sparky0000 said:
No, most people would prefer Florence over LA, NYC, or San Francisco. Northern Italy is a very wealthy area. The standard of living in Northern Italy is much higher than in most of America. The south is what brings Italy down. We all know that. That is why guys like Umberto Bossi would probably like to see Northern Italy become its own country.
Florence sucks because it is a tourist trap. A pretty one, but still a tourist trap. Every Western European, American college student, and Japanese tour group shuffles through that town. That area of Italy is also very boring in comparison to a place like Milan. The prices are outrageous in Florence. If you get a nice apartment in the center you often are paying over $1 million for the art work alone (it comes with many places). Toscana is not for the bargain hunter. Blame it on all the cooking shows in America and the UK. Tuscany is like Provence. Both are hyped well beyond what they offer.
Manhattan?? Uh, the average apartment is over $1.2 million.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/03/real_estate/Manhattan_housing_market_prices/index.htm
Manhattan is a joke. Unless you are worth $100 million you are a loser. Simple as that. I can't imagine living in a place where I could be worth $30 million and still feel small.
Sofia, Bulgaria...
http://www.biodar.net/bulgaria/Sofia/properties/1443/
How much would a place in this apartment cost you??
MMM....Under $50,000 in a very upscale neighborhood. Plus the girls are 100 times better looking than in Manhattan (and they will love you :flowers: ).
http://www.biodar.net/property_in_bulgaria_Apartment_Sofia_210.html
Males are idiots. You can live a superstar's lifestyle if you are an average Westerner. Yet, most are too busy trying to impress old friends and family to think outside of the box.
Wyldfire: I think your posts are usually great, but this time you overpassed the limit. You can think whatever you want about sparky, but you should have told him with a PM, not insulting him in front of other people that probably (like me) have a completely different opinion about this guy.
Anyway, back on topic (if you wanna talk to each other, please use PMs): your post is really interesting, sparky.
1. Actually Florence is not in Northern Italy, more on the Central part, a hundred mile or so above Rome, but I guess you meant from Tuscany above when saying North. I know it's pretty wealthy over here (right now I'm living in a "proper" Northern town [the same town where Maserati, Ferrari & Lamborghini were founded...] and everyone looks worth a million dollar), but more than most of America?? Maybe it's richer than your rural areas, but I don't think that Milan, Genoa, Turin or Venice are any wealthier than NYC, LA, Boston or even Miami. Maybe the difference is that everyone here is more or less wealthy, while in America there's a larger difference, meaning lots of rich people, but also lots of really poor people, which in Northern Italy most likely don't even exist.
2. Take into account that Florence is not even the city with bigger costs (even excluding Rome, Milan and Venice): the city where I was born (which is in the "poor part" of Italy, so prices should be lower) has housing costs so high that NOBODY buys in the city center and a really few people have the money to buy in the city, even far from the center. EVERYONE I know moved to the suburbs when leaving home. And I'm talking about a city which has 160K inhabitants, most of which are poor guys. I don't know why the situation is like this in Italy, have you got any ideas!?
3. When I lived in Florence, I didn't pay that much for the rent, I remember: it was around 1300K a month and it was a 1200 SQ.FOOT apartment with a small backyard. The price was fixed 7 years ago, though, so it could be higher nowadays.
4. I know about Bulgaria, since I will be studying there next year
By the way, since I will be in Varna (a touristic city on the Black Sea coast), what do you think will be the median rent of a 2-br and 1 living room apartment in the city center? I would love to live with a friend and have a big living room where to throw parties, I hope it won't exceed my budget.
