Why So Many Smart People Are Leaving Cities (And What They Know That We Don’t)
The Nomag Pulse #33
Today we revisit York Zucchi’s episode 5 from Remote Workers for Remote Villages, because honestly — how could we not?
Welcome back to The Nomag Pulse, the only newsletter where we keep saying we’re “not doing rural regeneration journalism”… and then immediately do rural regeneration journalism.
Today we’re revisiting Episode 5 of Remote Workers for Remote Villages, the series we swear belongs to our friends at ITS Journal and Smart Working Magazine — but this episode was simply too Nomag, so… we stole it.
(They’ll forgive us. Eventually.)
Because here’s the thing: chatting with York Zucchi is like opening a window in a room you didn’t realise had become stuffy. Suddenly there’s light, air, and a man explaining how living in 11 tiny Italian villages can reduce your stress by half and your expenses by 40% — and somehow this all sounds perfectly reasonable.
York has spent 34 years working across 19 countries, running organisations so big they need their own map, collaborating with NASA, managing academies in 455 cities… and yet he beams like a kid when he talks about €1 coffees, forests outside the window, and plumbers who don’t charge London prices just because they can.
You know how most people talk about remote work like it’s a new religion or a complicated spreadsheet?
York talks about it like this:
“Try living three months in a village. Worst case: you discover silence. Best case: you discover yourself.”
Which, to be fair, is exactly the kind of thing Nomag would say — just with fewer credentials and more espresso.
What makes this episode a gem is that York dismantles the usual narrative.
He’s not pitching Tuscany-fantasy life.
He’s not selling you a stone house with “rustic charm” (translation: no heating).
He’s simply saying: your life might work better somewhere smaller, cheaper, calmer, and incredibly Italian.
Also: broadband in tiny villages?
Apparently better than central London.
We’ve decided not to take this personally.
York’s take on small villages is beautifully unromantic:
They don’t need influencers.
They don’t need saviors.
They just need people, real ones, who live there, pay for cappuccino, chat with neighbours, and keep the school open.
And this is why Episode 5 is so Nomag:
Because it’s not a theory.
It’s not a trend report.
It’s lived life — the realisation that work follows you, values shape you, and the place you choose (finally!) matters.
So yes, sorry ITS Journal. Sorry Smart Working Magazine.
We’ll return the series soon. Probably.
But today Episode 5 belongs here, with us — in the messy, curious, slightly ironic universe of Nomag, where digital nomadism is never about “escaping real life”, but about building a better one.
And if you take one thing from York’s journey, let it be this:
“Don’t commit forever. Try three months. Italy will handle the rest.”