Since April 1, remote workers who come from a country that is not part of the European Union can settle for a year in Italy. “The program aims to reduce the red tape associated with residency and to attract all those who only need a laptop to earn a living and want to treat themselves to a slice of dolce vita”writing The Times.
Luca Carabetta, a five-star MP who helped draft the law, explains:
“We are targeting people who currently work for example in the UK, but who can actually work from anywhere. Since the pandemic, there are more and more of them and in the choice of a destination, factors such as the climate, the cost of living or the gastronomy can make the difference.
This new visa could indeed appeal to British remote workers who, since Brexit, must be under contract with an Italian company or based in Italy to be able to work in the country, underlines The Times. Especially since, according to Luca Carabetta, new decrees should soon make visas renewable for one year and allow teleworkers to bring their families. “Hopefully we will be ready by summer”says the deputy.
“Telework can revive these wonderful villages”
The stated objective is to compete with countries like Germany or Portugal which already have similar visas. “We have what it takes to be number 1 on the list of favorite destinations for remote workers”, adds Luca Carabetta. At the moment, Italian cities are not particularly well ranked by the site nomadlist.com, which lists the most popular cities for remote workers, while Porto and Lisbon are in the top 5.
The plan launched last month by the Italian government to give priority to restoring some twenty semi-well-situated but now almost abandoned villages, and to connect them to high-speed Internet, should help. “We have hundreds of wonderful little villages in Italy that teleworking can bring back to lifesays Dario Franceschini, Minister of Culture. Now that people can work without being physically present in the office, isolation is no longer a problem but helps to make them attractive.”
Among the sites selected are an ancient spa complex at Recoaro Terme near Venice, a castle at Borgo Castello in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as several mountain villages such as Rocca Calascio, perched in Abruzzo at the foot of an old castle that served as the film’s setting Ladyhawke, the woman of the night, by Richard Donner.