Italy Expat Resources

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 | 1 comment

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 | No Comments

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 | No Comments

New Words in Italian

I’m taking a break from teaching right now, but one of the things I used to have to explain to my students was how the Italian language is a “living language” - it’s still changing, because it’s still being spoken. All languages which are still being spoken are “living languages,” but when you speak one as your native tongue the changes happen gradually enough that you don’t notice them. For instance, those of us who use computer regularly now consider “Google” a verb - as in, “Why don’t you Google that to find out?” - although we can probably all remember a time when that word didn’t even exist. Living languages are exciting and frustrating for the same reason - they’re dynamic.

An example of a new Italian word my Italian teacher taught our conversation group recently is “sherare” - it might not look like a word you know, but it’s pronounced “share-AH-ray.” Sound familiar now? Yes, there’s a word in Italian that means “to share,” but some Italians (obviously those with some knowledge of English) have co-opted the English word and just made it Italian. For those of you who speak Italian, it’s conjugated like any regular “-are” verb. Another note for anyone who hasn’t heard or used it, our Italian teacher’s sister, who still lives in Italy, was shocked and appalled that she’d use it instead of “condividere,” so be warned.

Date: June 7th, 2007 | No Comments

Another Italy Book to Read

I’ve got a giant stack of books beside my bed (not to mention the bookcases which are overflowing in my living room), but it’s kind of a situation of having too many choices - whenever I finish a book, I agonize over what to read next. Perhaps that stems from the idea that no matter how hard I try, I’ll never read everything I want to read in my lifetime. More likely it’s just that I’m a bad decision maker.

At any rate, Shelley of At Home in Rome has given me yet …

Date: May 20th, 2007 | 2 comments