Italy is a great country to live in and I'm not trying to discourage you, but keep in mind that from every €100 you make, at least €66 go to the state. To put

Italy is a great country to live in and I'm not trying to discourage you, but keep in mind that from every €100 you make, at least €66 go to the state. To put this in terms of time and assuming you're a workaholic who doesn't take vacations, in a year you work 8 months for the state and 4 months for yourself. And then there's the problem of the state being a jerk and making you pay VAT one year in advance or taxing you based on estimates done with market studies instead of the much smaller revenue you declare. Something like: "the average company/self-employed individual in your business made €30K this year while you declare only €10K. We're gonna assume you're lying to us and tax you for the market average, mkay? Oh, and we'll need the 22% VAT on the €30K we think you'll do next year right now."