ever feel like you just want to move to italy?
May 25th, 2006, 01:54 AM
#21
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I currently reside in the USA, lived in Italy for 4 years and have a house in Teramo. Have given your question a bit of thought. Have come to believe that Italy would be a tough place to live if you had to scratch out a living there. Conclusion I reached was to earn $ in America and travel back and forth as much as possible. Hope to keep it up when/if I retire in 5 years.
Casale www.angelfire.com/film/casale
Casale www.angelfire.com/film/casale
May 26th, 2006, 04:14 AM
#23
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I did just pack up and move to Italy. I lived there for 2 years before coming back to the U.S. Yes, daily life is frustrating, but daily life is frustrating everywhere. It is extremely difficult to find employment, so unless you are independently wealthy, lack of funds quickly becomes an issue. It is also pretty expensive to live there on an Italian salary, especially with the increasing inflation of the last several years.
I was 22 when I moved to Italy. At 30, I'm not sure I could handle the lack of creature comforts. At 22, it seemed like an adventure. Now it just seems like an inconvenience.
With that said, however, I still try to go back every single chance I get. It is an incredible place to visit.
I was 22 when I moved to Italy. At 30, I'm not sure I could handle the lack of creature comforts. At 22, it seemed like an adventure. Now it just seems like an inconvenience.
With that said, however, I still try to go back every single chance I get. It is an incredible place to visit.
May 26th, 2006, 09:04 AM
#24
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I spent 4 months living in Italy while I was in college. I distinctly remember spending the first two months in a "honeymoon" state- thinking I could live there forever... I spent the last two missing all my independent and conveinences from home. I will never forget how it would take our Italian friends 6 months just to get phone service in their apartments, how our windows had no screens and giant mosquitos would attack at night, and how fat I got eating 4 courses at dinner every night! Man could I pack in the pasta! (LOL)- how people stay skinny is beyond me. It's so easy to fall in love with that beautiful country- but I could never live there!
May 26th, 2006, 04:42 PM
#25
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I used to go to Italy and a lot of other places in Europe on business in my former life, the world of work. Expats I ran into were desperate for trivial bits of news from home, to talk American English if only for just a few moments, to come in contact with people who really understood them and could talk about ideas that they understood on a mutual basis. They were starved for intellectual companionship and dreamed of re-entering the world they once knew but had given up to follow a dream that turned into a sour reality. Most were wistful for so many things we in America take for granted. In a way, it was sort of sad.
May 26th, 2006, 05:42 PM
#26
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Do I ever feel like I want to move there?
Only every time I visit.
And I had the 45 second fantasy on our trip in Sept/Oct. 2005 when my husband was actually offered a job there, complete with free lodging......oh, if only!
Melodie
Only every time I visit.
And I had the 45 second fantasy on our trip in Sept/Oct. 2005 when my husband was actually offered a job there, complete with free lodging......oh, if only!
Melodie
May 26th, 2006, 06:38 PM
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Hi
I have been going to Italy for many summers since I was a teenager. Why not have the best of both worlds and become a teacher in the US and spend summers off in Italy. Or if this is too drastic, just set aside a couple of months to get Italy out of your system and rent an apartment in Rome, live there then come back to US. That's what I did. It worked somewhat.
I have been going to Italy for many summers since I was a teenager. Why not have the best of both worlds and become a teacher in the US and spend summers off in Italy. Or if this is too drastic, just set aside a couple of months to get Italy out of your system and rent an apartment in Rome, live there then come back to US. That's what I did. It worked somewhat.
May 26th, 2006, 06:55 PM
#28
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I do want to just move to Italy, Florence in particular. But then I got to thinking...what would I do? I could certainly work for a museum there, but my Italian isn't even enough to carry a coherent conversation unless every conversation began with <i>Dove</i> and ended with whatever noun I was trying to find.
That snapped me back to reality fast, so all I dream of now is to live in Florence to learn the language and work for a place that requires me to speak English. Basically, be a student living there with the "go home" card safely in my back pocket.
Of course, I'd like to do this all over Europe, but Florence is where my heart belongs currently.
That snapped me back to reality fast, so all I dream of now is to live in Florence to learn the language and work for a place that requires me to speak English. Basically, be a student living there with the "go home" card safely in my back pocket.
Of course, I'd like to do this all over Europe, but Florence is where my heart belongs currently.
May 28th, 2006, 01:32 AM
#29
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"I'm not sure I could handle the lack of creature comforts. At 22, it seemed like an adventure. Now it just seems like an inconvenience."
Nnolen, not to be rude, but this baffles me - what lack of creature comforts? The only thing I miss about the US is 24-hour supermarkets. In terms of quality of life, I think we live a lot better in Italy - indeed, that's why so many Americans wish they could live here.
Any American goods I want (books, mostly) I can easily get from Amazon. So what's to miss?
best regards,
Deirdré Straughan
beginningwithi.com
Nnolen, not to be rude, but this baffles me - what lack of creature comforts? The only thing I miss about the US is 24-hour supermarkets. In terms of quality of life, I think we live a lot better in Italy - indeed, that's why so many Americans wish they could live here.
Any American goods I want (books, mostly) I can easily get from Amazon. So what's to miss?
best regards,
Deirdré Straughan
beginningwithi.com
May 28th, 2006, 03:26 AM
#30
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I always think of moving to Italy. Venice is my favorite city, but I'd live on Burano. There's something about that isle that bewitches me.
I am an italian citizen because of my mom and I speak italian, so moving to Italy would be the most natural thing to do.
However, whenever I watch the RAI, I realize that the Italy I love is the Italy for tourists. The real Italy is the one we watch on the RAI with the same problems we have in our own countries.
I know that there are people who move there or get a job there at least for some time and actually have the time of their life.
Whenever I feel like moving to Italy, I just turn on the RAI and watch the news and I immediately think: "That Italy that we see in bookguides and that we experience when we go there it's an illusion".
It would be a totally different situation if I were rich. I am sure that George Clooney is certainly experiencing the Dolce Vita and he's certainly not dealing with the problems you watch on TV, but those of us who actually have to get a job there and worry about money don't think that will experience that kind of life.
I have family all around Italy: Bari, Rome, Bergamo and Milan. They're economically OK, but they're certainly not living the life we watch on movies where they represent all italians as picturesque-mandolin-wine-pizza-lovers who talk aloud and have a big heart and are waiting for foreigners to open their hearts.
And that's the RAI International, which I think it is a channel strictly for italians who fled their countries in the 1950's looking for a better life. What do I mean with that? I mean that the RAI International also loves showing programs about this Fellini Italy that make all italians around the world feel nostalgia for the Italy they left.
The RAI in Italy is totally different. They show "Desperate Housewives", "Will & Grace" and all sorts of american programs that italians also love, MTV Italy shows Hip-hop and rock videos that are what many people listen to and, to sum it up, they have regular lives just like us which are very far from the whole italian cliché.
Of course, that's my personal opinion and I totally respect what other people think.
I am an italian citizen because of my mom and I speak italian, so moving to Italy would be the most natural thing to do.
However, whenever I watch the RAI, I realize that the Italy I love is the Italy for tourists. The real Italy is the one we watch on the RAI with the same problems we have in our own countries.
I know that there are people who move there or get a job there at least for some time and actually have the time of their life.
Whenever I feel like moving to Italy, I just turn on the RAI and watch the news and I immediately think: "That Italy that we see in bookguides and that we experience when we go there it's an illusion".
It would be a totally different situation if I were rich. I am sure that George Clooney is certainly experiencing the Dolce Vita and he's certainly not dealing with the problems you watch on TV, but those of us who actually have to get a job there and worry about money don't think that will experience that kind of life.
I have family all around Italy: Bari, Rome, Bergamo and Milan. They're economically OK, but they're certainly not living the life we watch on movies where they represent all italians as picturesque-mandolin-wine-pizza-lovers who talk aloud and have a big heart and are waiting for foreigners to open their hearts.
And that's the RAI International, which I think it is a channel strictly for italians who fled their countries in the 1950's looking for a better life. What do I mean with that? I mean that the RAI International also loves showing programs about this Fellini Italy that make all italians around the world feel nostalgia for the Italy they left.
The RAI in Italy is totally different. They show "Desperate Housewives", "Will & Grace" and all sorts of american programs that italians also love, MTV Italy shows Hip-hop and rock videos that are what many people listen to and, to sum it up, they have regular lives just like us which are very far from the whole italian cliché.
Of course, that's my personal opinion and I totally respect what other people think.
May 28th, 2006, 04:15 AM
#31
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"On our last day in Rome, before heading to Sorrento, I thought to myself, "I just don't want to leave this place."
Hah! You'll change you mind the as soon as you try to send a letter, get your washing machine fixed or have to deal with the government bureaucracy.
People go on vacation for a week and think that they have a clue what real daily life would be like are fooling themselves.
Hah! You'll change you mind the as soon as you try to send a letter, get your washing machine fixed or have to deal with the government bureaucracy.
People go on vacation for a week and think that they have a clue what real daily life would be like are fooling themselves.
May 30th, 2006, 08:30 AM
#32
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Deidre -
Everyone's experiences in Italy are different and I was living the lifestyle of a waitress who was living in the south of Italy (and for a little while in the middle of Italy) with a construction worker who was paid 1600 lira (not euros, lira) a month.
So, the creature comforts I am referring to are: air conditioning in the summer (especially in the car - gets awfully hot when traffic is stopped), clothes dryers, other general time saving appliances, heat in the winter, screens on my windows (I'm very prone to mosquito bites), ice in drinks, ease of transportation (if you don't have a car it can be a pain in the butt to try and get around), ceiling fans (or any fan), etc.....
While I realize that all of those things are "available" in Italy, they are available at a price that was not within my reach (or within the reach of many Italians, especially in the South).
That said, I still love Italy, so I'm not knocking it too hard.
Everyone's experiences in Italy are different and I was living the lifestyle of a waitress who was living in the south of Italy (and for a little while in the middle of Italy) with a construction worker who was paid 1600 lira (not euros, lira) a month.
So, the creature comforts I am referring to are: air conditioning in the summer (especially in the car - gets awfully hot when traffic is stopped), clothes dryers, other general time saving appliances, heat in the winter, screens on my windows (I'm very prone to mosquito bites), ice in drinks, ease of transportation (if you don't have a car it can be a pain in the butt to try and get around), ceiling fans (or any fan), etc.....
While I realize that all of those things are "available" in Italy, they are available at a price that was not within my reach (or within the reach of many Italians, especially in the South).
That said, I still love Italy, so I'm not knocking it too hard.
May 30th, 2006, 10:46 AM
#33
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Imhornet: "People go on vacation for a week and think that they have a clue what real daily life would be like are fooling themselves."
Wow, lmhornet, way to take the sparkle out of my after-vacation glow. I'm not pretending to know what daily life is like in Italy. But, can't a girl love a place so much that she fantacizes about what life would be like?
Many people have posted interesting, fun and insightful comments on this forum. Maybe, lmhornet, you should take a cue from our fellow forodites.
Wow, lmhornet, way to take the sparkle out of my after-vacation glow. I'm not pretending to know what daily life is like in Italy. But, can't a girl love a place so much that she fantacizes about what life would be like?
Many people have posted interesting, fun and insightful comments on this forum. Maybe, lmhornet, you should take a cue from our fellow forodites.
May 31st, 2006, 05:36 AM
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Maybe in Tuscany area but not Rome. It's like all other metropolitan city with graffitis, transients and dirty. I visited Rome numerous times and enjoyed the sights and galleries but to stay and live there, I would rather be in California than in Rome. This is just my personal opinion and others may have a different outlook of Rome itself.
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