Luca: [00:00:00] I have drawn inspiration for today's podcast from a survey that just came out

It's about life satisfaction in Italy.

Anna: Mm-hmm.

Luca: It's a little bit more complicated than that. It covers satisfaction with living. It covers particular parts of people's lives, how happy they are with their relationship, with friends and with family and local healthcare.

And then it starts to get into topics that are more interesting to us as the purveyors of information to expats and retirees looking at Italy. For instance, how satisfied people are with pollution with crime. And then there's some, there's a couple of funny things, like how much people trust others.

There's a little experiment about what percentage of people expect to get the wallet back if it was, uh, taken from there in the. Yes.

Anna: Okay. I saw a video about that. There are some people going in different cities. [00:01:00] I saw, so this girl went to Oristano. Sole 24 Ore said that it's the safest. So she went there and she, she started running the wallet fell like three times and always sat there like, here's your wallet. She did the same in Milan and there was like a disaster. So like that.

Luca: Okay, so in Sardinia people give you back your wallet, but in Milan they don't.

Anna: Yeah, the crime is like, it's the worst city all over Italy.

Luca: So this is very interesting data we got. It answers questions like, who's got the biggest issue with pollution? Who complains the most about traffic? As it often happens, the most interesting part is that, uh, the real data destroys the stereotypes we have about Italy.

So I actually played a little game with the community of the Expats in Italy group on Facebook, and I asked them, in which part of Italy people complain the most about struggling to find parking? Apparently some people were upset because I [00:02:00] did not put Rome as one of the options.

Anna: That's the answer that I gave you when you asked me what's the worst city for parking. And I said, Rome, it's not, you also

Luca: think it's Rome?

Anna: I thought, yeah.

Luca: Okay. It isn't. Actually, I'm not gonna tell you now, I'll tell you at the end of the podcast, a reward for you to stay tuned. Why don't we start with life satisfaction. Where do you think people are the happiest in Italy?

Anna: In Sardinia, I'd say, because I love Sardinia.

Luca: Some people said Tuscany, some people said Sicily. Yeah, but you are very wrong. The region where most people are highly satisfied with their lives is Trentino Alto Adige. With an average score of 7.1 out of 10. You know, it kind makes sense. It's efficient, clean, wages are high. Apparently people don't care too much about the sun and the beach when it comes to life satisfaction.

Anna: Yeah, they are organized. It's beautiful. You [00:03:00] have nature, beautiful mountains.

Luca: What about the lowest life satisfaction related?

Anna: I would say in the south, but not the islands. Campania

Luca: Yes. You got this right in Campania, the region whose capital is Naples. Life satisfaction is at its lowest. Only about half of the people are happy with their lives. So that's a bit sad, but still, 50% is not nothing. 55%. Let's actually look at that experiment that you mentioned before.

Anna: Okay. The

Luca: I shopped my wallet scenario. The region where people trust the least their neighbors to return their wallet is again, Campania, the region of Naples. Only 30% of people believe that the neighbor would return their wallet.

Highest trust. In which region do you think people believe that the wallet will be returned?

Anna: I would say Veneto

Luca: Not quite, although trust is pretty high in the Veneto. Okay. [00:04:00]

Anna: The

Luca: highest trust in neighbors is again in Trentino Alto Adige

Anna: Okay. It's not surprising. Yeah. I don't know why it's

Luca: Almost 60% of people trust their neighbors were return their wallets. What about trust in complete strangers? If they think a complete stranger would return their wallet

Anna: I would say 20.

Luca: 20%. No. Yeah. Italians don't trust strangers. Nationally, it is less than 3%. Oh my, less than 3% of people think that a stranger would return their wallet.

Anna: Basically nothing. Yes.

Luca: That's not what people think about Italy. Right?

Anna: No.

Luca: I friendly, trusting people. Nope.

Anna: Absolutely.

Luca: Let's look at another one . ISTAT asked couples if they split housework evenly?

Anna: Mm.

Luca: Between men and women?

Anna: Yeah.

Luca: In which region would you say that they are the most equal with housework?

Anna: Lombardy,

Luca: You are [00:05:00] right.

Anna: Or in general, the North? I would say you

Luca: are absolutely correct. In the north there is a lot less asymmetry in gender disparity when splitting housework, where Milan is the best with a 66 out of a hundred score. Can you guess in which region it is the most unequal between men and women?

Anna: The South, so Sicily, Puglia…

Luca: Puglia is at, uh, 78.9 out of a hundred is the region where the workload between men and women is the most asymmetrical in the household.

This one is an easy one I'm gonna ask you next. Friendships, which region? Do people meet their friends at least once a week?

Anna: Sicily,

Luca: No. Campania again, Naples. The place where people don't trust their neighbor, but the place where people hang out with their friends the most.

Anna: Okay.

Luca: You wanna go for another one?

Anna: Yes.

Luca: In which region do people complain the most about [00:06:00] air pollution?

Anna: Of course, in the north, so I would say Lombardy, I would say

Luca: no. No, you are wrong Again. The region in which people complain the most about pollution is Lazio, the region of Rome, followed by Naples again, and Lombardy. Milan is in third place.

So about 19% of people that live in the region of Rome find pollution problem followed by 18.5 Naples.

Anna: Because there's always traffic.

Luca: There is pollution, but you know, that's the people don't complain about it. Where do people complain the least about pollution?

Anna: The happiest region?

Luca: Near the South

. The South

Anna: . Okay.

Basilicata

Luca: Almost that second best. It's Molise and Basilicata, where only about 4% of people complain about pollution. Yeah, because there're almost there.

Anna: I was thinking of Sicily, but then I thought [00:07:00] of Catania and Siracusa are those places. So I, I said no, it's not the, like, the right answer.

Luca: Where do people complain the most about noise? Like noise in their daily lives? It's very noisy.

Anna: Ah,

Luca: no.

Anna: Ah.

Luca: Although almost Lazio second.

Anna: Okay. First

Luca: is, first is you guess the companion.

Anna: Campania

Luca: Yeah. Naples. So Naples people don't trust each other.

People, friends, people complain a lot about noise. It can be noisy.

Anna: Traffic noise or in general? Like in general,

Luca: The, the question, the question is, uh, that are you concerned about noise

Yeah. Anyway, so Rome and Naples, people complain the most about that and obviously.

The quietest regions are the ones near the Alps, right? Trentino actually. Valle d'Aosta, yeah. Well, Valle d'Aosta, [00:08:00] very few people complain about noise in the Veneto. So again, north versus south, the answer to every question. And here's another one, if we look at life satisfaction. On an age basis.

Anna: Mm-hmm.

Luca: Who is the least happy with their lives by age?

Anna: I would say in the middle. So between 35 and 45.

Luca: You've got a almost to a T. It is people aged 35 to 44, only 59.6% are happy. And why is this? Well, actually ISTAT that looked into this. They are the so-called sandwich generation. They're working, raising kids. Some of them have to look after elderly parents. All at once. They have the least amount of economic stability. So yeah, carefree. Italian life ends at 35 apparently. [00:09:00]

Anna: That's pretty sad.

Luca: Yeah, it is sad. What do we always end up podcasts on a sad note, right?

So to round it up with the answer to the question we had from the beginning.

What is the hardest to park your car? The answer was,

Anna: hmm.

Luca: The region of Genoa. Yeah, well it may not be immediately understandable, but actually Liguria is a small sliver of land, very hilly by the sea, narrow roads, old cities. So actually I can see how they may be the people that have the hardest time to find parking, but finding parking in any Italian city can be a challenge.

Anna: I think all over the world, it's not just Italy.

Speaker 4: If people would like more information about the quality of life metrics and all the other metrics that we have about 1500 cities in Italy, they can go to magictowns.it and [00:10:00] use the town explorer or read some of the wonderful articles that Anna wrote about these topics and many others. Finally we have a little service announcement.

We are coming close to Black Friday like everyone else. And we actually cannot really offer any discounts because we've actually realized that we need to keep the lights on and therefore we can't really afford to do that. But this is the last week during which if you sign up for an annual subscription, you are also going to get a one hour personal consultation, which I am told can be quite useful.

People have found them to be a good way to bounce ideas, get information, tax, legal location information about places to go to. So if you'd like to chat to us about your relocation, go to Magic Town [00:11:00] directly, get an annual subscription, and then you'll be able to book one hour with us in addition to all the other wonderful perks you get as a subscriber.

Anna: Thank you guys. Thank you

Luca: everyone. Talk you next week.

Luca: Bye.