Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Moving to Italy in Sept

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)

- Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)

- - Moving to Italy in Sept (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/moving-to-italy-in-sept-243903/)

Moving to Italy in Sept

My husband and I are relocating to Milan Italy and are looking for an apartment to rent near his work (Via alserio). We will be staying there for 2 years. I am excited but scared. I have never travel to Europe but do speak Spanish, took 3 years of french and a year of italian. I have a teaching degree but haven't found a job. What do you advice in general in regards to renting, jobs, essential items to take, and clothing? Please advice, and thank you in advance for taking the time to respond. cheli

Cheli, While I dearly love Fodors, and there are many expats on this board, you may have more luck if you go to websites specifically for expatriates. There you can get advice from other people who have moved abroad & can give you the best tips on what to take, housing, jobs, etc., and you can probably find Italy-specific info. Just go to www.google.com and type in "expatriate italy" - I checked and thousands of sites came up. Good luck - and congratulations!!

Cheli, Andrea is correct, an expat forum is an excellent place to begin. Here is one to get you started: http://groups.msn.com/expatsinItaly For starters, for me essential items that I brought, or brought back when I returned from the U.S. for a visit: scales, measuring cups, indoor/outdoor thermometer (in farenheit), books I can't live without, food items such as jalepenos, corn tortilla flour, brown sugar.) What I brought too much of: clothes. Last year I bought a VCR player that plays both U.S. and European tapes. I highly recommend it. This has been a life saver. My big purchase item this year, I think, will be an individual DVD player. Also, know Amazon.com is your friend. (try their UK site for expedited shipping), and the New Yorker is the only reliable magazine subscription service. Conde Nast (Gourmet, Vanity Fair, Traveller) subscription "service" is not reliable. I wouldn't plan too much on any kind of teaching job, although you may want to check the private schools or consider teaching English. But most of all, relax and enjoy the experience. In most instances, everything works out, although it doesn't seem like it will at the time.I imagine your husband's company can help a lot with things like housing. Good luck on your move.

Hi. I am Alice and I live in Milano. The area where your husband's office is has lots of large office building but relatively few partment buildings (no single houses in Milano), on the other hand it is pretty near the zara subway station, so that it can be easily accesed frommore or less anywhere. Also consider that apartment rentals in Milano can really be costly: a friend of mine paid 400 euro per month for a 35 mq one room apartment. Yet the area is also nicely connected either by train + subway or by bus to Sesto San Giovanni (former industrial town, now getting to be a nice and quiet residential area with lots of services) and to Monza (small city with a medieval center); moreover these areas are supposed to be somewhat cheaper. In Italy usually houses are rented with no furniture, so you will have to buy everything: from your bed to the kitchen stove. You an also find furnished houses (appartamento ammobiliato), but the furniture is often pitiful and for the most part it is limited to an old bed, a wardrobe that is just as old, some worn-out kitchen stuff and a dying table with a short leg. Since you are just about to start searching for your Italian house, I honestly doubt that you will be able to find it before September: chech if your husband's office might be able to host you in some apartment until you have found a house and funished it. For furniture, Ikea might be the best option.

As for your job, Us teaching degrees are not recognized in italy (and, on the other hand, Italian teaching degrees are not recognized in the Us, AFAIK). If you are after a regular and qualified job you might consider waiting until your Italian has improved and than apply for a non-teaching job. As for waht to take, I agree with Santa Chiara on the necessity to bring your own scales and termometers etc. Italy is on the metric system, so you might find it hard to gauge temperatures, lengths and such thngs (for sure I have to think hard everytime someone talks about "five feet" or "3 oz"). Do not worry too much about books, especally new books: Milano has two medium sized English language bookshops (the American Bookstore and the English Bookshop) and most of the large bookshops of the center have a decent international section (in particular Messaggerie Musicali). "Exotic" food stores are sprouting in every corner, so some of the food items Santa Chiara talks about are available to a degree. Some other are also available at some supermarkets. But forget about stuff like "self raisig flour": Italian housewives tend to prefer fresh and unprocessed food stuff, and add their own baking powder of choice to their own flour of choice etc. One BIG item you should consider whether to bring it from home, buy a new one in Italy or just go wothout is the car. Milano has a good network of public transportation, made of buses, trams, subways and railways that are for the most part safe to use until late night. You will not actually need a car in Milano and you might go without it altoghether, maybe renting a car for a few days whan you feel like exploring some place that can hardly be toured without a car (for instance a week-end in the Chianti area). So just go wothouth for a couple of months, than you will be able to decide whether you really need one or not and whether it would be better to bring your own or buy a new one. The weather of MIlano is usually mild. As you arrive in September you will still need summer clothing, as fall progresses you will need sweathers and jackets, but you will really start to need a wintercoat in November. Usually in winter I wear soldier-like boots, a pair of woolen trousers and a warm sweater when indoors (at home I have more comfortable shoes!!!) plus a wintercoat, a scarf and a hat outdoors, but I am known for my disliking of cold weather. One more thing you will not need in italy is a health insurance: the goverment provides with a National health Service for the needs of every Italian citizen and legal immigant.

Right now I am out of useful suggestions, I will add a few links and feel free to contact me for further informations about MIlano either on the forum or on my private e-mail [email protected]. <a href="http...itcons.com</a>/ (the city Council's site for foreigners residing or having their holidays in Milano) http://www.atm-mi.it/ (public transpportations in Milano + interactive map of the city) http://www.stranieriinitalia.it/inglese/home1.html (guide to the Italian laws concerning the immigrants and their life in Italy) http://www.stranieriinitalia.it/vade...adhomeing.html (how to rent a house in Italy) http://www.milanoin.it/ (what's up in MIlano day by day, in Italian only)