一位54岁的美国男子Todd Kleperis，因在美国的不快经历，决定与妻子一同移居意大利拉齐奥。他看中意大利的家庭文化、紧密社区、负担得起的房价和免费医疗。Kleperis曾在美国、亚洲多地生活，尤其怀念意大利式的小镇生活和人际关系。他认为意大利提供了他所追求的慢节奏生活、丰富的户外活动以及更具人情味的社会环境。在意大利，他们以远低于美国的价格购得房产，并能享受免费的医疗服务，这对他而言是重要的生活品质提升。Kleperis强调，选择移居地需考虑食物、人与医疗等核心要素，并根据个人需求设定标准。

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 追求家庭与社区：Todd Kleperis对意大利浓厚的家庭氛围和紧密的社区关系深感向往，这源于他儿时在美国小镇的经历以及与意大利朋友家庭的互动，他认为这种文化是美国所缺乏的，也是他希望在生活中重新找回的。他特别提到，意大利的小镇生活能提供一种他所珍视的、人与人之间相互关照的文化。

💰 经济实惠的生活成本：Kleperis指出，意大利的住房成本远低于美国。他花费约10万美元在意大利购买了一处2500平方英尺的房产，而美国同等大小的房产价格高达75万美元。即使加上装修费用，意大利的购房成本也仅相当于美国的约18%，这使得他能以更低的成本实现居住梦想，并计划进行房屋扩建。

🏥 免费优质的医疗保障：免费医疗是Kleperis选择意大利的重要原因之一。他了解到，一旦获得意大利居留权，便能享受意大利政府提供的全面医疗服务。与美国高昂的医疗保险费用（一对40多岁的夫妇可能每月支付数千美元）相比，意大利的免费医疗系统为他提供了显著的经济和社会福利，尤其是在考虑长期生活和年老后的医疗需求时。

🌍 丰富的生活体验与文化：除了家庭和经济因素，意大利的地理位置和悠久文化也吸引着Kleperis。他看重意大利与欧洲其他地区的便利连接，以及其根深蒂固的文化底蕴和生活节奏。意大利提供了多样化的户外活动，如海滨、滑雪和皮划艇等，满足了他对自然和运动的热爱，尤其是在美国夏季炎热难耐时，意大利的气候和环境更具吸引力。

💡 明确的移居决策标准：Kleperis建议，在考虑移居时，应设定明确的评估标准，如食物、人际关系和医疗保健。他认为，了解并满足这些基本需求是成功移居的关键。同时，他也提醒人们，在选择居住地时需考虑当地是否能满足个人特定需求，例如是否提供国际化餐饮选择，避免对不切实际的期望感到失望。

Todd Kleperis is moving from Florida to Lazio, Italy, after being unhappy in the US.He's lived in the US and Asia, and is following a friend to Italy for a slower pace of life.Italy's family-oriented culture, affordable homes, and free healthcare were selling points.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Todd Kleperis, 54, a Florida resident who is leaving the Sarasota area and moving to Lazio, Italy, about an hour south of Rome. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm 54 years old, and I don't know how long I have left on the planet. Let's say we can make it 10 to 15 more years. Are you happy? I haven't been happy here in the last eight or nine years.

I made a deal with my wife a couple of years ago. I said, "If we're still here, I want to be able to be out of here." And she goes, "OK." So that's what happened.

The reason that I chose Italy was because I have a friend who is Italian who's going back there.

He has blood cancer, and he wants to live out the rest of his life in an Italian family village. I like family, I like community, and I like close-knit groups.

I've known him my entire life. His family is all Italian. Three or four days a week, I'd be down at their house and experience what they had as a culture. And then when I came back to the United States, I was like, "Where is that culture?"

I grew up in a small town in Connecticut, and my town was a small farming town that had about 6,000 people. I believe in small-town values, and I believe in trying to take care of people and doing the right thing.

Italy represents that to me because it's still a lot of family, a lot of good values, a lot of good food, a lot of good culture — a lot of good everything. You've got the coasts, you've got skiing, you can go kayaking, you've got everything that I'd like to do outdoors. Everything that I can't do in Florida during the summertime, I can do there.

I've been around the world too many different times to not do what I want to do.

I've lived abroad before and didn't want to move back to the US

I spent five years working in Taiwan. Then I moved to Singapore, and then we bought a house in Thailand. Then I lived in China for nine years.

My wife got a job in the United States and asked if I wanted to go back. I said no. I said that 10 years ago, and I've been living in Florida ever since. But this year is the last year.

There are three questions I always ask before a move. If you can answer the three questions, then you know where you want to go: Do you like the food, do you like the people, and do you like the healthcare? If you have those three things, you could pretty much live wherever that is.

But people really need to understand that if they're going to do this, there are things that they need as a criteria list that they should have set, and then they build around that.

For instance, if you have to have some type of international restaurant, then you don't want to go to a small village because they will not have international restaurants — that's just not going to happen. I'm not going to go to my local village and say, "Hey, why aren't you making any Indian food?"

What drew me to Italy was the proximity to the rest of Europe and the cultural nuances of having a society that's been around for a very long time. The culture is very solid, and I think the way Italians interact with each other is different. Life is at a little bit of a different pace, but it's also a better pace. And, in my opinion, it's a better way to live.

Homes are cheaper in Italy, plus healthcare is free once you're a citizen

We bought a home about an hour south of Rome in Lazio. It's a little village that nobody in America would know where it is. It's so remote and there aren't a lot of foreigners, which is perfect.

Our home in Florida is 2,800 square feet, and the home in Italy is 2,500 square feet. Homes in my neighborhood in Florida are about $750,000. In Italy, you can buy the same house for $100,000.

Now, I'd have to put probably $50,000 into it, but it'd be almost the same size. I'm going to put on a 200-square-foot glass room addition on my home in Italy, and it'll be nearly at the same size as my home in Florida, and it'll cost me an 18th of the cost.

My wife and I will do the residency the first year, and then after that, it's only a two- to five-year stint before you can actually apply for citizenship — or 10 years, and you get citizenship as included.

We're definitely nomadic, though. My wife will probably travel more than I will back and forth to the United States.

If you're a couple in your 40s in the United States, you can almost rest assured that you're going to be paying a couple of thousand dollars a month in health insurance. In Italy, once you have residency, you're completely covered by the Italian government.

Just that one example changes the dynamic for people when they look at the long term. You hit 60 years old, and you're lucky to get Medicare and Medicaid in United States in the next 15 to 20 years. Over in other countries — and I'm not just specifically talking Italy — they have a different system set up as you get older, so weigh your benefits and your minuses.

I'm always going to travel, and will always be around different parts of Italy. But I definitely see that small town as being part of my life, because a small town has a small culture with small belief systems, and it's the kind of thing that I liked. That makes it easier.