Moving to Italy - Tips from Zeneba and Matt
/Especially now that we’ve released our memoir detailing our lives in the course of moving and working here in Italy, we get a lot of inquiries about how we did it.
It was an insanely complicated process, of course - which is why we wrote a whole book about it!
But here are a few general points that would apply to anyone hoping to make any kind of move like this…
1. It’s not all just pizza and gelato
As our immigration attorney told us, make sure you know that living in Italy is not all “pizza and gelato”. You will definitely have your fair share of pizza and gelato - especially to eat your feelings when your Plans A, B, and C all go haywire!
But before you get started on the stressful and expensive (but rewarding) journey of moving to Italy, be sure to have a realistic picture of what you'll find in a life here.
2. The Visa
Next: Check the website of the Italian consulate that serves your region to determine which visa is right for you. (Bonus tip: have a bottle of wine open before you read the rules.) Don’t get discouraged! The rules are complicated and the barriers can sound insurmountable, but many people successfully walk this path every year. The Italian government (just like the US government) intentionally makes the process challenging, to weed out un-serious applicants from the start. It is also a great idea to engage the services of a reputable immigration attorney at the beginning, even just for an hour, to determine your eligibility. That is what we did, and that hour-long consultation changed our lives!
3. The Culling (of your stuff)
Take a look around at all your belongings, and get ready to sell or donate most of it. Unless you are George Clooney, you will not be able to afford (logistically, financially, or mentally) to move overseas with most of the things in your house. That sounds scary, but the “letting go” of material items is one of the most liberating and exhilarating aspects of a major move like this. (Bonus tip: You will re-acquire much of that stuff again after you move to Italy, which is actually really fun - until you realize that you gave away 5 spatulas in the US, then bought 4 more spatulas in Italy, and you really only needed one.)
4. Find the right place
Don’t worry about buying a house that is big enough to fit all your friends or family if they come to visit. Instead, choose a town to live in that has a few affordable and nice B&Bs and hotels, and invite your circle to stay at those places when them come to see you. You can even spring for the cost, if you want to be generous.
Choosing a space that suits you will vastly open up your options, and not get you locked in to a place that is too large for you most of the year. Heating and cooling is quite expensive here, and people in large homes often only truly live in one or two rooms for much of the year, to save on costs. Get a smaller place and spend the extra money on wine and truffles!
5. Accept Change
Prepare yourself to regard "change" as an emotional baseline. Get ready to leave the US behind and fully embrace life in Italy - from its extreme beauty to its baffling bureaucracy, from its extraordinary pasta and wine to its outrageously bad peanut butter and egg rolls, and especially the love of “la dolce vita” - which means that stores have limited hours, and you can’t buy a family-size refrigerator any time of day or night.
