How has your life changed in Italy

Hello everyone,

Has your life changed since you moved to Italy? If so, in what way?

Tell us more about all the changes in your life regarding your family, job, or friends. What about your frame of mind? How would you define your mood?

Leisure activities improve our health and social interactions. How much time do you dedicate to leisure activities and networking nowadays?

Would you say that your standard of living has improved in Italy? What income differences have you noticed?

On a scale of 0 to 10, tell us how much your expatriation to Italy has transformed your life (0 = no change, 10 = dramatic change).

We look forward to hearing from you!

Priscilla

Yes my life has changed to around 9 on the scale.
It has been recently a mix of positive and negative experiences. I came here to relax and enjoy a better quality of life, escaping the stress of living in the uk today.
Posotives : The things that appeal to me are the values of family , the extended family, the quality time they take to be together, support each other, wrapped up in the culture, traditions, food and wine. Here people appear to 'work to live' not 'live to work'. The country has masses of culture, have valued its ancient buildings, not knocked them down to be replaced by modern housing estates, motorways, office blocks etc.. the mountains, the coastline, countryside, wildlife and the fact that wild flowers grow in abundance here is due to traditional farming, not intensive. Each day I wake up, walk into town, have coffee in my local bar I appreciate how lucky I am to be here.
Negatives: sadly there is a downside. There are estate agencies that specialise in selling English speaking people houses and land. On the surface, most are very nice people, and one can get seduced by their charm, you then trust them, but my experience with 3 agencies have not been good to say the least. Some have English people working for them, so hey, this is great you think, a fellow countryman who is so friendly, helpful and knowledgeable you cannot help but be charmed by them. Each agency I have come across like this it has been the same, but sadly you get seen as a stupid English person, ripe for exploitation. The 2nd encounter I had I again thought I was being wise, thinking the person in the first agency was the exception to the rule. Exploited in a different way, the third, I witnessed someone else's life here in Italy destroyed by corruption. Again a charming Englishman at the helm.
Since then my family has suffered harassment, a campaign to destroy their reputation due to questioning some financial transactions, locals shouting Brexit and go back to England at the gate, continual damage to property, and manyother examples.
I is sad also that I am 100% sure that other expats have had bad experiences, you do read about it on forums giving reasons for returning, but no one local talks about it, most likely either feeling foolish and or wanting to just keep their heads down and avoid problems.
Once things have gone sour try telling the caribinerri, don't even think about confiding in a local friend as most places the families are interlinked and at the end of the day it is you who is the immigrant.
My advice would be, if you are a sensitive, caring person you need to develop a thick skin, never trust anyone (very sad) even though they seem so genuine and lovely. Get independent legal and geometra input, from as far away from where you are buying as possible. Check every document, get an independant translator, take your time with the buying process, keep all correspondence and you will be fine.......me, I am trying to get on with things here, I don't really want to leave despite early bad experiences, I am improving my Italian, getting involved in local events, enjoying the company of locals, but keeping everyone at arms length until I feel I can confide and have a close friendship here.
I'm not paranoid, but an honest person who would want my experiences to help them. It's well worth it if you can weather the storm and keep your sensible head on. Salute !
Just to add, if you get any niggling doubts during the buying process, listen to these doubts. See if they can be erased if not stop the process. Loosing a small deposit may work out cheaper in the long run.

My life in Italy has been boring day by day.Italians are racist,they don't like we blacks and I hate it so much.I don't have friends here,I stay with my mom and kid bro.I don't have friends to go out with,I hate Italians for being racist. :sosad: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

8 ...only thing same is work.8 hours from 8:30 to 5:30
rest everything is changed in my life ..some bad and some good