the Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
<\/p>\n
Krysti-Glory Gallo and Ricardo Parata, along with their two sons, are moving to Italy to escape Australia\u2019s rising living costs.<\/p>\n
The family had been staring down about $600,000 still owing on their home loan, with Ms Gallo saying the full cost of the mortgage over 30 years would have blown out to about $1.295 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing that no matter how much equity we had in our house, we were unable to use it whilst the cost of living continues to rise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now take that equity to another country, have zero mortgage, and have 100 per cent equity from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite bringing in three income streams and earning about $150,000 to $160,000 a year, the family said they were still spending at least $120,000 annually.<\/p>\n
Ms Gallo said the pressure had pushed her husband into working two jobs, including nights, weekends and travel, yet the family was still counting every dollar.<\/p>\n
\u201cRicardo is working two jobs, one full time and the other means nights, weekends and travel, yet we\u2019re still checking our bank accounts before we buy the necessities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was either continue to whinge about our situation or find a solution and the solution was in front of us the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve purchased a \u20ac205,000 (about $330,500) three-bedroom terrace in the historic Tuscan city of Lucca.<\/p>\n
The couple says life in Italy will be dramatically cheaper, estimating they could live on about \u20ac45,000 a year, or around $72,500, if they own their home.<\/p>\n
In TikTok videos documenting the move, Mr Parata said the family wasn\u2019t chasing a higher income, but a better life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aren\u2019t replacing our lifestyle for income reasons, we\u2019re replacing our lifestyle so we can actually enjoy our life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe income is just another bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ms Gallo says they were attracted to the home due to its proximity to shops, other amenities and the local school.<\/p>\n
He said while wages in Italy were lower, the much cheaper cost of living meant families could get more out of what they earned.<\/p>\n
Their new home in Lucca is a like-for-like swap in terms of bedrooms and bathrooms, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms across three levels.<\/p>\n
But unlike their Gold Coast townhouse, it also comes with a 30sqm garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually have more land in Italy now with a decent yard for our kids,\u201d Ms Gallo said.<\/p>\n
The home has already been renovated, with roofing, plumbing, electrical and heating work completed, although the family plans to update the look to suit their style.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The couple expect to sell their current home for about $1 million later this year.<\/p>\n
While it wasn\u2019t in their first-choice suburb, Ms Gallo said the location ticked every other box, including being close to shops, amenities and the local school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had everything we needed and it is ready to live in right now,\u201d she said on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s literally a five-to-10 minute bike ride to the suburb we were originally looking at and the children can still walk to the local school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian family is ditching the Gold Coast for Tuscany, saying the brutal cost of living at home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-901971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}