy are significantly lower than in Texas.
They took a six-week trip across Italy in 2019 before deciding to relocate.
They have traveled to Tenerife, Scotland, London, and the French Alps since moving.
A train trip from their home to Naples takes two and a half hours.
Executive Summary
Brad Allan, a 60-year-old American, and his wife Olivia relocated from Austin, Texas, to Montepulciano, Italy, in 2023 to retire. They chose Italy for its affordability, particularly in healthcare and property taxes, compared to the U.S. Allan, a former furniture store owner and real estate investor, had long considered retiring in Europe, drawn by the lower cost of living and the opportunity to maintain a high-quality lifestyle. After extensive travel in Italy, they settled in Southern Tuscany, near the Umbria border, citing familiarity with the area and its natural beauty.
Healthcare costs in Italy are significantly lower than in the U.S. Allan and his wife paid €2,800 (about $3,228) annually for national healthcare coverage, a fraction of their previous U.S. monthly premiums. Medical services, such as MRIs and doctor visits, are also much cheaper. Additionally, living in Italy has allowed them to travel more easily and affordably within Europe, with flights and train trips being both inexpensive and convenient. The couple enjoys the slower pace of life, lower dining costs, and the cultural emphasis on leisure over work. While taxes in Italy are higher than in the U.S., the overall savings on healthcare and property taxes make retirement more financially sustainable.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative highlights the financial and lifestyle advantages of retiring in Italy, particularly for Americans burdened by high healthcare and property costs. The story effectively contrasts the affordability of Italian healthcare—where a full year of coverage costs less than a single month in the U.S.—with the financial strain of retirement in America. The emphasis on travel ease, cultural richness, and a slower pace of life resonates with the growing trend of "geo-arbitrage," where retirees leverage lower costs abroad to stretch their savings. The narrative also subtly critiques the U.S. healthcare system by framing Italy’s model as both accessible and high-quality.
However, the piece leans heavily on anecdotal evidence, which may not account for broader systemic challenges in Italy, such as bureaucratic hurdles for expats or regional disparities in healthcare quality. The focus on cost savings could also overlook potential trade-offs, like language barriers or cultural adjustment difficulties. The narrative aligns with a broader pattern of idealizing European retirement without fully exploring the complexities of long-term relocation.
Root cause: This story reflects a paradigm shift in retirement planning, where financial pragmatism and quality-of-life considerations outweigh traditional notions of staying in one’s home country. It assumes that lower costs and cultural amenities are sufficient incentives to uproot one’s life, without deeply interrogating the emotional or logistical challenges of such a move.
Implications: For human agency, this narrative empowers individuals to rethink retirement constraints, but it may also pressure others to pursue similar paths without full awareness of the risks. The beneficiaries are likely affluent retirees with the flexibility to relocate, while those with fewer resources or health complications might find the transition more difficult.
Bridge questions: What are the long-term social and emotional costs of retiring abroad, beyond financial savings? How do Italy’s healthcare outcomes compare to the U.S. for chronic or complex conditions? Would this narrative hold the same appeal if it included stories of expats who struggled with the transition?
Counterstrike scan: If this were part of a coordinated influence campaign, the playbook might involve amplifying stories of successful expat retirees to encourage outmigration, potentially easing pressure on U.S. social services or promoting real estate markets in target countries. However, the content here appears genuine, focusing on personal experience rather than systemic advocacy. No structural alignment with manipulation patterns is detected.
Patterns detected: none
Sentinel — Human
The analyzed article shows signs of human authorship. It exhibits varied sentence length variance, displays a personal anecdotal voice, and lacks indications of being part of a coordinated synthetic production.