All -

You are who I always turn to when it comes to travelling, so many people on here are so helpful and knowledgeable - I have a dream and I don't know where to possibly begin.

I would like to live in Italy. Currently I am 26, living alone in Chicago, with 4 cats and a good job. I don't know where in Italy I want to live, I have ideas about tuscany and milano, but I'm sure I need to be furthre educated before making my decision as to where.

My question to all of you is - how do I begin? I've never even traveled to Europe (which I know sounds completely ridiculous to most of you - never having been there but wants to live there).

How do I choose where to live when I do not have the money to travel the country and find my place? How do I know what it would cost, what types of jobs are there for me, how hard or easy it is to survive out there...

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I know I'm asking a lot, but I would love you all to death!!

In order to get a permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay) an Italian employer has to hire you while you are still in the US, but he has to prove no Italian or other foreigner could do the job.

I would also check other expat websites.

I'm looking at the same idea but with Barcelona except I will be self-employed. Check out www.escapeartist.com
www.expataccess.com
to start

I would strongly encourage you to make a trip before you planning a permanent move! Go and stay a couple months to see how it feels to you. How do you know you'll enjoy living in Italy?

As a US citizen getting hired legally to work in Italy is not easy. I would start with the government websites and learn the regulations and likelyhood of finding emmployment.

Jackie, the best expat website when it comes to Italy is www.expatsinitaly.com. Everything is there... visa requirements, job information, geographic data, and there is a message board which has a very active community. It is owned and run by a very nice woman named Cristina who cares a great deal about the community she has created.

There are a few blogs from expats living in Italy regularly posted on slowtrav.com to that you might want to check out.

Definetly travel to Italy first before making a decision to move there. Life for an ex-pat is nothing like you see in the movies. For an American, Italy can be extremely frustrating when trying to deal with all of the beraucratic red-tape.

I lived in Rome for a few months teaching English. My salary was 900 Euro a month and my rent was 550Euro. The montly metro pass was 30 Euro

oops, didn't mean to post my reply yet. To finish, I am a dual Italian-American citizen and found it difficult to get a better job without speaking Italian. You might be able to find more information on www.wantedinrome.com - if you look at the classifieds you can get an idea of what rental costs are and what sort of jobs are out there.

Good luck!!
Francesca

If you are serious, and assuming you don't speak it already, I would start studying Italian a.s.a.p.

To simplify. Assuming you want to work in Italy, you need to satisfy certain conditions. To be blunt, these are practically impossible for almost any 26 yo American. But unless you can satisfy them, there's no point worrying about where.

There MIGHT however be some point in organisinmg your life so you might be able to satisfy them some day.

You need to be one of:
- a citizen of an EU country. If you're American and had the sense to choose an Italian or Irish grandparent, you're almost certtainly fine
- someone with skills demonstrably not available in any EU or EFTA country (that means showing the copy of the Iceland Quantity Surveyor Digest with the ad in. As well as the ad in the corresponding paper in 30 other countries). By definition this excludes teaching English: not only do 65 million citizens of EU countries speak real English, but most travelling Australians, Enzedders and similar lowlifes carry British or Irish passports.
- Or someone (the question being about Italy and not one of Europe's properly governed countries) with a friend who'll bribe an official in the Ministry of Labour to certify you've got unique skills. This is a serious point. Italy long ago abandoned any pretence of being competently governed (which is why thre PM resigned - yet again - tonight, and bribery will get you anywhere. Except into jail
- Or a non-European eligible under their counry's laws to work for their country's armed services if they have a base in Italy, or a certified subcontractor to said services
- Or a non-European getting transferred within their organisation.
- Or someone rich enough to demonstrate they'll bring cash (enough to buy a decent Italian house at least) into the country.

Of these, getting a midmanagement job at JWT, McKinsey, Citibank or BP is by far the easiest. To do that, you need precisely the same skills and qualifications you'd need to get the equivalent job in New York or Cleveland, PLUS preparedness to live in Milan.

On balance, I'd rather be in Cleveland, The weather, the bookshops, the radio and the music are all a great deal better.

Flanneruk,

Is that right/ If your parent is a citizen of an EU country, you can stay in an EU country longer than 90 days?

Only if you yourself are an EU citizen, or you are a dependant and are travelling with your EU-parent (though in this case you may need additional documentation, such as EU family permit or residence permit). Having an EU parent can sometimes, but not invariably, make you eligible for a passport from the same country, but it depends on the country and your circumstances. Sometimes your parent had to be a citizen at the time you were born, or you have to apply before you are 18, or if it's your father, your parents need to be married to each other, and so on.
You need to check your exact position with the relevant embassy.

I had a similar dream except my country of choice is Ireland and fortunately for me my grandfather was born there so I was able to obtain entry into the foreign births registry at the Irish consulate in NYC which then allowed me to obtain an Irish passport.

However, being 13 years older than you I have changed my thoughts on getting a job and moving to Ireland. Now my plan is to visit Ireland as often as I can, at least once a year from now until whenever, pick a location to say in, rent an apartment for the length of time I am there and really check out the place and surrounding area to find out if I really want to live there.

I figure if I do this for the next 20 years by the time I am ready to retire I will have enough savings to buy a small apartment and split my retirement years between the US and Ireland which then gives me a jumping off point to travel to other parts of Europe when spending 6 months in Ireland.

I know this doesn't give you the immediate result you wanted, but from one who had similar thoughts at your age I really had to do some big research before coming to this new dream of mine, which I think is actually more "doable" for me.

Cheers!

Of course, vacation is not real life.

Twenty-six, living in Chicago, with a good job? Sounds like a great life, until you said living alone with 4 cats! Ditch the cats and get yourself off to an Italian vacation!