I lived in Rome for 4 years, but it was from 94-98. The cost of living was not out of control--like Atlanta or anything. There are some very nice parts of Rome that you better have deep pockets if you want to live there.

There are also some "country/out of town" areas that are clean, safe and affordable. North and Northwest of Rome are several nice communities.

Hunting- I worked at Berry College and your jaw is gonna drop the first time you go on that campus. Around the main campus there is no hunting and the deer know it. On a late summer night you can see 300 deer. There was a monster we called "moose" that I lusted over for years.

Berry is a WMA and it has a very high success rate of harvest due to the large number of deer. Since you are retired you can hunt during the week and miss the weekend guys. There are lots of deer and when I was there bow season was open to a management stamp owner for about 6 weeks. The gun hunt tags were only a week or long weekend tag.

I have a friend in a lease not far from Rome and I'll get his info if you'd like. He is a retired phone company guy and he loves hunting.