Italy’s Big Report on Digital Nomads: Brilliant, Ambitious, Not Always About Nomads — And Still Absolutely Worth Reading
The Nomag Pulse #34
Every now and then, Italy gifts the world something wonderfully unexpected.
A 14th-century fresco nobody remembered.
A mayor who communicates exclusively through WhatsApp voice notes.
A regional law you can’t quite understand but somehow admire.
And then, once every few years, it releases a 200-page national report on digital nomadism that is so rich, so dense, and so wildly ambitious that you can’t help but smile and think:
Only Italy could write something like this.
We covered the report in The Nomag Pulse #32 — affectionately, critically, with our usual Nomag blend of deep respect and gentle disbelief.
But the truth is: there’s much more to say.
This longform piece is our return journey into the report — a second dive, a wider reflection, a friendly conversation with a document that is both visionary and unmistakably Italian.
Because here’s the thing:
The report is brilliant.
But it often reads as if written from Rome looking outward, rather than from Chiang Mai, Oaxaca, Tallinn, Lisbon, or the dozens of places where digital nomadism actually happens every day.
That’s not a criticism.
It’s a starting point.
So here we go — Nomag-style.
Let’s unroll the map, refill the espresso, and talk about what this report gets incredibly right, where it drifts into theoretical poetry, and why it still matters enormously.
1. Italy Loves Digital Nomads — But Still Isn’t Sure Who They Are
One of the most fascinating features of the report is the extraordinary generosity of its definitions.
To Italy, a “digital nomad” can be:
a slowmad staying six months in a rural coliving
a Milan-based knowledge worker who goes to the mountains twice a year
a returning Italian expat seeking a quieter life
a long-term coliving resident
a temporary inhabitant of an inland town
a professional relocating to raise children closer to nature
and, occasionally, an actual international nomad
It’s beautiful.
It’s inclusive.
It’s absolutely Italian.
But for anyone who has lived the global digital nomad life, this conceptual fluidity feels… unfamiliar.
Outside Italy, the distinctions are clear, almost instinctive:
Digital Nomads → global mobility, mid-stay patterns, cross-border life
Remote Professionals → stable job, flexible location, domestic or occasional mobility
Relocators / Temporary Residents → lifestyle migration, long-term integration
The report blends these categories together in a single narrative arc:
nomadism → remote work → rural repopulation → national regeneration.
It’s a gorgeous storyline.
It just doesn’t map perfectly to reality.
Nomag’s humble proposal:
Italy doesn’t need fewer categories — it needs clearer ones.
Three profiles would solve 80% of the confusion:
The Nomad – international, mobile, community-driven.
The Remote Professional – stable job, place-flexible, domestic or regional mobility.
The Temporary Resident – slow, rooted, hybrid between visitor and resident.
Policies, incentives, and territorial strategies change dramatically depending on which group you’re dealing with.
And clarity is not about limiting imagination — it’s what makes ambition operational.
2. The Digital Nomad Visa: A Beautiful Idea Italy Misplaced Somewhere in a Drawer
The fourth chapter of the report is dedicated to Italy’s digital nomad visa.
And the verdict is unanimous:
the idea is excellent, the execution… less so.
The report — to its credit — doesn’t hide the challenges:
unclear eligibility
high income thresholds
inconsistent provincial processes
legal grey zones
unpredictable timelines
poor communication
bureaucracy that seems handcrafted rather than digital
Seen from abroad, it’s mystifying.
Italy is the world’s dream scenario for lifestyle mobility:
culture, food, landscapes, climate, community, safety, and an unmatched cultural brand.
And yet its nomad visa is one of the least accessible in Europe.
The report lists sensible recommendations: simplify, diversify, coordinate, unify.
The proposals are good.
They just need political courage and administrative alignment.
Nomag’s additional suggestion:
Create one national digital platform.
One set of rules.
One timeline.
One checklist.
No provincial variations.
No creative interpretations.
Italy invented the Renaissance, Opera, the Tiramisù, and the concept of beauty —
surely it can produce a visa application that doesn’t feel like a scavenger hunt.
3. Coliving: The Future… But Only Where the Basics Work
If there is one section in the report where Italy shines with genuine innovation, it’s the coliving chapter.
It’s long, passionate, well-researched, and frankly ahead of many European countries.
The authors understand that coliving isn’t accommodation — it’s infrastructure.
A social, cultural, and economic engine.
And they’re right.
But here’s the gentle truth:
Most Italian rural territories are not yet ready for scalable coliving.
Because coliving requires:
reliable broadband
multi-unit usable buildings
local governance with problem-solving capacity
property owners who understand mid-term rentals
heating systems that don’t date back to 1982
simple contracts
predictable utilities
and a community willing to open its doors
Many towns have some of these.
Few have all of them.
Italy often jumps from “Let’s create a coliving hub!” to “We have a charming abandoned school building from 1893 that might work,” skipping three essential phases in between: feasibility, operations, and sustainability.
Nomag’s lighthearted reminder:
You can’t build community if the Wi-Fi collapses every time it rains and the plumber is available only every second Tuesday.
Our proposal:
Italy needs three scalable coliving models, matched to the structural realities of towns:
Micro-coliving (2–6 units) for ultra-small towns.
Hybrid coliving + coworking (6–20 units) for mid-scale areas.
Distributed coliving ecosystems (homes + spaces) for more complex rural networks.
The report plants the seeds.
The next step is aligning ambition with operational reality.
4. Italy Doesn’t Need a Nomad Strategy — It Needs 8,000 Mayors With Vision
One of the most Italian things about the report is also one of its strengths:
its deep love for territories.
The sections on rural areas, internal zones, and regeneration are thoughtful and sometimes poetic.
But the report is still anchored to a national narrative of policy, frameworks, and institutional strategy.
And here lies a simple truth:
In Italy, nothing scales unless mayors make it real.
Italy is not one country — it is 8,000 micro-republics with their own rhythms, histories, expectations, and governance styles.
Some towns welcome new residents with open arms.
Others take five years to approve a Wi-Fi antenna.
Some mayors build ecosystems.
Others build roundabouts.
This is why nomadism, remote work, and regeneration work in some places and fail in others.
The report hints at this but doesn’t lean fully into it.
Nomag’s perspective:
Italy needs a Mayor Playbook for Remote Work Ecosystems,
a 10-point operational guide that includes:
housing models
broadband guarantees
community integration plans
coliving governance
mobility solutions
tax clarity
seasonal management
common spaces
local ambassadors
and actual data collection
A national strategy is useful.
But in Italy, the mayors are the strategy.
5. What the Data Actually Says (And What Italy Chooses Not to Hear)
One of the most fascinating (and under-discussed) parts of the report is the data analysis:
800,000 tweets, a decade of conversations, structural topic modelling.
And guess what?
Italy appears very rarely in global conversations about digital nomadism.
This is not because Italy isn’t appealing — it’s because Italy is bureaucratically unpredictable and operationally unclear.
The global discourse reveals a shift:
More interest in rural areas
More searches for remote work than for digital nomads
Less nature-romanticism after COVID
More focus on regulations, housing, and practical living conditions
This is exactly what Nomag readers know instinctively:
The romantic storyline is charming, but the day-to-day living experience matters more.
Nomag’s takeaway:
Italy doesn’t need more marketing — it needs fewer frictions.
If local policies, housing models, and operational systems become simpler, Italy’s presence in global digital nomad conversations will rise naturally.
Big data doesn’t lie.
It just waits for someone to listen.
6. A Report Worth Reading — Even When You Disagree
Let’s be clear:
This report is one of the most remarkable, comprehensive, and generous documents Italy has ever produced on the topic.
It is thoughtful.
Ambitious.
Extremely well-documented.
And sincerely committed to the future of rural Italy.
If we critique it, it is only because we care — and because our Nomag community has lived, breathed, and shaped digital nomadism across continents.
The report shines when it speaks of community, belonging, identity, rural futures, and new forms of living.
It becomes slightly less convincing when it tries to fit global nomadism into Italy’s local conceptual frameworks.
But that’s okay.
Reports serve to open conversations, not to close them.
And this one opens many — beautifully.
To Our Nomag People, Wherever You Are
To the readers joining us from Lisbon rooftops, Thai coworking spaces, winter rentals in the Canaries, a coliving in Austria, a Sicilian courtyard, a Brooklyn apartment, a ferry in Indonesia, a café in Tbilisi, or a borrowed desk in your parents’ house —
thank you.
You are the reason we write these long, loving, slightly chaotic essays about work, life, mobility, and the future of small places.
In the next Nomag Pulse issues, we’ll unpack:
visas,
coliving models,
rural governance,
housing pathways,
and the future of remote work ecosystems.
Until then — stay curious, stay kind, stay mobile.
And keep teaching the world (and Italy) what digital nomadism really looks like.
See you in the next Pulse.