Two summers ago, Carolyn Abney, 62, and her husband moved from Italy to retire in Athens. They traded a land of indulgence for a land of 20-year-olds.

And Abney, originally from Atlanta, said Athens is the best city they could have chosen.

“We used to think we’d go to Atlanta every other weekend,” she said. “But we found that everything we need is here.”

Carolyn Abney works the Slow Food table at the Farmer’s Market in Bishop Park. She retired to Athens with her husband, and is active in the University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

In Athens-Clarke County, 15.6 percent of the population is over 55 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey. Compare that to other college towns: 12.3 percent for Statesboro and 13.4 percent for Auburn, Ala.

Nearly 30 percent of Athens residents are between 18 and 24 years old, making the city’s median age 26. The country’s median age is 37.

Fortune Magazine named Athens the best place to recapture one’s youth in 2006.

The year before that, Money Magazine listed Athens as one of five best places to retire.

Those designations may have helped bring retirees to the Classic City. About 3,500 more people 55 and older call Athens home, according to a comparison between the latest Census data and data from 2000.

Some University students want to add to that number — they want to retire here too.

“Athens is kind of funky,” said Alexis SantaRomana, a junior from Thomaston. “When I retire I think I’ll still be kind of a funky person.”

SantaRomana said she thinks the city’s cultural diversity and free spirit will still be here when she comes back.

Lauren Byrd, a 2009 graduate from Perry, said she and her fiancé have considered retiring here for a while.

“I imagine we’ll still be going to Georgia games in our old age,” she said. “It’s just a different place because it’s a college town. It feels young and fresh.”

They want to own land and raise livestock.

She said her fiancé, a cyclist, will ride the quiet roads and enjoy one of the best riding areas in Georgia.

Living near the University has other perks: free tuition for Georgia residents over 62, and a social and educational outlet through the University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

OLLI members pay $40 a year and $5 for classes, which typically last just one day.

Fall courses — such as Facebook for Seniors, Writing and Publishing a Book, and Experimental Filmmaking in the ‘60s — start in mid-September.

Abney, an OLLI board member, said these classes offer retirees a chance to do something on a whim, for pure enjoyment.

“Most of us are purposeful. We do this or join that to advance our careers,” she said.

“Oddly enough, a lot of us can now afford to be purposeless. There’s not anything we’re trying to prove.”

So Abney’s days are filled with volunteer projects, such as Slow Food Athens, a chapter of the international movement against fast food, and University events.

Her Web browser’s home page is the University master calendar.

Though Abney doesn’t go downtown much at night, she said she’s not big on the No.1 party school label.

She said she figured out pretty quickly that there are three versions of Athens: the city in the lull between semesters, the city in the football off-season and the city on football weekends.

“They’re entirely different places,” she said. “But unfortunately, no one’s excited about sending their son or daughter here.”

Then again, it’s not like Abney needs to go downtown for cheap drinks. A gourmet cook, she has her master’s certificate in wine, something she earned in the country she traded for Athens.