This is the second post about the kitchen remodel. Have a look first, at Part 1 to see how the kitchen looked originally. When I returned from California, having vacated the apartment for two months for the lavori pesante---the "heavy works" as my architect termed it---this is how the place looked: While I needed an architect for the kitchen remodel, I wanted to
Read Moremoving to Italy
The Kitchen Remodel (Part 1)
Please everyone, for the love of god, check the chimney! If there's a chimney over a stove in the Italian house you're considering purchasing, don't do what I did. How did I manage to not look under the chimney? The geometra didn't mention it when I walked through with him and I didn't think of it. I know, epic fail! But I was so focused on the SIZE of the room. Yes, size
Read MoreA New Life In Sicily: Vineyards, Volcanos, and Chickens
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Here is Rachel Villa who moved from California to Sicily Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? My father was an officer in the US Navy, and we lived in Florida, California, Hawaii, and Japan. But I had never been to Europe. When I was 18, attending
Read MoreAn Australian Opens a Bistrot in Florence
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Here is Chloé Guest who opened a bistrot/microbakery in Florence in 2019 Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? I was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. My aunt married an Italian-Australian farmer, who raised sugar cane and cattle. His mother, a
Read MoreYour Residency and Exiting Italy
Does it affect your Italian residency to leave Italy for a period of time? I am back in the US visiting for the first time since my move to Italy fifteen months ago, and when a home-town friend asked me, "does it affect your Italian residency to come back to the US?" I realized that the answer to this question should be in a post on this part of my site about how to move
Read MorePost #5 getting the Carta d’IdentitĂ
I am now the proud owner of an Italian Carta d'Identità . In Post #3 I talked about going to the Anagrafe office (Vital Statistics Bureau) to apply for residency after getting my permesso. The woman in that office had told me that the Questura (Police Station) doesn't know to tell foreigners that they must go to the Anagrafe after obtaining their permesso. She basically
Read MoreWhy I Risked Everything to Buy an Apartment in Florence
A personal essay Not long ago I woke up and was fifty years old, with more than half my life already lived. Divorced, and without kids, essentially alone, I decided to follow my lifelong dream of living in Italy, but to do so, I had to âdare greatlyâ as Dr. BrenĂ© Brown calls it. Iâd been in love with the city of Florence since age nineteen when I backpacked around
Read MoreWhat you don’t know about Italian rental properties
Are you thinking of moving to Italy and renting a house/apartment? Are you wondering if your house in Italy will be just like the peach colored villa under a warm Tuscan sun you saw in a movie? After the popularity of my post on the challenges of buying property in Italy, I decided to write this post about Italian rental properties, aimed at advising people what to expect
Read MoreThey Bought a Villa in Italy Sight Unseen
I am pleased to add this interview to my Taking the Plunge series Here is April M. Lee who took a massive "plunge" buying her villa in Italy, and with her relocation to Italy: Where do you come from and when did you first have a connection with Italy in your life? I am from a small mining town in northern Idaho, USA. I am half-Italian and my Italian grandparents lived next door
Read MoreMemoirs about Italy (And the marketing phenomenon of the word Tuscan)
The word Tuscan has became so overly marketed in the US that a friend of mine said, "When I hear the word Tuscan, I think bull shit." Behind every "Tuscan cheese stick" in middle America, is the marketing phenomenon of Frances Mayes' books on Tuscany. After seven years of success with her first books, Drexel Heritage introduced a "Frances Mayes at Home in Tuscany"
Read MorePost #4 getting into the health care system
Italian Residency and the health care system Where are you on the path of your dream of living in Italy? Have you got your Italian residency yet? If you read my first post about getting the certificate of residency, you know that you have to wait 45 days after presenting yourself at the Vital Statistics Office, (Ufficio Anagrafe) and the residency certificate may or may
Read MorePost #3 What to do after receiving the Permesso
The Road to Italian Citizenship is Long It is long even when you have Italian grandparents, and when you don't have that, or EU citizenship, the road is ten-years long. I'm five months into my ten-year process and here's how it's stacking up: I received my coveted permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay) in June about a month after I applied. Â Unfortunately, on June 9, a
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