A millennial couple moved to Italy after buying a farm. They said physical work is exhausting, but they have a better quality of life.

Davidson told Business Insider they wanted a better quality of life and a cheaper cost of living — but warmer weather than in the UK.

They wanted flexibility in their careers

O'Shea said they could afford to buy properties in the Italian countryside without taking on a mortgage. "Academia is not a very stable career. You're certainly not well paid," he said. They wanted to buy a property outright instead of taking on a mortgage to give them more freedom in their careers.

When searching for properties in Italy, the couple settled on the Marche, a region on the east coast, because it was more affordable than other areas they considered.

In May 2021, they found a farmhouse on the market for 200,000 euros, or around $218,000. O'Shea told BI they fell in love with the 44-hectare farm, which had an olive grove and a dilapidated farmhouse, as soon as they saw it.

The farm had been on the market for 30 years, which helped the couple's bid to lower its price by 60,000 euros. They had 80,000 euros saved and covered the rest by selling their campervan and receiving a loan from O'Shea's parents.

They bought the farm, including the farmhouse, for 140,000 euros, which is around $154,000, in October 2021, according to documents seen by BI. O'Shea and Davidson moved to Italy shortly after.

They work on the farm alongside academia

The couple were recently approved for a grant of 328,000 euros to support young farmers and plan to spend 250,000 euros to replace the farmhouse, which they said is not structurally sound.

While they await planning permission to replace the farmhouse, the couple told BI they are renting a nearby property for 300 euros a month. They split their time between tutoring and working on the farm and said they work seven days a week most weeks.

O'Shea, who finished his Ph.D. in 2022, spends one or two hours a day tutoring college students in the UK remotely in the morning. He earns around £1,500, which is about $1,900 a month from tutoring. Davidson told BI they spend much less on food and bills now than they did in the UK.

After tutoring, he told BI he spends between six and eight hours a day farming olive oil from the trees and picking lavender to sell. The first year, he drove the oil to the UK to sell at markets, but they have since shipped it over.

"I love farming," O'Shea said, "I think it's a real challenge and it's something that for me is a really nice overlap of academia."

Davidson took an agriculture course this year and told BI that she relished learning how to farm alongside finishing her Ph.D. "Doing something really manual and concrete was so appealing," she said.

"When work is your own boss and you're doing what you want to do, then obviously it's exhausting physically and mentally, but it's not draining in the same way because you are happy to do it," she said.

Davidson and O'Shea don't earn enough from their farming business to live on and O'Shea currently tutors UK students remotely to supplement their income.

They aim to make produce from their farm their main income in several years and plan on running olive grove tours for tourists in the future.

They have no regrets

The couple told BI the lifestyle suits them better than working in the UK did.

"Everyone I know who lives in London or in a big city in the UK and works in a traditional office job has said, since COVID, it is so much more unpleasant. It's so much more oppressive. The financial stress of it takes the joy out of a lot of things," said Davidson.

She said though there aren't many young people in the Marche, they've made friends and feel a strong sense of community.

"I haven't thought, for a single day, that I'd rather be back in London," said O'Shea.

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