Ask HN: Good Town in France, Italy or Spain?

I've given a lot of feeds about this to many people I've met so far, but what will make A LOT of difference is:

* "good climate": south Europe can be VERY hot July & August

* language: Italian speaks no English at all

* planning to spend there all year around or just the summer

Anyhow best advice is: RENT! wait, and wait, and wait... and again ....wait before buying. I would say: buy ONLY after at least two years of renting in the same area.

Then, the story I always tell my foreign friends willing to buy a sea view (or similar) house in Italy: yes, you may got the best house, in the best spot, with great sea view... finally sit down in front of it and enjoing the view... when you see somebody start building just between your house and the sea! Yes, illegally of course, but they do and to stop then you'll become idiot (and you made not even be able to stop them)! This happens not only in the south (where it's pretty common) but also in the north (I've direct experience in Liguria).

Another common case for the Veneto region, in north Italy: you may find the best ever country house in between the beautiful landscape of the Prosecco region: the house looks great, sorrounded by Prosecco wineyeards (where your neightbours sell you home made prosecco at 2€ per litre): Venice is at 20mins drive, skying in the Dolomite at 1.5h drive... and then

then... once you've got your beautiful "casa di campagna" you'll realize that to successfully grow Prosecco, farmers need a minimum of 10 so called "treatments": which means chemicals they just spray on the wineyard no matter who is living (and breathing) close by: believe me, you cannot resist it (especially the stupid quantity of chemicals and the carless for humans): you can go to the Town Hall to complain, just you realize the previous owner of your house did the same with no success.

(not to mention the tap water which in the Veneto region suffer serious poisoning threats)

Just examples of something you can realize only when you've lived there a bit before.

One thing to consider do you speak any of these languages (i.e. French, Italian or Spanish) or at least willing to learn?

Just an opinion and my experience of course but I think learning the language greatly helps from meeting new people and to integrating into that country. Of course you could live in a tourist town which have a lot of English speaking inhabitants but then house prices are probably going to be higher and you're probably not getting as an authentic experience

I used to live in a small town near Malaga in Spain and it was a very nice and laid back area. This was around 20min from the beach, maybe coastal towns get a bit more tourism and night life which might be a turn-off since they get flooded in Summer and I’d imagine there are more expensive as well.

It gets VERY hot during the summer though so that might qualify as “not nice weather “

In Spain it seems Barcelona and Mallorca are overcrowded

Valencia seems to be the new place to be

In Italy, I always wondered why Sicily or Sardinia isn’t more popular with foreigners. My gut feel is that it has to do with the bureaucracy of living there.

In France I don’t know, maybe Bordeaux?

Depend what you are looking for. A village in the South of the France with good internet can do. But if you need school for kids or other elements of social life then things can get tricky.

What are you looking for more specifically? I don't know for Italy and Spain but in France, towns that are good according to most are popular, so housing costs are high.

South West France, Spanish Central Pyrenees or North West Spain.

Very cheap housing in some select areas, mild weather and great food.

south of france , north of spain lots of great options , if you want more rural go a bit further north in france