New members of the Italy forum, introduce yourselves here - 2021

Hi everyone,

My name is Bouchra, but everyone calls me Eli. Im a Belgian native but moved from London to Milan due to a work opportunity.
I moved with my husband but the pandemic hasnt allowed much socialising, sadly.
I hope 2021 will be different and will allow us to meet new friends.

Eli

Hi am boateng Emmanuel from Ghana am a native of Ashanti kingdom 26years of age and I want to make friends from outside Ghana and if possible work with them *** I am a job seeker and am here purposely to seek for a job to Carter for my family

No. Mi dispiace, puoi scrivermi qua. Un saluto

Greetings!  New member here.  I've beef a chef for over 25 years and hoping to relocate and retire in the Campania region of Italy.  I am currently residing i. Tucson AZ. USA

You are welcome

Welcome

Hi all,
I have just moved with my wife and daughter from Tokyo,Japan.
My wife has a two year posting here with the WFP.
We are currently in isolation for 14 days, therefore, I am looking forward to explaoring the city/country ( pandemic  permiting) in the near future. Also getting involved in the community and socialising with new people.

Hello everyone,

A warm welcome to all of you

You will surely be looking for information and advice to make your move to Italy be a successful one.

Feel free to ask your questions on the Italy forum by starting new threads.

Another great resource from which you can gather quite a bit of info is the Living in Italy guide.

Best of luck to everyone,

Diksha

Hi Guys,
I'm an ICU (intensive care) nursing sister specializing in OZONE therapy. Currently living in Cape Town but originally from Vienna. I'm relocating with my South African husband to Italy in late 2021. We will be opening an Ozone Therapy clinic once there but we are not sure where to live. Our preference is middle Italy like Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Le Marche & Lazio.
We would like to be with English speaking expats until our Italian is up to speed.
Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Hi everyone, thanks for the great info here. I'm a professor in the Midwest and my spouse and I are considering summers abroad and potentially year-round after retirement in ~20 years. Mexico seems more feasible financially, but I lived in Roma for over a year and absolutely loved it. We lean toward Sicila or maybe Campania or Puglia to get warmest winters eventually, although for summers any decent beach should work (and I am a little concerned about what I read about summer heat in the south). We live simply and would love a small coastal village. We don't mind a 15-30 minute walk to the beach and we are frugal, don't need a lot of pricey space or the hippest location. We practice Italian every day and hope to keep improving, but very open to an expat enclave too. Would love to hear any ideas and reactions, love the shares here! Thank you!

Hey all,

We are relocating to Bologna in July for my husband's job. As of the moment it is for two years, but it is academia, so you can never know. We will be coming with some basic Italian and a few other languages, so hoping for some social life even with the Covid around.

If anybody has any advice or any words of wisdom, they will be greatly appreciated.

Julie

Milts03 wrote:

Hi all,
I have just moved with my wife and daughter from Tokyo,Japan.
My wife has a two year posting here with the WFP.
We are currently in isolation for 14 days, therefore, I am looking forward to explaoring the city/country ( pandemic  permiting) in the near future. Also getting involved in the community and socialising with new people.

Hi Milts, can I send you a message regarding the quarantine and others procedures you encountered when arriving? We are relocating in the summer, and I'd love to know what to expect. Thank you, Julie.

Hello! My husband and I are retired and have recently purchased a townhouse in Ugento in the region of Salento. Very happy but one mistake we made was that there is no train station nearby. Lovely area of over a 100 small towns under 12,000 people. We found a place just right for us but not a town for a start-up business. Your best bet is a larger city like Bari, Brindisi, maybe Pescara with more possibilites and bigger population. Abruzzo is a lovely area with good prices for homes. Remember that you will be at a disadvantage buying a home in the mountains or on top of hills far away from train stations. Buses are the best, most reliable way to travel. Cars very expensive along with insurance. Good luck!!

Hello! My husband and I live in the Pacific NW near the Canadian border. We retired and recently bought a townhouse in a little town in the Puglia/Salento region called Ugento. We speak no Italian and have no idea how we will manage daily living but look forward to the adventure while we can! We have both been vaccinated and will fly in Sept to close the deal and get settled. However, we only plan to live 6 months of the year there and use our home as a rental in the hottest part of the summer when income is good. We will go home to the U.S. in the summer months. We love the choice we made in housing as it is perfect for two older people. There are tons of inexpensive beautiful villas all over southern Italy but in the end, we had to be realistic. We didn't want to pay for groundskeepers, housekeepers, maintenance agencies to manage larger properties and our #1 priority is to spend the cold winter months there! You will find if you choose Tuscany, or in the mountains or even up in the hills, it can get very cold. We wanted to go as far south as possible for the winter months. Salento is a great region but remember there are over a hundred small towns under the population of 12,000 and without a car, you will need to use buses unless you choose a town with a train station, then that will be so much easier. We don't have a station near us, so we will have some challenges as we don't want the expense of owning a car and paying insurance on it for only 6 months of the year. Remember, if you are a full time resident, you will pay high income taxes (23%) in Italy regardless of the size or value of your home. If you keep a holiday home half the year, you pay no income tax. As a non-resident, you can't stay longer than 3 months, then must leave for 3 months and then can return for 3 months for a total of 6 months a year. Not great, but we will make the sacrifice of flying to Italy twice a year a it is worth it to us! Also, remember that being a country of the EU, your 3 month limit includes any other country in the EU, so if we left Italy after 3 months, we couldnt just go visit our son in Poland for 3 months and return! This does not apply however to the UK so we can visit our other son there. If you keep the home for at least 5 years, when you turn around to sell it, you won't have to pay capital gains tax which can be very high.

We are extremely excited for September to come. We've both been vaccinated and are ready. There will be many challenges for folks our age (my husband is a retired CFO and myself a retired ICU RN). We decided we could either sit around in our recliners for the next viable 10 years or we can have wonderful adventures! We have traveled a lot and our two sons live in Warsaw and London so we must travel a lot. I urge you to get on-line and find the site "Salento with Love" with Davide Mergoli. He is a property finder and an incredible history buff as well. All his videos are free on You Tube but the most helpful are all the ones on buying property in Italy (taxes, fees, regions differences etc). We found our own home before we found him, but he managed all the legal stuff so far at no charge, other than the 1.5% he charged us to arrange the purchase, everything in the sale: get all the papers filed, contracts done, provided notary and escrow and lawyer advise all at no extra charge. We would highly recommend his help and his videos will explain what he does. We think it's a necessity if you are a foreigner buying in Italy!! Good luck and hope your dreams come true! If they do, maybe we can meet someday. P.S. We did make one mistake in purchasing a house in Ugento. There is no train station there and so you either rent a car from the airport or take a 3 hr bus ride to the town! Even so, we would never change our mind and would have bought the place anyway. So, take the convenience of how close to a station you will be in mind. Also, big city or tiny town.. Your choice. We are a 10 minute bike ride to a gorgeous beach that looks like the Maldives!! Warm regards to you and your wife. One of the sites we browsed was A Place in the Sun to get an idea of prices. They are in the UK and Gateway is another large site. But Salento with Love is a smaller site but provides more help I think.

Appreciative!!

Buon giorno,
Ciao. My name is Joy.  I am new to this forum, but I would like to meet new friends. I lived, and worked in Naples, Italy 🇮🇹 for a little over 3 years, and have visited numerous countries. Over the last 7 years I have traveled to Europe. With Covid my travel is at a standstill. I miss traveling. I am currently living in the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area. USA 🇺🇸
Grazie Millie.
Joy

Hi everyone my name is Maria. I am hoping to retire in the Southern part of Italy within the next couple of years.
Currently I live in Central Europe teaching English. 
I'm interested in connecting with other expats who can give me helpful suggestions to make my move less stressful,
My objective is to first visit and get a "feel" of the different areas.
Thank you so much!

Hi ,

My name is Stéphanie Vloeberghs.
I was about to start a food shop with my partner with Sicilian food and products, but Covid 19 has put an end to that. So we came last year from Belgium to Italy.
We live in a house, in the Palermo region, on the countryside.

Every now and then I do some freelance jobs from behind my computer.
But I am looking for security and a more regular salary.

So I am looking for a job through various channels where my qualities can be used.


I have experience as a production assistant on film sets, as the owned of my own lunchbar in Belgium, as a manager of an indoor food market, as a chef in a hotel restaurant, and I have years of experience in freelance jobs as a photographer, singer, stylist, interior stylist, massage therapist and writer.

I lived and worked abroad in Sevilla, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Dublin, London, Mallorca and France.

I speak fluently English and I believe it could be valuable in the tourism or real estate sector , especially in high season , as I realized that not many Sicilians speak the language. 

I also speak French , Spanish and Dutch.

I know its not easy to find a job when I dont speak the language but I believe there must be some company that can make good use of my qualities .

So I offer my services everywhere possible.

If anybody has anything in mind, dont hesitate to contact me!

Best regards ,

Stéphanie

Hello! My suggestion is to get on-line and find the "Sarento with Love" site! Davide Mergoli is the owner and agent and he doesn't charge you anything looking for places for you and we only had to pay very reasonable prices for a POA (apostille), filing and  geotecca (inspection). He has a few You-Tube videos that are fantastic explaining the steps of purchasing property in Italy. He lived in the UK for 25 years and speaks English in his videos. Really clear and simple to follow. His office is outside Lecce. My husband and I who are retired, could not have found a better, more honest man to help us through all the steps. He videoed the house we fell in love with from top to bottom and this allowed us to buy sight unseen as it is just what we had been looking over a year for. Good luck!!

Hello everyone,
I am a Belgian student in interior design and I plan to move to live and work in Italy within a year. I'd like to work in a design store and learn how to manage it.
I'm searching for information but to be honest, I really don't know where to start.   
Does anyone have any tips for planning this project ?
Thank you!

Buongiorno ragazzi!

My name is Brandy. I am preschool teacher from Hawai'i. I live in a small town on one of the smallest islands and I had never left Hawaii before.. I've had no desire to travel or leave until recently since I have turned 25. Living on a small island in a small town my entire life has made me want to experience a new place and it led me to doing plenty of research about different countries all over the world which I had little to no interest about prior. I never cared for traveling and I hate airplanes. When studying countries Italy just stuck with me.. I've never wanted to leave Hawai'i because I have a perfect life here but after studying the country and seeing various photos and videos of the many magical places, the food, the people, and rich culture I now feel compelled to visit.. and maybe even move there.

It's a strange feeling, to feel very emotionally connected to a place I have never been. I know beauty, I am surrounded by it in Hawai'i and it is absolute paradise here but Italy really stands out to me. I am now moving to Firenze in 2 months to study beginner Italian Language and culture. I had never left Hawaii and I am so excited. How can I be already in love with a place I have never been yet? I have been building up a savings and I am hoping to move to Italy with my dog permanently if I end up loving it, and when pandemic gets better.

I have never left Hawaii and never lived abroad so if anyone has any useful advice I would greatly appreciate it!!!! Grazie mille!

Hello,
My name is Andrew "Z". Difficult to pronouns our last name, so then “Z” is good. Some people call me Andy, and I am fine with that. My wife and I were born in Europe and moved to the USA more than 30 years ago. The time passes by very quickly and we are approaching retirement age. Concerning about that stage of our life, we are thinking to move “back” to Europe. But we would like to be “somewhere” in a warm climate. Why not here in the USA, for example in Florida and/or N/S Carolina's? The Florida we found very humid and Carolina we do not know at all. We traveled through Europe several times with our children. Because of the Mediterranean climate, we would love to move to Italy. Our focus is on Liguria and Lazio, perhaps Tuscany. However, as we were exited few weeks ago, to see so many houses on a market, after exploring the lists we are disappointed. We cannot find what we are looking for. Like some said in a forum, it important to be close to public transportation: train and/or buses. Local shops, local restaurants/cafes in walking distance are important too.                                                       
In addition, we do not know anything about tax implications and health system in Italy.
We try to learn. We are trying to read. I am glad I came across this forum, because I believe that I can learn a lot from other post's, advises, recommendations.
Because the bottom line is “is our dream suitable for us”. Hopefully we will find some answers on this forum.

Thank you

hello my wife and I moved from Canada to italy , we are both retired and living in the Brindisi area, would love to talk to couples in and around the area. Thanks.
my name is Tonino and my wife is Suzanne.

are the airports open to fly to Italy?

andyzdz wrote:

Hello,
My name is Andrew "Z". Difficult to pronouns our last name, so then “Z” is good. Some people call me Andy, and I am fine with that. My wife and I were born in Europe and moved to the USA more than 30 years ago. The time passes by very quickly and we are approaching retirement age. Concerning about that stage of our life, we are thinking to move “back” to Europe. But we would like to be “somewhere” in a warm climate. Why not here in the USA, for example in Florida and/or N/S Carolina's? The Florida we found very humid and Carolina we do not know at all. We traveled through Europe several times with our children. Because of the Mediterranean climate, we would love to move to Italy. Our focus is on Liguria and Lazio, perhaps Tuscany. However, as we were exited few weeks ago, to see so many houses on a market, after exploring the lists we are disappointed. We cannot find what we are looking for. Like some said in a forum, it important to be close to public transportation: train and/or buses. Local shops, local restaurants/cafes in walking distance are important too.                                                       
In addition, we do not know anything about tax implications and health system in Italy.
We try to learn. We are trying to read. I am glad I came across this forum, because I believe that I can learn a lot from other post's, advises, recommendations.
Because the bottom line is “is our dream suitable for us”. Hopefully we will find some answers on this forum.

Thank you

Hello Andy Liguria and lazio are not the warmest climate, you would need to go further south , if you were born in Europe it shouldnt be hard to get the tessera sanitario, you will probably need to get a permesso di sogiorno first. that takes time, rougly 6 months to get. not sure what you mean about tax implications?

Hi, as the USA citizens we need to fill and pay taxes to Uncle Sam. At this moment we have no idea how we would do it. Would we "save" some money living abroad compared to living in the USA?
Thank you,
Andrew

Hello Andy! We are retired US citizens and live near Seattle.  I agree. We wanted to spend the colder months in Italy and after a year of looking on-line, we knew the only way to get warm winters was to go as far South as possible. Tuscany was lovely, but winters are still pretty cold. We ended up with a holiday home (6 months a year planned) in the region of Salento. My husband and I are just about ready to close on a townhouse and our search was made very easy! Check out the free You Tube videos done by Davide Mengoli. He is a native Italian from Salento who spent 25 years in London until he retired. He started his own business due to boredom in early retirement. He is fabulous. All the videos are free, and many include how to understand the laws and tax info. He charged us nothing except what he will make on the sale to us which is 3 % from the seller and 1 1/2% from us. You will learn everything you need to know. He walked us through everything and we are so lucky as he speaks fluent English and coordinated our business dealings with our Italian-only-speaking power of attorney and notary and geotecca (inspector). We are very pleased and it has been such a smooth process. Good luck!

Hello,
Thank you for your encouragement.  I watched one of Davide video. It is impressive, I have to say it. You were/are lucky to find such a person. Do you think I could connect with him and ask him for help? How would I do it?
I agree that Tuscany can be cold during winter, however not as could as it can be here in tri state area. On the other hand, I spent about 2 weeks in Sicilia during summer (July) and it was ….hot (!). Very hot. I am planning to spend pretty much the whole time in Italy when I retire, therefore I would be more comfortable in some mild climate, I suppose.  Many people here in tri-state area, travel for a winter down to Florida, coming back for a summer here. It is not my goal to travel back and forth between the USA and Italy.  How hot summer can be in Salento area?
I would appreciate any advice. Thank you. And good luck to you, too.
Regards,
Andrew

Hi there
Thank you so much for all of your helpful advice. I've owned a little townhouse in Galati near Brancaleone for 10 years and like you I will do 3 months out of 6 to make it work for me now I'm retired.
Galati is a small village in Calabria and I'm close to the beach/sea. It is my little piece of heaven.
I agree that it's important to be near public transport however I think I will buy a lhd car in uk and leave it in italy. I can then insure in uk which is less cost than italy. Also to own a car in italy you have to take Italian driving test.
I wish you every success in your new adventure.
Kind regards, elaine

Re buying a 2nd hand ca and leaving it in Italy, you do realize you have to re-register it if you have a car here in Italy for more than 6 months? Its not an easy process either but that aside having a car with the driver on the wrong side, on the kerb not the central line, makes it very difficult to over take safely as well as other issues.
Yes Italian car insurance is very expensive for just 3rd party but you can bring your UK no claims over to help reduce it a little.
Another option is to do a deal with a car hire firm for a long rental term and this can be done from the UK where it will be a lot cheaper. Perhaps less costly than buying a car and insuring it if you are here for just a few months a year? Also saves the worry of having a car stolen if it is to be left for many months at a time.
Good luck,
Marguerite

Hello,
In between the lovely regions of Puglia and Calabria is the beautiful region of Basilicata, where I live.
Not as well known as it's neighbours, but every bit as warm and welcoming as them.
Summers here can be very hot. The months of July and August in particular. Tourists flock here while all the locals try to escape to cooler climates! I am quite fortunate because I live on top of a mountain, so benefit from slightly cooler summers.
Property, either buying or renting, will be very reasonably priced in both Calabria and Basilicata. More expensive in Puglia. General living costs here are very good, power, water, rates, food etc very cheap.

Thanks Owen for the info! We won't be very far away as we bought a holiday home in Ugento and hope to be there in September. Are you English or American? How is the language barrier? We traveled a lot in Italy before buying but never that far South so this will be quite a new adventure! We chose the Salento area because we wanted as warm a place in the winter months as we could get.  We hope to spend 3 months at a time there and visit twice a year. Sure wish we could stay a full 6 months all together but we are so thrilled to have a home in Italy! Let us know a bit more about your region when you can. What brought you there?

louloumura70 wrote:

Thanks Owen for the info! We won't be very far away as we bought a holiday home in Ugento and hope to be there in September. Are you English or American? How is the language barrier? We traveled a lot in Italy before buying but never that far South so this will be quite a new adventure! We chose the Salento area because we wanted as warm a place in the winter months as we could get.  We hope to spend 3 months at a time there and visit twice a year. Sure wish we could stay a full 6 months all together but we are so thrilled to have a home in Italy! Let us know a bit more about your region when you can. What brought you there?

Congrats on your purchase, you will love it in Italy. My wife and I retired here it will be 2 years in July since moving from Canada. Ugento is a little over an hour from Brindis. Love to meet you guys when your here. Stay in touch.

Hi Bettinamaria,
Your job sounds fascinating and would go very well with the services that are offered at the health spas located not far from us at San Casciano dei Bagni between here and Montipulciano there are 5 more hot spring venues at Chianciano Terme, both located in southern Tuscany but very close to Umbria so very possible to buy with cheaper property costs and lower taxes but be near to the spa's.
Hope you find what you want,
Ciao for now
Marguerite

I'm not in Italy right now, but soon I'm going there to open a new IT project. I am told that you have awesome cuisine, can't wait to compare our pizza to the original one. Since you have a lot of showplaces, do you have some kind of services where I can check the level of the city's safety? Something like this one https://www.travelsafe-abroad.com/united-states/miami/, but for Italy cities. Primarily I'm interested in Covid-19 info. I don't know how you manage it in Europe, so... As for the rest, I can't wait to visit one of the oldest and most beautiful countries.

Hi, the situation regarding COVID is getting better in Italy. Since this week travelling within Italy is allowed without any special reason among yellow regions. Almost all regions are in yellow zone, except few ones. All shops and restaurants are open but actually only until 10PM. There will be further openings in the coming weeks. Everybody can't wait to get back to normal life, specially in summer. Looks like from June/July thing will slowly go back to normality. More information you can find here https://it.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/  and here https://www.alitalia.com/en_en/fly-alit … ghts.html.

-Under comune.nameofcity.it you will find lates info on city
-https://lab.gedidigital.it/gedi-visual/2020/coronavirus-i-contagi-in-italia/
you will find the situation per region and province, the colorcoding as well. above 250 per 100.000 infections the region goes to orange/red and restrictions will apply.
-http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/nuovocoronavirus/dettaglioContenutiNuovoCoronavirus.jsp?area=nuovoCoronavirus&id=5351&lingua=italiano&menu=vuoto
also available in english

Now your intion should be the other way around. You would like to compare the original pizza( italy) to the one they serve at your hometown...

Cheers,

Steve

Hello
We are buying a property in Tuscany near Cortona.

A slow process with covid, but hopefully will be ours for this summer.

We live in the UK but hope to move to Italy when the children have all left home.