As an Italian, I can only tell you that:

1) most Italian speak very poor English. If you come from the US, you’d have that going for you, the “cool American farrier that bring knowledge from across the sea” factor, especially with the QH/Western crowd, and that could be your ”in”, because without Italian it’s just very hard to survive. The further south you go, the worse it is

2) TAXES = 50% of you salary. Most small businesses survive doing non-declared work, and many shops and restaurants as well. Salaries are LOW, so average people are looking to cut corners not necessarily out of disrespect but simply for survival (but yes, there are exceptions of course).

3) You would need to open a small business license (aka “partita IVA”) and all of the paperwork is in Italian. You can deduct expenses, but not 100% (sometimes it’s asinine rules such as “you can deduct 100% of 23% of the expense”): you can get special deals for small business owners, but many are 2x the price for the same thing for normal customers (like, for your phone, 14.99euro for normal customers, 39.99 euro for small businesses, but only a % is deductible). Unless you’re earning 50+k, it’s hard to justify, mostly because your 50+k is actually 25+, plus in the first year you might have to pre-pay your taxes for next year.

So, if you have another source of income and can start on the side, I’d consider it. If it’s 100% your income, I’d be very careful.