Italy Moving to Italy
Dreaming of exporting yourself to the Bel Paese? Here are some thoughts and resources on doing just that.
Heading Back to the US Today, Ready or Not
As you read this, it’s likely that I’m en route back to the U.S. after spending nearly six weeks in Italy. And it’s also quite likely that I haven’t changed my mind - I’m not ready to go back yet.
This trip has been intense, and a lot of hard work, and I’m exhausted. I’ve fought off two colds in the last week alone, and am fully expecting that when I let my guard down next week at home I’ll get hit with something that’ll stuff my head up but good. I’m sick to death of the clothes I brought with me. I’m tired of the hard Italian mattress in the Milan apartment (and many of the hostels I stayed in as well). It’ll be nice to be back in my own kitchen again, with the utensils and ingredients I’m already used to. I’m looking forward to seeing my family, my friends, and my cats.
And I’m not ready to leave Italy just yet.
Date: March 27th, 2008 |
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The Keys to an Apartment in Italy
Well, the husband and I finally got to move into our apartment yesterday - we’re renting a furnished apartment from an agency in Milan, and thankfully the place matches the photographs exactly. Between those pictures and doing a little neighborhood research via this maps site (where you can do a bird’s eye view of places), we felt like we already knew what to expect. And the neighborhood itself, called the Città Studi (it’s near a school and apparently full of international students), seems like it’ll do nicely - at least for the time we’re here. The name on the apartment, and therefore on the buzzer outside the building, is Sangiovanni. So until the end of March, we’re calling ourselves Signor and Signora Sangiovanni.
That’s a picture of our keys up there; and I have to say I was more than a little pleased that one of the keys was a giant skeleton-key looking thing. It just makes me smile that there are doors that really open with those things. And it makes me smile even more that I’ve got one of those doors. Frankly, just having the keys to an apartment in Italy is making me smile right now.
Date: February 24th, 2008 |
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Sound Advice on Moving to Italy
To anyone who’s visited Italy, it’s probably not surprising that so many people fall in love with the culture and the country and want to move there. But picking up and moving to Italy can be a complicated proposition, especially since Italy became part of the European Union. That’s why it’s so fantastic that, in this era of a global community in the form of the internet, those of us who are interested in making the move have the insights and wisdom right at our fingertips of the people who’ve already done it.
Sara at Ms. Adventures in Italy (who lives in Milan) is an excellent resource for all kinds of information, from food to travel, and she’s collected some of her best advice in a post here for people interested in moving to Italy. While Sara herself really didn’t do any pre-planning for her move, she doesn’t recommend following her example, especially when the internet has made it so easy to gather the necessary information. The different sections she’s broken down her advice into are on the following topics:
How can I move to Italy?
Where should I live in Italy?
How do I find a job in Italy?
How do I learn/improve my Italian?
When should I move to Italy?
Each topic is covered thoughtfully, both with Sara’s own experiences and with resources she’s come across or found useful. There are a bunch of things to do wrapped up in her advice, but the points I found most interesting were at the end - a few “don’t” messages:
Date: September 13th, 2007 |
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To Learn the Language (and Not Sound Like an Idiot) Pt. 2
I’ve noted before that one of the struggles of learning a new language is going from being reasonably articulate in your native tongue to being reduced to childish phrases and half-sentences in your new language. Well, one of the blogs I’ve quoted before on this subject has another post about it which I think is worth quoting again.
Elizabeth of Cross-Cultural Moments has a way of looking at everyday experiences and extracting meaning from them - meaning that takes the form of cultural collisions (or, if she’s lucky, mere cultural fender-benders) between her American-born self and her adopted home of Italy. She’s completely fluent in Italian, but has recently begun taking lessons in the fine art of writing in, for lack of a better explanation, a more truly Italian way.
As she’s mentioned in the past, Italian writing is much more what we might call “flowery” than American writing tends to be, so learning how to write like an Italian isn’t as easy as just translating the words. Her new post quotes her teacher as saying something I found fascinating:
“English”, he said, “Is free yet not anarchic at all, while Italian full of rules yet anarchic in practice.”
Date: July 10th, 2007 |
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Getting Used to “Italian Time”
I’m a firstborn, which I think means certain things to certain people. I know it does to me. I’m never surprised when I find myself being described as Type A or over-prepared, and the husband has come to accept that if we’re supposed to be somewhere at 8:00 I’m going to want to arrive a few minutes early - just in case. In case of what? Who knows. That’s just the way I am.
So I couldn’t help but cringe a little on the inside when I read Elizabeth’s recent post on time - the way she wants things to be done (as an American-born woman living in Italy) and the way her husband and children expect things to be done (as Italians who are just used to it).
My oldest just finished his first day of the written portion of his maturità exam. Tomorrow is the second day and Monday the third and last. Then there is the oral exam, but he could not know the date that this will take place until today when the class order was chosen out of a hat (first will come section C, then section B) and a letter of the alphabet (S). So, now he knows that he will be the second student of his graduating class of four sections to be grilled to a crispy crust, on the first day of the oral exams, Thursday the 28th. Then he will be free, but we couldn’t know that earlier and he could have possibly finished as late as July 15 had the letter “T” been extracted and the section “B”, so he (and we) couldn’t make plans any earlier than that date. Would that make you crazy?
Date: June 30th, 2007 |
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Making Friends at the Pasticceria
We spent Sunday afternoon wandering around the Brera neighborhood in central Milan, having a lovely little lunch, visiting an art museum (more on that later), and re-visiting a gelato shop we liked from our last trip to Milan. Then, on our way back to the apartment, we passed by a pasticceria near our place and stopped to peek at the window. Little did we know that would lead to one of the more delightful encounters we’ve had so far.
The windows of most pasticcerie are filled with Easter displays these days, including some gigantic chocolate eggs dressed in what seems like acres of colored metallic foil, and I wanted to get some photos of this window near our apartment. I didn’t notice that the proprietress inside wasn’t waiting on anyone at the moment, so she came out to say hello. Thankfully, she wasn’t angry with me taking pictures - on the contrary, she was just being chatty. The husband talked with her while I took a few photos and when he said we were American she asked if he was originally from Italy because of his language skills. Well, we don’t let that kind of compliment go unnoticed, so the husband immediately grabbed her and gave her “due baci,” a kiss on each cheek! She was so delighted, she invited us inside for samples of the delicious pastries in the shop.
Date: February 24th, 2008 |
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Will I ever be witty in Italian?
When I first started learning Italian in the spring of 2001, it was in anticipation of my first trip to Italy. Naturally, then, I focused on “survival Italian” - how to order in a restaurant, how to ask for directions, how to be generally polite to people. When I got back from that trip, after having fallen deeply in love with the country and the culture, I kept up with my studies.
Now, six years later, I’m certainly much further along in the language department than I was back then when I struggled to remember how to count to 20. But I’m also not nearly where I want to be - or where I think I should be after six years. Granted, I’m trying to learn Italian while not actually living in Italy or surrounded by the language, but still. It doesn’t help that I’m a lazy student! To counter some of that laziness, the husband and I have recently started employing a couple of tutors to get us speaking Italian more than once a week with our regular conversation group. It’s been a good exercise, especially leading up to our trip to Milan, but I find myself thinking the same thing over and over again:
I simply cannot imagine a time when I will not struggle with this language.
Date: November 8th, 2007 |
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Resources for Italian Expressions
I’m a huge fan of Italian sayings, so I was very pleased to come across a few pages on the Moving2Italy2 blog that deal with Italian sayings and expressions. Each page is a collection of links to other websites, and each page is occasionally updated with more information, so they’re worth bookmarking and returning to.
The first page deals with Italian Language Survival Phrases, so would be a good page to browse through before your upcoming trip to Italy. There are sound clips for many of the links, which is …
Date: July 14th, 2007 |
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Learning from Other Expat Wannabes
I have a ridiculously long list of blogs related to Italy which I try to keep up with on a semi-weekly basis, and I’m still finding more blogs to add to the list. I just found one that I think will be useful to anyone who’s contemplating a move to Italy - Moving2Italy2.
The author of Moving2Italy2, Ben, began posting in November of 2005 because he and his wife were planning a move to Italy “in the next 3-4 years.” Well, according to the counter on the blog’s homepage they’re moving in …
Date: July 2nd, 2007 |
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Visa Change: No Work Permits Required for 3 Month Stays
Good news for anyone who’s looking for more time than a two-week vacation in Italy, but isn’t quite sure they want to become permanent residents:
Foreigners can now live in Italy for study or work for up to three months without the dreaded stay permit (permesso di soggiorno).
It’s not yet official, although it seems to be only awaiting the equivalent of a rubber stamp, but once it’s a done deal it’ll be a fantastic thing for people who want the experience of working on an olive farm, teaching English, taking a class or …
Date: June 22nd, 2007 |
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