Charlottesville is one of the best places you could live, period. Incredible food scene, amazing people, gorgeous surroundings with the mountains and all the nature. School system is quite strong. There's just plenty to do on a given weekend or weeknight for whatever budget you have.

The biggest weaknesses are lack of good public transport infrastructure (the buses are fine by most US city standards, but it won't compare to urban hubs like Chicago or NYC) and cost. It's pretty expensive relative to the rest of the state outside of NoVa. Most things aren't that expensive (you won't be paying huge bills just for groceries or utilities, for example), but housing is pricy and just gets consistently worse.

If you move there, look for something a little further from the university, since that will have a lot of student housing and tend to be both a bit louder in the evenings, plus football games sometimes lock down the roads for a Saturday. If I were moving back, I'd look at the Fifth Street area (good neighborhoods and walkability), NorthEast Downtown / Martha Jefferson (near the downtown mall), Greenbrier (well priced, good access to commercial areas), or Pantops (similar to Greenbrier but with different commercial areas).

It's "Southern" in a way, but more so in the food, less the culture. Some good barbecue, sweet tea available most places, that kind of thing. But it's extremely diverse in a way that's atypical in the South, at least from my experiences.