Remote finance jobs/long term life goals

This may end up being a bit rambling, or not the right forum, please move if needed. I'm posting on the IB forum because it seems to be the most active and it's where I am right now, although this topic applies to all forums.

Background
I'm from a middle class background, went to a top target college, and I've been at a mid-tier BB in one of their best sector groups since September. I'm getting good reviews, my group has great culture and there's room to grow in this team. 70-90 hrs/week, with occasional fluctuation past 100. I'm learning a lot, I'm interested in the work and sector, and I'm happy where I am right now. I've been with my girlfriend for 3+ years and I think I see a long term future with her.

The Problem
I (and my girlfriend) have always valued being independent and free, and I don't feel free in this career (golden handcuffs?). I don't feel like I could just quit and do something else for 6 months and then come back and find another job, and do that every few years where this may be more realistic in other career paths. There is The Path and once you're off, you're off. I feel like I am tied to living/working in NY/SF/LA/London/HK/wherever for my entire career and this isn't appealing to me. I was never good enough at programming, but I dabbled, and I always envied the digital nomad lifestyle - perhaps not QUITE so nomadic, but the ability to move around every few years and experience life in many locations/countries is incredibly appealing. You can work anywhere, if you take a few years to go do something else, it doesn't seem to drastically hurt your career - the problem being it's hard to save up enough money to go do something else for a while in "normal jobs".

So is there a fix? Are there areas of the finance industry that match what I want out of my life? I'm not looking for "Oh you don't like NY, in the O&G sector you can live in Houston". I'm smart and amibitous and want to do an interesting job and get paid comfortably, but be free otherwise. Is that just how it is, and there's no real middle ground? For this high paying, interesting career I have to suck it up and accept that there is no real freedom? It's not the hours - in a few years it may be an issue but I don't mind working hard right now. It's being tied to people and places, feeling like you don't have the freedom to up sticks and do your own thing and then get back to it. And it seems like this never goes away. It's not "suffer as an analyst but then you're more free".

Solutions?
I'm a US citizen (my girlfriend is EU citizen) - is it possible to work remotely but live in other countries with cheaper COL? Long-term we want to live in a smaller European city, which is obviously pretty limiting for me outside of remote work. I speak passable Italian but not business fluent and certainly not native. Are there jobs in the finance industry more suited to this lifestyle I am describing? The only plausible solution I can see is get a fully remote 100-200k US finance job after IB (and maybe PE) which would be more than enough to have a good QOL. But idk how realistic this is, how advisble it is, or if it's even legal tax-wise.

I don't know too much about them, but would a MM HF be suitable for this? I've read that you can have pods in satellite locations. How about consulting (I've seen senior consultants take one month off per year), but it seems quite relationship heavy. I don't need to make millions but I want to be comfortable.

I'd be really interested in hearing from mid level people in the finance industry, as well as more junior perspectives from people who feel similar and have maybe figured some solution out, or at least a path towards a solution.

TLDR: Walter Mitty was a good movie.