South Korea→
ItalyRelocate from South Korea to Italy
Thinking about moving from South Korea to Italy? Here's the honest picture — what changes in your costs, the salary you'd need, and how the two stack up.
Moving to Rome runs about 67% more expensive than Seoul.
The quick read before the full breakdown:
South KoreaSouth KoreaData signals
Seoul → Rome: what the numbers say
What the move does to your costs
Relocating from Seoul to Rome, typical monthly costs rise about 67%.
Salary to land comfortably
A balanced lifestyle in Rome needs roughly 46,718 EUR/year gross.
Quality-of-life shift
Quality of life dips on the move: Rome scores 62/100 on safety, healthcare and air versus Seoul's 73/100.
Biggest budget change
Leisure shifts most: about 107% more expensive in Rome.
The decision picture
Moving to Italy, at a glance
Cost delta: Seoul → Rome
Each category is normalized to KRW using a 1 EUR = 1480.0000 KRW reference rate.
| Category | Seoul | Rome | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| housing | ₩1,100,000 | €1,300 | +75% |
| food | ₩450,000 | €400 | +32% |
| transport | ₩65,000 | €35 | -20% |
| utilities | ₩140,000 | €170 | +80% |
| leisure | ₩250,000 | €350 | +107% |
| healthcare | ₩35,000 | €40 | +69% |
Distance
How far is South Korea from Italy?
South Korea is about 8,970 km (5,570 mi) from Italy in a straight line — roughly 11 h 20 m of nonstop flight time.
Great-circle distance, not a routed itinerary; flight estimate assumes ~850 km/h cruise plus 45 minutes of taxi, climb and descent. Measured between the anchor cities Seoul and Rome.
Climate
Is Seoul warmer than Rome?
Rome is the warmer city: January highs average 13°C vs 2°C, and July 31°C vs 29°C. Rome gets noticeably more sun — about 400 more sunshine hours per year.
| Month | Seoul | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| January (high / low) | 2° / -6°C | 13° / 4°C |
| July (high / low) | 29° / 22°C | 31° / 19°C |
Continental with monsoonal summers. Cold dry winters, hot humid wet summers, distinct rainy season in July. Yellow-dust events in spring.
Mediterranean. Hot, dry summers and mild winters — pleasant year-round but August heat regularly tops 35°C.
Remote work logistics
Time zones and language: Seoul vs Rome
Seoul (Asia/Seoul) and Rome (Europe/Rome) sit 8 hours apart in standard time. A 9-to-5 in one overlaps the other's for 0 hours a day — fully asynchronous collaboration. Note: Rome observes daylight saving while Seoul doesn't, so the gap shifts by an hour part of the year.
Official: Korean · English: Moderate · Local language: Useful
Korean is the daily-life default. English usable in expat-heavy neighborhoods (Itaewon, Hannam) and international firms; outside that, limited. Hangul is easy to learn even if speaking is slow.
Official: Italian · English: Moderate · Local language: Recommended
Italian needed for daily-life bureaucracy. English in international firms and tourism but limited in most local services. Italian fluency materially helps the relocation experience.
Each axis is a weighted aggregate of underlying indicators normalized to a 0–10 scale. Weights are explicit and disclosed per axis. The composite is the unweighted mean of the four axes — axes are not collapsed further because the underlying trade-offs (e.g. low cost vs poor air quality) are user-dependent.
Affordability
- Cost-of-living index (weight 60%)75
- Rent index (weight 40%)52
How this is calculated
Affordability = ((100 − costIndex)/100 × 0.6 + (100 − rentIndex)/100 × 0.4) × 10. For Rome: ((100 − 75)/100 × 0.6 + (100 − 52)/100 × 0.4) × 10 = 3.4.
Rome is among the more expensive cities tracked. Salary expectations should be calibrated to the high cost base before relocating.
Quality of life
- Safety index (weight 40%)55
- Healthcare index (weight 35%)78
- Air quality index (weight 25%)52
How this is calculated
QoL = (safety/100 × 0.4 + healthcare/100 × 0.35 + airQuality/100 × 0.25) × 10. For Rome: (55/100 × 0.4 + 78/100 × 0.35 + 52/100 × 0.25) × 10 = 6.2.
Rome has a mixed quality profile. Safety: good; healthcare: good; air: fair. Weigh the weakest axis against your personal priorities.
Remote-work friendliness
- Internet (median Mbps) (weight 45%)120 Mbps
- Effective income tax (lower = better) (weight 30%)25.0%
- Cost-of-living (lower = better) (weight 25%)75
How this is calculated
RemoteWork = (min(Mbps/300, 1) × 0.45 + (1 − incomeTax) × 0.3 + (100 − costIndex)/100 × 0.25) × 10. For Rome: (min(120/300, 1) × 0.45 + (1 − 0.25) × 0.3 + (100 − 75)/100 × 0.25) × 10 = 4.7.
Rome works for remote work but isn't optimized for it: internet 120 Mbps, income tax 25%, cost index 75.
Healthcare
- Healthcare quality index (weight 70%)78
- Healthcare out-of-pocket / month (lower = better) (weight 30%)40
How this is calculated
Healthcare = (qualityIndex/100 × 0.7 + max(0, 1 − OOP/500) × 0.3) × 10. For Rome: (78/100 × 0.7 + max(0, 1 − 40/500) × 0.3) × 10 = 8.2.
Rome combines good system quality with a manageable out-of-pocket cost (~40 EUR/month). Travel insurance still recommended for non-residents.
Salary required in Italy
Using Rome as the destination anchor and Italy's effective payroll deductions.
Tools you'll need to move to Italy
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Step by step
How to move from South Korea to Italy
- Sort your visa for Italy
EU/Schengen member with the Italian impatriati tax regime, a Digital Nomad Visa (2024), and standard EU Blue Card access.
Italy visa guide → - Budget your first months in Rome
A balanced lifestyle in Rome runs about €2,550 net per month — set your runway against that, not your current city's costs.
Rome cost of living → - Line up housing before you land
Expect housing to cost about 75% more than in Seoul. Short-term rental first, neighborhood scouting second is the standard playbook.
Housing costs in detail → - Plan the KRW → EUR transfer
Moving your savings through a bank's default rate usually costs 2-4% in hidden margin — compare against the mid-market rate before you move a large sum.
Money-transfer corridor → - Get moving quotes early
Removal pricing is driven by volume and mode (sea vs air) — quotes 8-12 weeks out are meaningfully cheaper than last-minute ones.
Moving costs South Korea → Italy → - Sanity-check your take-home pay
Run your offer through Italy's income tax and social security before accepting — the gross-to-net gap varies enormously between countries.
Take-home pay in Italy →
Zoom out to the country picture: South Korea vs Italy on average wage, take-home after tax and cost of living.
How this page is calculated
Data sources
- Mundevo cost-of-living and rent indices. Anchor cities used for the corridor: Seoul for South Korea, Rome for Italy. These are population-weighted defaults that can be overridden by readers via a city-specific salary-needed page.
- FX rate. 1 EUR = 1480.0000 KRW, sourced from Mundevo's exchange-rate provider on 2026-05-28.
- Italy payroll deductions. Effective income tax 25% and social security 9.5%.
- Mundevo quality indices. Safety, healthcare and air-quality composites on a 0–100 scale.
Update cadence
Data as of . Last reviewed .
Calculation
The corridor compares Seoul (anchor for South Korea) with Rome (anchor for Italy). Monthly basket costs are converted to KRW using the live FX rate, then differenced per category. Destination salary requirements use Italy's effective tax rate and the Mundevo lifestyle multipliers.
Limitations
- Corridor uses a single anchor city per country; if your origin or destination is a smaller city, run the dedicated salary-needed page to refine.
- FX is a snapshot. Rates move 1–3% per month — use the live rate on the day of any transfer.
- Tax model is the effective rate for a single salaried filer; visa-specific regimes (e.g. Portugal NHR) can shift the net by 5–10 percentage points but are not modeled here.
- Relocation costs (shipping, deposits, agency fees) are estimated separately by the partners surfaced below and are not included in the monthly cost delta.
Frequently asked questions
Is Italy cheaper than South Korea?
Moving from South Korea (anchored to Seoul) to Italy (anchored to Rome) is roughly 67% more expensive on the monthly basket. Rome has cost index 75 vs Seoul at 75.
What salary do you need in Rome after moving from South Korea?
At a balanced lifestyle, Rome requires €46,718 gross per year (€2,550 take-home monthly). At the current FX rate (1 EUR = 1480.0000 KRW), that's the equivalent of about ₩69,141,985 in KRW.
What about taxes in Italy?
Italy has an effective income tax rate of 25% for a single salaried filer, plus 9.5% employee-side social security and 22% VAT. Combined payroll deduction works out to ~35%. Country-specific regimes (e.g. NHR, Beckham law, expat tax holidays) are not modelled.
What's the best way to actually move from South Korea to Italy?
The corridor report on this page surfaces the tooling stack we recommend: an FX provider for the salary transfer, expat health insurance for the gap before local coverage kicks in, a multi-currency account, and an international shipping comparison for relocating belongings. See the affiliate-vetted shortlist below for current options.