I’m knee-deep in research for the husband’s and my attempt at expat-hood, and I haven’t read this site yet, but I’m bookmarking it for futher inspection. I’m halfway through “Live & Work in Italy” by Victoria Pybus, and have “Living Abroad in Italy” (John Moretti) and “The Expert Expatriate” (Melissa Brayer Hess & Patricia Linderman) on my nightstand to follow shortly. I’ve decorated the Pybus book with little sticky flags to refer back to later. I’ve started sending emails to anyone I know who might be able to help with information or assistance.
Man, I hope this all works out. I hate the idea of doing research for nothing…
Seriously, though, the general idea the husband and I discussed late last year when we found out his job was ending is this: we’ll give this thing a try for a few months – follow every avenue we can find to getting him a job in Italy – and see if we’re getting anywhere. If we are, we’ll keep at it. If we’re not, well – at some point we’re going to have to pull the plug and he’ll have to take a job here. Until that point, however, we’re full steam ahead.
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another site you might want to check is http://www.howtoitaly.com
The woman who started this site is from Enland. She really wanted to live in Italy so she worked as a writer/journalist and taught English. Now she has her own successful company started by she and her husband about how to start your own business in Italy.
I have my own secret dreams about doing this, so I bought their book and signed up for their E-newsletter.
They give lots of advice and have responded to my email questions, so I think it’s worth a look!
Hope it can help!
Karen
Seattle, WA
Thanks, Karen! Actually, Emma of How To Italy is a member of BootsnAll, and I’ve exchanged emails with her a bit already. She’s very enthusiastic and full of great information. I’ll have to do a full-fledged post on her at some point!
Great that you are in contact with her! Her web site and newsletters are always filled with encouragement and great ideas for making it happen.
I’ll be curious to read your posts about all you are doing to make this happen. I can live vicariously through you for awhile! Thanks, Jessica!
Karen, Jessica
You might also want to check out Living, Studying and Working in Italy by Travis Neighbor Ward and Monica Larner. Although it is student-orientated it does have loads of resources in and is one of my favourites for actually giving you the flavour of Italy. It’s also an American viewpoint.
Kate Carlisle’s Working and Living Italy is also a good read. Kate is originally from Texas but has also lived in the UK so it combines both perspectives on life in the Bel Paese.
The other must on my bookshelf and one I dip into frequently is Tobias Jones’ A Dark Heart of Italy. It goes beyond the cappuccinos and aperitivos under the Tuscan Sun and gets to grips with what Italy is really about. There’s also a really interesting chapter on language.
Karen, if you’ve bought our book, don’t forget that we run free Skype chats with Mario and myself. They last an hour and you get to ask us any questions at all about working and doing business in Italy. Plus, you get to meet a great bunch of people in the same situation as you.
Jessica, this is a beautiful blog. I’ll be adding it to our links. Complimentissimi.
Ciao
Emma