The Italian towns with the best (and worst) quality of life

If you're planning to relocate to Italy in hopes of enjoying the famous Italian lifestyle, you'll have to think carefully about which part of the country you choose. As with so many things in Italy, regions, towns and cities vary greatly when it comes to the quality of life.

Giving us a picture of the best and worst places to live in the country, Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on Monday released the 2019 edition of its annual quality of life survey.

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The northern city of Milan topped the list for the second consecutive year, with the study awarding it the best overall quality of life ranking overall.

A market in Rome, which ranked 18th overall. Photo: AFP

Milan has long been a favourite among Italy's international residents, as it's seen as a business and cultural hub with good employment opportunities. However, a separate study earlier this month ranked Milan, along with Rome, among the "worst" cities in the world for foreigners to live in.

The capital, Rome, was ranked the 18th best place to live in Italy, while Venice came ninth.

According to the Il Sole 24 Ore study, the worst place to live in Italy is the town of Caltanissetta, in central Sicily, which came last for the fourth time in the history of the ranking.

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The rankings are based on criteria including the strength of the economy, environmental factors and leisure activities.

For this year's special 30th anniversary edition, the total number of indicators used to measure “quality of life” was increased from 48 to 90.

Of course, not everyone is looking for the same things when choosing a place to live. so the stufy has also broken down its findings into six different macro categories, awarding top spots to different towns for the following criteria:

Wealth and consumption: Aosta, Milan, Trieste, Parma and Turin

Environment and public services: Trento, Trieste, Bolzano; Nuoro and Milan.

Justice and security: Oristano, Treviso, Aosta, Bellino and Pordenone.

Business and Work: Milan, Trieste, Bolzano, Bologna and Rimini.

Demographics and Society: Bolzano, Brescia, Lodi, Monza and Brianza, Verona.

Culture and Leisure: Rimini, Trieste, Milan, Venice, Aosta.

Lake Como was ranked as the 40th best place to live in Italy. Photo: Depositphotos

In all macro categories, the top spots are notably dominated by northern Italian towns.

Milan aside, many of the best places to live in Italy were found to be medium-to-large towns and cities, and the majority are found in northern or central Italy.

As in previous years, there's a marked north-south divide in the results, with many southern towns and cities scoring relatively poorly overall.

The bottom ten was populated exclusively by southern towns: Catania, Palermo, Isernia, Messina, Trapani, Agrigento, Vibo Valentia, Enna, Foggia, Crotone, and Caltanissetta.

Naples moved up 13 places to rank 81st, while Bari placed 67th, up from 77th place last year.

The top 50 Italian towns and cities to live in:

1. Milan

2. Bolzano

3. Trento

4. Aosta

5. Trieste

6. Monza and Brianza

7. Verona

8. Treviso

9. Venice

10. Parma

11. Vicenza

12. Brescia

13. Pordenone

14. Bologna

15. Florence

16. Udine

17. Rimini

18. Rome

19. Modena

20. Cagliari

21. Cuneo

22. Reggio Emilia

23. Padua

24. Cremona

25. Forlì-Cesena

26. Ascoli Piceno

27. Prato

28. Bergamo

29. Varese

30. Lecco

31. Ancona

32. Macerata

33. Turin

34. Gorizia

35. Siena

36. Lodi

37. Perugia

38. Novara

39. Ravenna

40. Como

41. Pisa

42. Arezzo

43. Pescara

44. Piacenza

45. Genoa

46. Sondrio

47. Livorno

48. Mantova

49. La Spezia

50. Fermo

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