2 month residency

The first hurdle to consider is the Schengen 90/180. Although your heading is two months, you mention "several months".

You missed where I could help by ......... that much. But thats a good thing because this place isn't much good for a 2 month stay. Its so incrediably beautiful and the life style is so pleasant and the culture is so rich, it would just tear your heart out to leave so soon.

But seriously, do a lot of reading and video watching until you fall in love with a place then check out the short term rental market.

The hard part is picking the right neighborhood and learning a few routine essentials. I visited here for years before I decided. Walking in cold is another deal. But it could be an adventure.

then check out the short term rental market.

I have traveled quite a lot, visiting 83 foreign countries and do my own research.
You can do a lot on your own if you are looking for where to stay, what transportation, etc. and what tours to take.

TripAdvisor.com is a great source of information for lodging and tours.

However, you are looking for "a residence" for your two months. You might prefer renting apartments instead of B&Bs or hotels.
We never book apartments since we are just two persons and prefer staying in B&Bs or small hotels.

If you wish to visit all five countries in two months, then I suggest that you split your time with at a minimum two one-month stays or better, four 15 day stays.

Also, do you wish to rent a car or use rail travel? That makes a huge difference. If you have a car, then a large city involves parking a car, which can be hard to find parking as well as expensive. With a car rental, you could pick a smaller city or town that would make parking easier and cheaper. Also, smaller cities and towns would be cheaper on lodging and perhaps even meals.

Of all the countries you mentioned, Switzerland is by far the most expensive country. We lived in Augsburg, Germany for four years and found that cost went up by as much as 50% once you crossed the border to Switzerland.

Not sure if you have been to Europe before, but on my early visits, I wanted to see the large cities the most, London, Paris, Rome, Munich and Vienna. If this is what you want, skip the car rental and take the trains.

My favorite foreign country is Italy and I recommend if you do Italy to do the big three for sure, Rome, Florence and Venice. Add the Naples area is you want more. If you want to visit smaller cities or towns, then consider Tuscany, which is near Florence. Places like Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca, Pisa and more.

If you tried to stay in ONE place and picked say Florence, doing day trips to Venice, Rome and Naples would get old, very early.

Still, if you wanted to visit Bavaria (Munich the capital), you could stay in Augsburg (50 miles away) and it is a short train ride to Munich. Yes, the cost of the train would reduce your savings on the lodging difference, but it would still be cheaper than staying in Munich.

Also, if you still want to visit all five countries, planning would be huge, but planning is fun and it helps you understand what there is to see and do and HOW to do it. For example, some things like going to the Lourve in Paris you can do on your own, or even do the Eiffel Tower, but other things may be best taking day tours.

Guide books can be helpful, I have several from Rick Steves that are great.

If you have more specific questions, you can post them on your thread or ask me with a private message. I will be glad to assist.

geovagriffith did hit on a point, you need a location where you can spend 2 months and not get bored out of your mind, or go broke. The two months will work if part of the plan is to spend one and two nights on road trips ever week or ten days; its one of the things I enjoy about living here. So a location being well connected might be important.

Again - it really depends on what you want from a home base... Will you be mostly at the base with only a number of 2 to 5 day trips elsewhere, or mostly away and want to have a place to return to regularly? We lived in a small city in Central Germany for several years and a four hour train ride would take us to France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, etc. Europe is bigger than you may think, even with a car. You can experiment a bit on your own by picking a place that you find interesting - Say Florence, or Munich - then get onto Bahn.com which is the international German railway portal that covers just about everywhere anyway and pick some destinations, ie. Paris, Venice, Vienna, Copenhagen, etc. to give your self a concept of how far away places will be by public transportation. Flights are also easy to Spain, Portugal, UK, Baltics, Greece, Sicily, etc. if you are near a major airport. So the major questions any consultant will ask will be: Do you prefer large cities or small towns? What are your interests (art, history, nature/hiking/skiing)? How comfortable are you learning to use public transport rather than having a car except for unusual destinations? Have fun planning!

Time of year would play a major role if I were deciding on a place to spend two months. My trips are longer than that, but the most time I've ever spent in one city on a single trip was 20 days in Rome and in Istanbul; I've come close to that in London. I'm heavily biased toward basing in the largest city in an area I'm targeting so I don't have to take multiple day trips from a small base city to larger places with a wealth of sightseeing options.

On that note, if you haven't had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling in Europe, I'd consider splitting your time across multiple bases. That would mean spending less time sitting in trains/buses/a car. No matter what base you choose, a huge percentage of Europe's great sights will be inaccessible to you. More bases (within reason) mean more variety of sightseeing and cultural experiences.

As already mentioned, if budget is a concern, you will want to scratch Switzerland from your list of possible bases. You could choose a place not too far from the Swiss border in one of the other countries and take short trips into Switzerland, though.

If your trips is not scheduled for the summer (when weather is likely to be unpleasantly and rather consistently hot), I'd suggest giving northern Italy serious consideration. There are many interesting cities there that can be reached from attractive, practical bases like Verona, Padua, Bologna and others.

If you choose somewhere in Germany, you can benefit from the Deutschland Ticket, to be priced at 63 euros per calendar month in 2026. It covers all regional trains and local (city) transportation throughout the country--an incredible bargain. Express trains are not included.

Another research area for you is to price rail trips from point to point as well as a possible rail pass.
For example, we did a cruise out of Regensburg on the Danube river down to Budapest last Summer. We flew into Munich two days in advance to visit our former home city of Augsburg, 50 miles west of Munich.
I found that we could buy a Bavaria pass for wife and self and because it started on Friday, it was good until Sunday. We could go anywhere in Bavaria on this pass for three days. Cost was very low, forgot exactly, but we saved a lot on this pass, taking the train to Augsburg then back to Munich alone.
Still, the Bavaria pass is limited to Regional trains that are crowded and you go 2nd class. We had to stand up half the time due to no seats, but our trips were not long.

Price your potential trips on the train. Also, if you want to rent a car, for a few days, check on that. I use Kayak.com for car rentals. Also, you can use it for flights, lodgings and more.

My first question is, what experience do you have traveling in Europe? I get the desire to park yourself in one place, and either enjoy that area or use as a home base to explore further afield. I am looking at the same think for a future trip.

However, if you are unfamiliar with a town, region, or country, it is a big risk to pick someplace sight unseen to stay a couple months. In my scenario, I would scout out an area with a shorter stay, to see if the area works, maybe even narrow it down to a neighborhood.

Then you need to consider transportation connections and what ever is needed to accomplish your goals. Then at that point, you might be better off finding a local agency that specializes in lets for a month or two, furnished apartments, and work with them. Someplace like Booking.com may also work, though probably more expensive.

That all said, I have considered Dusseldorf, Germany as an ideal location, some things to do around there, but excellent transport, by rail and air, to all kinds of places. Switzerland might break the bank, France, I might consider a town on the high speed rail lines in the South.

Take a look at HomeExchange.com or a similar site. While it is possible to do a simultaneous 1-to-1 exchange of your home with someone who lives in, say, France, it is more common to use the point system to arrange stays. Of course, this requires you to put your home into the mix, which I guess a lot of folks wouldn't be comfortable with.
I agree with the earlier comment to do your own research. You can use Rick's itinerary tips to start your planning:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/itinerary-tips
Of course, these tips assume you will travel around Europe, but the principle is the same. Prioritize the places you want to visit. Use AI to quickly determine things like "What city/cities are within a 4-hour train journey of (top 5 sights)?" Double check the AI results, of course.

Wow! Thanks for the quick and detailed responses from all of you. I’m going to start more in depth research and planning based on your ideas and responses. Thanks a lot!!