Posts Tagged ‘expat in italy’

By: Cherrye Moore

We are in the second week of June and this expat is happily at home with her Texas-based friends and family. There is nothing like going home, seeing familiar faces, frequenting familiar haunts and yes, I’ll admit it, sometimes equally as important … eating familiar food.

I have to say, though, I come home twice a year-each summer and again at Christmas-and each time I stock up on my American goodies.

When I first moved to Italy four years ago, I’d buy my Gold Toe socks, fill up during the Bath and Body Works semi-annual sales and even buy my makeup and remover.

But luckily, things have changed.

I am no longer am addicted to Gold Toe socks and Sephora’s recent addition to our shopping center has helped with the makeup, lotions and shower gel dilemnas.

Still, there are a few things I still import.

Medicine
I recently realized you can indeed buy Ibuprofen in Italy, but yowsers is that stuff expensive. Instead of forking over €12 for 12 pills, I run by Walmart and stock up. In addition to Advil, I always carry Tylenol, Tylenol PM, DayQuil and NyQuil and vitamins, for both my husband and myself. We also bring American-strength deodorant.

Books
Even though I have had good experiences with Amazon UK and am addicted to reading through the Kindle App on my iPod Touch, I still like to buy a few books from the US. Usually I buy work-related books to help with my freelance writing career, but I’ve also been known to stalk the sales counter at our local B&N. Old habits die hard.

Food, Food, Food
You can take the girl away from the Mexican border, but you can’t keep the Mexican cravings away. I always buy Velveeta cheese, taco Seasoning, Jambalaya mix, canned soup for cooking, Big Red gum and a few boxes of Ziploc bags … you know, to store all of my leftovers.

Are you an expat? If so, what do you buy from home?

Cherrye Moore is a freelance writer and travel consultant living in Calabria, Italy. She can organize a group Calabria tour or help you plan a custom itinerary for your family from her website, My Bella Vita.

Photo: Cherrye Moore, My Bella Vita

by Tina Ferrari

As we all know, speaking the local language is essential when you move to another country.  I’m fortunate to be able to pick up languages easily.  In Argentina, it took a few months for me to get comfortable with Spanish, but I kept at it and was able to integrate pretty well into my surroundings.  I don’t know how I would survive Italy without knowing Italian.

I feel very lucky and proud when I navigate my way through mundane situations such as calling the phone company (if anyone answers) and going to the doctor.  Things I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do without the language. What’s really exciting is when I’m able to understand jokes and even make them myself – in the local dialect!  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s quite an accomplishment.

Knowing the language has helped me make friends, obviously… but there are sometimes moments where either wires get crossed or I get tongue-tied because no matter how many ways I try to explain something, I can’t say what I want to say, or the person I’m talking to thinks I’m saying something else!  This is what happens when you form relationships that move beyond the usual superficial “where are you from” and “nice weather we’re having today” topics that you can usually run through without a thought.  The problem arises when you really want to get to know each other.

Luckily, people are patient with me and most of the time we work together to figure out what I’m trying to communicate.  We figure it out and I learn something new about how to express myself in Italian. I also tend to communicate with my emotions, gestures and facial expressions, which helps.  And believe me, I’ve been known to make it a game of charades in which I act everything out.  But I long for the day when I can be understood all the time without these extra efforts.  When I can rest assured that I’m expressing my true self to the fullest with my words.

How do you express yourself in your adopted country?

Tina Ferrari is a tango dancer, translator and writer currently based in Lecce, Italy. She writes at AffordableCallingCards.net as well as on her own blog, Tina Tangos. Comments are always welcome!

By: Cherrye Moore

… and yes, I’m totally singing that song in my head as I type this post.

Because, my friends, “I’ve got the power.”

Earlier this month, after years of working, waiting and wishing, I received the ever-elusive and oh-so-powerful, Carta di Soggiorno.

thankyou … thankyouverymuch

So what does this mean?

It means, I can legally STAY in bella italia. I can travel to and fro without worry, I can leave the country without packing my two-page request along as proof that I should be legal and it means I am one step closer to finishing my paperwork.

But moreover, it means things are working.

You see, when a foreigner enters Italy, she has eight days to declare herself at the Questura. Upon arriving , Visa from the Houston Consulate in-hand, I headed to the Questura with my new husband.

“But what are you doing here?” They wanted to know. “You are married, no?”

“Siii,” we told them, basking in our newly married status.

“Mah!” They gruffed. “It is no need. You are being too precise. Just send the papers for her Permesso.”

So we did. Although, technically, at that time if you were married to an Italian, you were eligible to directly request the Carta, the difference being that you don’t have to reapply for the Carta after one year.

We applied for the Carta. 11 months later, my Permesso arrived. One month after that, it expired.

So we started all over, this time, according to the powers that be in Catanzaro, with proper eligibility for the Carta.

And now, 18 months later … here we are!

It was a grand day for us, we celebrated with a little Calabrian wine, good, al dente pasta and homemade gelato.

And I showed the world my new Carta.

Just because I could.

Cherrye Moore is a freelance writer and travel consultant living in Calabria, Italy. She can organize a group Calabria tour or help you plan a custom itinerary for your family from her website, My Bella Vita.

By: Cherrye Moore

On Tuesday, we talked about four of the eight types of expats you’ll meet in Italy.

But we weren’t quite finished.

Here is the other half of that story. In addition to the Short-Term Expat, Old-Timers, Lover and Run-Away, here are four more kinds of expats you will meet in Italy.

Corporate Guy
Expats who move to Italy while working for an international organization are some of the luckiest expats around. The Corporate Guy is likely making a real salary, as opposed to the pennies they pay Italian workers and likely had his company take care of the small details … such as his residency, his permesso and any other of the gazillion Italian documents required of immigrants.

Depending on where the Corporate Guy lives in Italy, he may or may not have a real sense of life in the country and he likely won’t stay here forever.

Military Man (and Fam)
Even more protected than the Corporate Guy is the Military Man. Sadly, many of these expats rarely venture far from base and they miss out on a lot of Italian culture. However, he and his family might not have even wanted to move to Italy, so they don’t feel deprived and anxiously await their orders to return home.

Retirees
Retirees may have spent their whole lives anticipating the day they could move to Italy and gosh darn it, they’re gonna like it. They’ve likely traveled to Italy dozens of times over the years, may have learned a little of the language and are genuinely excited to be here.

The will likely go through the initial culture curve and realize they didn’t know as much about Italy as they thought they did, but they’ll gain a better appreciation of the old country, in the process.

The Italophile
The Italophile is just a younger Retiree who made the proper life choices that allowed her to move to Italy before retirement. These expats are pazza about Italy and bask in all of the country’s goodness. Yes, they see her flaws, but they love living in Italy and are quick to remind the rest of us how lucky we are.

We are lucky to have them around for their positivity and contagious energy, but surprisingly enough, they may or may not live in Italy their entire lives.

And there you have it. The eight kinds of expats you will meet in Italy. Where do you fit in? Do you think I forgot anyone?

Cherrye Moore is a freelance writer and travel consultant living in Calabria, Italy. She can organize a group Calabria tour or help you plan a custom itinerary for your family from her website, My Bella Vita.

Photo: Wilson Websites Consulting

By: Cherrye Moore

Here at ACC we spend a lot of time talking about expat life and in truth, many of us have a lot in common. We are all living in a foreign country. We all miss things about home. We all love, or at least like most of the time, things about our new countries.

But I’m convinced the reasons that motivated our expat status have more to do with our experiences than many people consider, at least for those of us who are expats in Italy.

So, in this two-part series, let’s examine the eight-in my book-types of expats you will meet in the bel paese.

The Short-Term Expat
This expat moved to Italy for a study or work abroad opportunity, not necessarily because he was in love with Italy or the Italian language, but because it seemed like a fun addition to his ever-growing resume.

This expat is blissfully happy with Italy and is friends with other expats he met at work or school. He doesn’t cement ties to the country since he knows he’ll be leaving in T minus 10 months.

It is typically easier for the Short-Term Expat to accept Italy’s nuances and adapt to that post-college lifestyle he might be living as an expat.

The Old-Timer
On the other end of the spectrum is the lifer … the expat who moved to Italy years and years and years ago, likely because she married an Italian and they chose to live here rather than the US.

This person may have lost some of their (insert country of origin here)’ness and speaks to other expats from her country in Italian rather than their native language.

While she may have had a hard time adjusting to life as an expat in Italy, she doesn’t really remember … it was too long ago.

The Lover
The Old-Timer likely entered Italy as a “Lover,” but from those aforementioned years and years and years of living in Italy, became an Old-Timer.

The Lover, like yours truly, came to Italy because she was in love with an Italian and they decided to start their lives together in the bel paese. The Lover may or may not envision spending her whole life in Italy and may secretly be plotting her return to native soil.

It might be easier for The Lover to adjust to Italy because she has an Italian citizen showing her the ropes, yet she might feel more torn between the two worlds, since she may not have wanted to leave in the first place.

The Run-Away
The Run-Away, on the other hand, wanted to leave. He left his home country because he wasn’t feeling satisfied or fulfilled in either his career or personal life. This expat is here for the long-haul and tends to focus on the positive aspects of his new country.

It might be easier for this expat to pack up and leave than it is for the Old-Timer or the Lover, but the longer he is here, the more Italy feels like home.

Come back on Thursday to meet the other four kinds of expats you’ll see in Italy.

Cherrye Moore is a freelance writer and travel consultant living in Calabria, Italy. She can organize a group Calabria tour or help you plan a custom itinerary for your family from her website, My Bella Vita.

Photo: The Trendliest

By: Cherrye Moore

New York has Little Italy, London has a China Town and Catanzaro has its own Little America.

Or so it seems.

Right in the middle of Catanzaro between the downtown area and the beachfront neighborhood, Catanzaro Lido is an international grocery store that will darn near make an American expat feel at home.

And that store is Lidl.

This German discount store has over 8,000 stores worldwide but when I’m inside, I feel like I’m at my local supermarket at home, browsing for Mexican chips and chocolate chip cookies.

Some of the best things I’ve found in Lidl include:
- Bluberry muffins
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Grapefruit juice
- Bacon
- Tortilla chips
- Popcorn
- The most American-tasting OJ I’ve found in Italy

These things are such a welcome treat that I forgive their overly cheesy American-sounding product brand name … McKennedy.

Sometimes Lidl will host an international week, such as “American Week,” “Mexican Week,” “Greek Week,” or even Thai, British or Swedish weeks.

When they do, I stock up on cheddar cheese, pancake mix, pecans, dried cranberries, cranberry juice, flour tortillas, extra-large burrito-sized flour tortillas, jalapeno peppers, Mexican salsa, Greek olives, peanut oil …

I, do, however, skip their “American” pizza. Eek. Just look at that corn over there.

Unfortunately, I’m not always the first one to the store when they release their new products and I’ve missed my all-time favorite American breakfast item-bagels.

I rarely miss out on the good stuff, though. In Lidl, I’ve found Mexican tequila, Scottish Whiskey, Greek wine and Ouzo, as well as the hard to find green apple liquor and coconut rum.

Yes, yes, there are many things an expat can love about Italy, and having this little taste of home, just a few minutes down the road, makes a world of difference.

Expats, is there a Lidl near you? If so, what have you found?

Cherrye Moore is a freelance writer and travel consultant living in Calabria, Italy. She can organize a group Calabria tour or help you plan a custom itinerary for your family from her website, My Bella Vita.

Photo: cndrnh

by Tina Ferrari

Many of us, when bitten by the living abroad bug, find ourselves charmed by the idea of living in a small town, while others get excited by the big city.

Oftentimes we dream of specific places because they are so different from what our current lifestyles have to offer.  If you live in a large city and are constantly rushing to meet deadlines, stuck in traffic, exhausted, you are probably thinking of a small town where the pace is just right.  If you have always lived in a small town, you might be antsy and wishing for some rush and excitement – and chaos.  Each of the two choices has its pros and cons:

Small towns.  Who, after seeing Under the Tuscan Sun, doesn’t love the idea of living in a small town where everybody knows each other?  You have your butcher, your green grocer, your florist.  You take walks and run into people you know all the time.  There is always somebody to stop and say hello to.  On the other hand… everybody knows each other.  If you’re used to life in the big city where you can do whatever you want and nobody notices, you’re in for a surprise if you switch to a small town.  People do notice. It’s not necessarily a bad thing – just keep in mind that a little bit of discretion goes a long way.

Big cities.  The rush, the excitement, the constant movement. There is always something going on in the big city.  A diverse population, a sense of individuality, and the neighborhoods are all different from each other.  People are straight-forward and to the point.  They are so busy carrying on with their own lives that what you do is your business – they don’t have time to worry about you.  On the other hand, if you’re used to the tranquility and slow pace of a small town or the country, you might get overwhelmed.  I know someone who had panic attacks almost every day their first week in Buenos Aires.  It can be a lot to handle if you’re not used to constantly busy streets and sidewalks.  My advice in this case is to find your favorite park and make a regular visit to it.  Just a few minutes of silence surrounded by green can do a lot for one’s well-being.

What’s your advice or experience on small towns vs. big cities?

Tina Ferrari is a tango dancer, translator and writer currently based in Lecce, Italy. She writes at AffordableCallingCards.net as well as on her own blog, Tina Tangos. Comments are always welcome!

By: Cherrye Moore

The April showers have hopefully come and gone and here in southern Italy, we are preparing for another smoldering summer. You know how I know? My nose knows.

Here are three clues your nose will tell you about summertime in Calabria.

1. You will be overcome by the smell of orange blossoms

A couple of weeks ago I walked outside and was struck by an overpowering scent of blooming flowers, mixed with sweet citrus, mixed with something else I couldn’t quite discern.

“But what is that smell,” I asked my husband after I’d looked around to see if someone had dropped a bottle of $100 perfume on our doorstep.

“It is so strong.”

He smiled and pointed across the driveway to the alleyway of orange trees that line the drive.

The blossoms had been showing signs of life for days but on that particular morning, they burst from their bulbs with all of the force they could muster and sprayed our garden.

And it was heavenly.

2. You will smell the lavender

While not as strong as the orange blossoms in the driveway, the flowers that have grown over our walkway are equally inviting. We have an old bench, sitting near the canopy of ivy and lavender that is faded from too many years in the Calabrian sun. Once springtime hits and summer is on its way, that bench becomes a light beckoning me to grab a book and a pair of sunglasses and just bask.

And bask I do … .

3. You can smell the beach

Just a few days ago my husband lifted his head into the air, wiggled his nose and said, “Ahhh, you can smell the beach!”

And we are a couple of miles away.

After the orange blossoms and lavender have left their distinctive marks, the summer sands start stirring and you can smell the breeze off of the Ionian Sea.

When you are lucky enough to be able to distinguish among these summer scents, you can experience the changing of the seasons in a whole new way. If you are like me, and think someone dumped perfume on your welcome rug every time a new tree blooms, then you still have a few things to learn.

Lucky for us, we can try next year.

Cherrye Moore is a Calabria travel consultant and freelance writer living in southern Italy. She writes about expat life for Affordable Calling Cards and about traveling in Calabria her own site, My Bella Vita.

By: Cherrye Moore

It is just as easy for expats to fall into the same ‘ole dull routine of going to work, washing our car, cooking dinner and so on and so forth as it is for our non-expat counterparts back home. This is something that is hard for many non-expats to consider and something, I’ve noticed lately, that expats love to point out.

Yes, it is true things can get dull in Paris just as easily as they can get boring in Beaumont (a personal lesson I learned while living in the City of Lights), but let’s not take it all too seriously.

Here is a quick reminder-if only for myself-of the top five things I love about being an expat in southern Italy.

1. The Adventure

I love how adventurous it sounds to say I live in Italy. (Yes … I’ll admit that!) But I also love the adventure. I love that I can experience a whole new range of sense, taste new things, see new sites, smell new scents and somewhat more persistently … hear new sounds.

2. The Unknown

Something that goes well with that sense of adventure is the idea of facing the unknown. I like that I don’t always “know” how things are going to go-or even how they should go-because it is just so darn different from how “we do things back home.” There is something to be said about consistency, yes, but there is something else to be said about staying on your toes.

3. The Push

Sometimes it is scary to venture into the unknown, but I love that living in Italy makes me push my boundaries and try new things. Without Italy, I’d have never learned a new language, forced myself to drive in a foreign country or taken some of the chances that have me happy.

4. The Work

If I had never moved to Italy, I would never have explored the life of a freelance writer. I’d have never started my own website, updated a travel book or written for a travel magazine. One of the newest things I’ve tried lately is to expand my business and start offering travel consulting services for people traveling to my area … something I never would have done if I lived in the US.

5. The People

In addition to the new Italians I’ve met, living in Italy has introduced me to a world of new people. I’ve met interesting expats, professional travel writers and world travelers and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

What about you? What do you most love about being an expat?

Cherrye Moore is a Calabria travel consultant and Bed and Breakfast owner living in southern Italy. She writes about expat life for Affordable Calling Cards.net and about living and traveling in southern Italy on her site, My Bella Vita.

(Photo: atomicshed on Flickr)

By Cherrye Moore

Last week fellow ACC blogger and expat, Chantal Panozzo of One Big Yodel wrote five tips to help expats fight isolation abroad. Her tips were right on the mark and in fact, I did many of those things to help with my own isolation when I moved to southern Italy.

But sometimes expats relocate to a country,or in my case, a part of the country, where they truly are very much alone.

When I moved to Calabria in April, 2006-happy anniversary, Me!-I fully expected to be able to quickly and easily meet new people. I did everything experts tell you to do-I joined a gym, I frequented the same places, I was open to making new friends.

But it didn’t work.

In addition to Chantal’s tips, here are three more things I expats can do when they are in an under-expat-populated community.

1. Teach a Private English Class

Teaching private English lessons is the number one thing I did that helped me make friends and meet new people in Calabria. My very first student, a freelance photojournalist, introduced me to his wife and now, years later, the two of us are still friends. I also met some of my favorite people, a family with four children, through teaching English and one of my closest expat friends found me through an ad someone placed for me in a bookstore.

In fact, I can trace the largest percentage of my friends in Calabria back to these lessons.

2. Join an Expat Forum

Expat forums are an easy, non-threatening way to introduce yourself and find more expats in your area. The very first expat I met saw a posting I had made on the Expats in Italy forum and emailed me telling me she was only 45 minutes away. Now, 45 minutes may seem far to those of you in big cities or metropolitan areas, but here in Calabria, meeting an expat an hour away, is like getting a great new neighbor.

3. Look up Expats on Facebook

It is strange to see how much the Internet has changed since I moved to Italy, but new expats have so many more opportunities for meeting like-minded people than we did four years ago. If I was a new expat today, I’d go on Facebook and search for groups or fan pages for Italy and start talking. Once you meet two or three people, you can see who their friends are and, ask them if they know people in your area and easily get connected.

What other tips do you have to help expats in less popular areas meet new people?

Cherrye Moore is a Calabria travel consultant and freelance writer living in southern Italy. She writes about expat life for Affordable Calling Cards.net and about living and traveling in southern Italy on her site, My Bella Vita.

(photo: Mr.Happy on Flickr)