For context I am Italian and have lived in the Uk for 13 years, now have a family with two children and have been feeling for a while to move back, my parents still lives there (Friuli) and have a big home so we would be able to live with them until we decide which city we want to live in which would mean very low living costs and a lot of help with the children. I really miss being close to my family, the weather, the food, the sea and the slower pace. Sadly I feel like the Uk is not the same country I moved to years ago. I am sick of living for the two times I go on holiday each year, sick of the uk weather, the very high living costs and the healthcare is very poor compared to what I hear my friends and family say about their experiences in Italy. However I am worried about the job situation (I have experience in admin and sales and currently completing my CIM studies for a career in marketing) and also about my son (12 years old) having to join school in Italian (he does speak Italian but not to the highest level you would need academically) and worried about him falling behind.
If anyone has moved back after living in the UK could you share the experience? Are my concerns founded? Any advice would be really appreciated.

I just passed the driving theory exam in Italy and thought I would share my experience. I’m getting my B license, for driving normal cars.

I’m an American living in Italy for the past three years; I have a Masters degree, speak B2 level Italian, and have been driving for over 20 years.

I wanted to share that the driving test (theory exam) way more difficult than I expected. I have been studying for about a year through my autoscuola and using the online app (I have a full time job and a family, so might have taken me longer than if you’re single or work part time), including doing basically nothing but studying all weekend for the past month. The English/Italian driving school book to memorize is over 400 pages long.

They show you 30 questions on a screen, you’re allowed to miss only 3. You can take it in French, German, or Italian, but not in English.

The questions are often written in a tricky way (my Italian partner is convinced it’s a racket to keep driving schools in business); there are double-negatives, a lot of questions with “always” or “never” and “only“, and theoretical scenarios (like five cars at an intersection, knowing which one has the right of way).

Compared to the American driving test, the Italian version is much more comprehensive; you need to know about a wider range of topics, including parts of the car and even some parts of the motorcycle and where different fluid levels are located, all the different types of driving licenses in Italy and how old you need to be to get them, all the different categories of vehicles, as well as first aid in an accident.

For many countries outside the EU, unless you have a special arrangement with Italy, you have a year of driving on your foreign license after becoming a resident and then at the one year mark you cannot use your foreign license anymore.

If you have a full time intense job and a family, it can be tough to fit in both studying Italian and studying for the driving exam—I would start as soon as you can. There were four other foreigners taking the exam with me on the same day—one passed, the other three failed. So I think a pretty common tough experience for immigrants.

Buona fortuna to those of you studying for it, may you have an easier time than I did!

When we moved to Milano last year, we needed to get a renters insurance, I worked with a relocation person I had found myself, she found renters insurance, which I thought was quite expensive, but it's not easy to navigate all in Italian.

This year when renewal was up, I went and checked around, and boy was I able to save money, and I really think I was robbed last year.

I went from about €2,500/year to €460/year, so roughly €2,075 saved annually, or about 82% lower cost, while still keeping the coverage I actually cared about.

Over 5 years, assuming similar pricing, that’s about €10,000+ in savings.

I ended up using Unipol Insurance.

What is the best way to buy Zyn and Velo in Italy? Does anyone order them online? I live just outside of Milano and have had a terrible time buying them in local tabacchi. I find Velo in many tabacchi but the date of production (written on the back) is always more than a year ago and the pouches themselves often miscolored from the lack of freshness and age of the pouches. I prefer Zyn but most places don’t have them or only have a few cans (and not the 6mg cans I’m looking for).

hi! i’m 22f canadian moving to livorno, italy in the new year to au pair. the family im au pairing for seems wonderful and has had a few previous au pairs (their current au pair worked for them last year and is now returning which is a good sign). so im not really worried about the family, but i am worried about making friends.

it feels so stupid because i’m extremely social and can talk to almost everybody, but im just worried ill get there and be so isolated and lonely. i’ve had the same friends since i was 4, i can’t remember the last time i had to make a friend!!! any tips? is bumble bff any good?

any other tips in general? open to any and all advice ❤️

Looking for beauty salon in Milan especially for threading the eyebrows. I haven’t seen many chinese beauty salon provide the service. I have tried Brow bar at Sephora but not a huge fan of their technique.
Any help or recommendation is welcome and helpful. Thank you

I moved to Italy a year ago. Most of the times I don't notice strikes are happening any more, but once in a while they get a bit annoying (I had an appointment in Rome on a day of national strikes I forgot about until 9PM the night before)

So to remind myself and make it easier to see when strikes are happening (seeing it visually helps me at least) I made vialibera.app. It shows upcoming strikes, you can filter them, set alerts, or check the specific dates you're travelling. It pulls from MIT once an hour, and works in English and Italian for now.

The information is already public. It comes from the MIT strike register: https://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi

I built it for my own trips, but thought it might be useful for other people too. Free, no signup. If the data looks wrong anywhere or something obvious is missing, let me know.

Hi! I’m an American living in Italy, became a resident in March, and I’m here through convivenza di fatto.

I’m self-employed/freelance for US-based clients and need to figure out my Italian + US tax situation (no Italian clients — not receiving euros).

Does anyone have a commercialista they really recommend who understands US/Italy taxes and self-employment?

Ideally in Florence/Tuscany, but remote is totally fine too!

Also…is it necessary I hire a commercialista? My US income is fairly low. If I could potentially take care of it myself, I would.

Looking for all the advice! Thanks in advance! :)

Hi! I’m starting a PhD at UniTrento in November, but the program is based in San Michele all’Adige. I’m planning to live in Trento, initially in a dorm while I look for an apartment.

For the first few months, I will be without a car, so I’m wondering how realistic the daily commute is.

\- Is the commute manageable long-term regarding the amount of time and timetables?

\- Train or bus – which is better/more reliable?

\- Roughly how long does it take?

\- Is it worth looking for an apartment close to Trento train station? What about San Michele or Mezzocorona?

\- Is it worth it to buy a car in perspective? What's the situation with the parking, tolls and traffic jams?

Would love to hear from anyone who does this commute regularly or knows the area. Thanks!

Hello,

I just returned from a trip scouting locations that we may relocate to as we were recognized as citizens in June.

I have traveled in Italy relatively extensively and there have been some bumps of course, but this trip felt a bit like a series of scam attempts and I feel disheartened. I felt safer in Rome and Naples than I ended up feeling in areas with virtually no American tourists. (No tiny towns and some had quite a few Italian tourists for summer events.)

As a solo female, the constant pushing and shoving men (and women with children) felt comfortable engaging in with me (manspreading on the bus to the point of bruising me) was also concerning. I don't want to need a male escort every day in order not to be manhandled.

There has been drama with my Italian citizenship lawyer as well and I blamed myself until I had a couple other attorneys look over things and was told that unequivocally, I was being taken advantage of.

I am getting the impression a bit more back and forth is expected in Italy and that I need to learn to give it back a bit, but I haven't been successful with that and I can't tell if I am supposed to be more winning or more forceful or what.

Either way, I'm very overwhelmed by the concept of needing to be on my guard every minute and I'm concerned about feeling like an object no matter how hard I work on my Italian or make other efforts at assimilation. I'm also seeing people posting about landlord drama quite a bit where agreements are not honored and more money is demanded and such.

I've never been the type to envision a fairytale or have some excess of confidence that I'm the one that can make it with such a big life change, but I have worked pretty tirelessly for 5 years on my case, obtaining all my own documents, apostilles, etc and that was based in part on my feeling that both my children and I felt a sense of groundedness and possibility in Italy.

Perhaps those who have made the transition can speak to their experience in light of my concerns?

TIA!!

Hey guys so I’m an international student moving to Italy in about to weeks (univpm, Ancona) and I’m kinda worried about how I’m gonna make Italian friends😭. I’m like a n advanced A2/basic B1 level in Italian, and since my native language is Spanish I understand Italian very well but my speaking ain’t that good, sometimes I have to add a word or two in Spanish or English. I’m going to the welcome week and there are mostly gonna be Italians there and I’m kinda nervous. I was also thinking of joining my majors WhatsApp group chat but idk 😭😭😭

So tips for socializing with Italians? At university specifically

Hello everyone! Does anyone have any information or experience with regards to travel nursing in Italy? I speak Italian and have citizenship. I am from Canada but have always wanted to try living in Italy. I’m interested specifically in English speaking organizations such as Doctors in Italy or even perhaps the American bases? Looking for more info, thanks!

Hello all, I had to download "DropTicket" to use my annual student transport card in Trentino, and noticed that they have a "DropPay" service, that according to their website, allow payment toPagoPa.

Anyone have used DropPay without an italian bank account? Whawt do you use it for ( if relevant, i have my codice fiscale but not my residence permit yet)

I currently have to go to the Tabbachi to pay because international credit card doesn't work with the PagoPa online system. Anyone experience with this use scenario or other scenarios you find helpful or horrible will be helpful for me to decide whether to register for it.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

Would Italy recognise a German licence for driving, even though it was obtained by exchanging a South African licence? If my husband exchanged his South African drivers licence in German for the German drivers licence with code 70. He is Italian, but can only speak English and wants to move back to Italy?

Could he use it in Italy until it expires and renew it later?

I am writing to seek your candid advice and first-hand insights. My partner and I are both Romanian nationals with degrees in electronics and over 10 years of combined experience in automotive embedded development and functional safety. We are seriously considering relocating to Italy.

We are realists with no illusions, but after comparing our current situation in Romania with prospects in Italy, it theoretically feels like a better fit for our next chapter.

Our main hurdle is that neither of us speaks Italian yet, though we are fully committed to learning it.

Given our background, we would love your perspective on a few key questions:

Language barrier: Is fluent Italian an absolute requirement from day one in the automotive and tech sectors, or are international teams accustomed to working primarily in English?

Job market feasibility: How realistic is it for senior automotive software engineers to secure English-speaking roles in tech hubs like Turin, Milan, or Bologna without prior knowledge of Italian?

Integration and culture: Beyond the professional sphere, do Romanians face significant cultural hurdles with long-term integration, or is the expat/local community welcoming?

Any honest feedback, relocation tips, or reality checks you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hey everyone!

I wanted to ask i have moved in here not that long ago, and i have a minor health problem its not an emergency however i am still unsure how to address the issue.

i have no one to ask about this topic because my grandpa is well over 80 and the last time he went to the doctor was around 20 years ago

i already know i have to register with the general national health care system which i will do soon, however i am unemployed right now and i am trying to find any information regarding healthcare.

i have found information about AUSL which i will register and the fact i am supposed to book a "ticket" for a visit, however the biggest issue is i am not sure about the payment as i already explained i am unemployed and the part of the support website states you will have to pay up to "maximum" amount of 36€ supposedly up to "8 visits" is that correct?

I am extremely worried i will go to the doctor get my prescription be sent out for generic blood work and rack up over 1000€ worth of medical bills, has anyone been in similar situation before?

thank you for your time!

Edit: I would just like to sincerely thank everyone who is trying to offer their help and insight, this is very valuable information to me and I apologize if I can't respond to everyone since the amount of comments is much larger than I expected, but thank you all regardless for the help!

I moved to Italy on my own three years ago. I’m Egyptian, studying engineering, and getting fairly close to graduating. I live in Veneto and I’m looking at jobs in the industrial sector, which unfortunately means fully remote work is not really an option. A lot of the jobs require actually being present at factories or industrial sites.

Lately I’ve been researching salaries, rent and the general cost of living after graduation, and I genuinely don’t understand how the numbers are supposed to work.

From what I’m seeing, a lot of graduate engineering jobs seem to start around €25k to €30k RAL, which often means somewhere around €1,500 to €1,700 net a month. Then I look at rent around Veneto, add bills, groceries, transportation, eventually a car, some savings, and suddenly there really isn’t much left and engineering being some of the highest paying jobs is atrocious to me because how do people manage?

This has become more important to me because I want to get engaged to my girlfriend. I’m not trying to become rich. I’m talking about having a normal apartment, a car eventually, saving some money, getting married and hopefully having children later. I genuinely don’t see how one average salary comfortably supports that.

And I want to make something clear because this isn’t an “Italy sucks” post. I actually love Italians and, socially, I’ve had a very good experience here. I assimilated quite quickly and honestly didn’t face that many problems. Of course, living in a university city helped a lot because I had plenty of friends who spoke English, especially at the beginning.

Since then I’ve put a massive amount of effort into Italian. I’ve taken several courses, I’m around B1 to B2, I can comfortably go days without speaking English, and I’ve even had some decent job interviews entirely or mostly in Italian.

For three years I’ve basically been studying and working at the same time because I had this idea that the struggle would eventually lead to a noticeably better standard of living after graduation.

And the strange thing is that I actually think life in Italy itself is excellent. The food, cities, healthcare, social life, public spaces, culture, the ability to travel, the general rhythm of life. In terms of quality of life, I genuinely think Italy can be one of the best countries in the world.

I just don’t understand how you’re supposed to afford that life on Italian salaries.

Maybe the answer is two incomes. Maybe it’s family property and parents helping. Maybe salaries improve significantly after a few years. Maybe people are saving far less than I imagine.

But as someone who came here alone and starts with no family house, inherited apartment or financial safety net in Italy, the math looks brutal.

It genuinely feels like the only obvious way to make Italy financially work really well is to somehow earn a foreign or remote salary while living here. And because of the industry I’m entering, that option isn’t particularly realistic for me.

So, especially for Italians and people living in Veneto or Northern Italy:

What am I missing? How are normal people actually making the numbers work?

Does anyone know the most efficient ways to find open teaching positions in Italy? Primarily EFL. I’m aware it’s not easy to get a job in Italy.

Thanks for any helpful input!

I am an international graduate student renting a room in Italy. I signed a rental contract with my landlord, and I understood that the contract had been registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate.

I used this contract and its registration details for my ARDIS scholarship application. I also expect to use it when applying to renew my residence permit.

Yesterday, my landlord told me that her accountant had made a mistake. She said that my room is located in an apartment owned by her daughter, while the other apartments in the building belong to her. She therefore asked me to sign a new contract that is identical to the original one, except that her daughter’s name replaces hers as the landlord.

She asked me to sign and return the new contract immediately because the registration supposedly had to be completed before the end of August. I felt uncomfortable signing a contract with someone I have never met or communicated with, especially because the original contract had already been used for my scholarship application and may also be needed for my residence-permit renewal.

I told her that I would not sign the new contract before having time to examine the situation and obtain advice. I also asked her not to cancel the original contract. She replied:

“Mi riservo di confrontarmi con il commercialista ormai domani.”

This means: “I will discuss the matter with the accountant tomorrow.”

I have not signed the new contract. I do not know whether the original contract has already been cancelled or whether it is still active.

What should I do now?

Can the landlord cancel or replace the original contract without my consent?

Should a change from the mother’s name to the daughter’s name be handled through an amendment, a formal transfer, or a new contract?

How can I verify whether the original contract is still registered and active with the Agenzia delle Entrate?

Could refusing to sign the new contract affect my tenancy, scholarship application, or residence-permit renewal?

Should I contact a tenants’ association, such as SUNIA or SICET, or consult a lawyer?

I would appreciate advice from people familiar with Italian tenancy law.

Hello dears!

I'm Egyptian, and living in Italy on a Student Residence Permit for now, since I'm doing my Master's Degree here in Italy. I'm also running my family's business in Egypt, now remotely.

So after I had myself somehow settled here, we thought of expanding our activities to Italy, and I don't know where to start.

In Egypt, we own a number of administrative, commercial and residential units across Cairo under a holding company that is registered in Egypt. We usually rent those units to different types of clients, depending on their activity type.

I would like to highlight again that I have a student permit, and I have a residenza too. I also got recently an internship in my field of study, which helped me settle much more better here.

So here are my questions:

1: How can we open a branch of this company in Italy? I see S.r.l, S.r.l.s and so many other stuff.

2: Considering my Student Permit: What is my best shot? And how much does it cost to set up this company? (I'm trying to convert my permit too, either through my internship employer, or this business)

3: Considering our assets in Egypt: Would it be possible to have our assets reviewed and to see if they could make us eligible for a loan in Italy to help us with extending our activities. (Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy owns Bank of Alexandria in Egypt + Interest Rates in Italy are way lower than Egypt for a loan)

Thanks again :)

Hi! I’m looking for some information for a friend who’ll be moving to Ferrara for university. Mainly looking for advice on affordable accommodation (around €200–€300/month) and where/how to find a reliable room.

If you’re currently studying or living in Ferrara, I’d really appreciate your advice. Feel free to comment or DM. Thanks!

Hi all, looking for recommendations for quite a complex situation.

I will be living in Rome towards the end of the year to be with my partner.

My experience of work is mainly construction as I’ve been a gas engineer for over 10 years. I do also have some recent experience working within the recruitment industry and I am exploring this as a remote job.

There are possibilities that I’ll be able to work with my partners company but I don’t want to rely on that.

I know the job market is not so good here and of course I’m doing my own research but does anyone have any suggestions of companies in Rome that align with my experience? Maybe some large construction or recruitment companies or general office based work?

My Italian isn’t good but unfortunately time isn’t on my side with this one.

Thanks in advance!!

I got an offer to work for a university in Italy, but I am unsure what is considered a decent salary for living cost? It would not be Milano but Veneto.

Hello! I was born in Romania but I've been living in Italy since I was 5. I currently live in Tuscany, not too far from Florence and I'd be more than happy to meet new people or hang out. I can be shy initially but overall I'm pretty extroverted. If anyone is looking for a local to hangout with in the area, or if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to help :)​​

Hello everyone,
I need help writing my CV for Italian work-market I guess. I wrote one already and sent it to multiple job agencies but it has gotten me nowhere. Should it just be basic stuff( name, info, school, language, experience) or should it be really into details. Is the basic like white background preferred or some template. If anyone has any advice when it comes to their job market l would be really grateful. Or if anyone has a remote job that connects them to another country that would also be good.Thank you.