If you want to move to Italy, here’s how

(Editor’s note: I’m in Germany on assignment this week and I’m re-posting a popular blog I wrote almost exactly a year ago. In light of last week’s blog about how Italy ranks as a retirement destination, I’m re-posting this blog on how to move to Italy. I deleted much of the political commentary that no longer applies but the tips do. Hope it helps.)

How do I move to Italy?

It’s a common question. According to a Gallup poll in 2018,  16 percent of Americans wanted to permanently move to another country.

I’m lucky. I moved here to Rome in 2014. However, it is much more difficult than when I did it. The world was a different place in 2014. Italy was a different place.

For starters, take Italian lessons, collect the change between your cushions and locate your nearest Italian consulate. And keep in mind this warning from Patrizia Di Gregorio, head of Expats Living in Rome, an excellent group for making friends and learning Italian.

“Most of the Americans who want to come here are broke,” she told me. “They have no idea what they’re doing and they just come here illegally and try to figure it out and they fail and they go home. The changeover is three months.”

To avoid that rabbit hole, here are some tips on moving to Italy:

Budget 

You’ve been staring at your postcard from Piazza Navona or the Amalfi Coast for years. Living in Italy sounds romantic, doesn’t it? It is. However, if you can’t afford to live here, your dream will be a nightmare. Do your homework. It’s time to start crunching numbers.

Do what I did. I moved here twice, once in 2001 for 16 months and once for good in 2014. Both times before moving I did recon missions. I flew from my home in Denver to Rome in the spring of 2012 with just a backpack, a notepad and pens. Then I hit the streets and found out the cost of everything I needed to live here.

Your biggest expense will be housing. Dozens of websites list apartments and rooms for every budget. I used Idealista.it and made a list of apartments I’d like to see in the neighborhoods I wanted to live in. What kind of bang could I get for my euro? I made appointments with the landlords and said I want to move to Rome. I had no intention of moving right away. I made some vague promises that I’d get back to them if interested and never did. I simply needed an in to see the places. I asked about the cost of utilities. I asked about condo fees.

I found some very nice one-bedroom apartments in the 800-1,000 euro range. Then I searched for other living expenses. I found public markets and wrote the costs of everything from homemade pasta to milk to sausage to fruit and vegetables. I checked with ATAC, Rome’s public transportation service, and wrote the cost of a year Metro pass. 

I went to the train station and checked average prices for trips to major destinations such as Florence, Naples, Venice and Milan. I went to cell phone stores to see how much phones cost and their monthly plans.

I took my notepad to every restaurant and wrote the price ranges of dishes. Of course, I noted the price of wines in restaurants, in enotecas, in supermarkets. I checked movie prices, car rentals, even newspapers, everything I needed to live a normal life in Rome. You would do this for whatever town you choose, whether it’s Milan, Positano or a village in rural Abruzzo. Every town will require a different budget.

When I returned to Denver the most important hour of my future occurred at my desk. I took my research and determined two crucial numbers: How much money will I need? How much money will I have? I made a list of the bare essentials: rent, utilities, condo fees, food, transportation, insurance (more on this below), cell phone. I even added a Public Storage unit just in case it didn’t work out and I had to return to Denver. 

I added it all up and came up with a yearly bare-essential budget of about $25,000 a year.

Then adding to the list I put costs of extras that make life worth living, such as dining out, travel, entertainment, gym membership, incidentals. That brought the total to about $38,000 a year. Tweaking my budget every January, I now live in Rome comfortably annually on a bit more than $40,000.

Then I needed a rough idea of how much longer I will live, however scary looking ahead may be. I multiplied that number of years with my yearly budget and came up with my target money goal.

I went to my Denver broker, Stephanie Gudka, with the figure and asked, “How do we get there?” We determined how much money I would have. My situation is different than many. I retired here. I wasn’t going to work. But I’d have some incoming money. I’d rent out my Denver condo. I can start collecting a full pension at 65, the same year I can take my IRA. I get full social security at 68. 

I’m 64. The older you get, the more money you make. Most of my money is in stocks and bonds, a common strategy for retirees. Yes, my future is at the whim of the stock market and I’ve had two scary periods in my 6 ½ years here but I lived on savings for four years. 

Stephanie moved around some money on my portfolio, I cut way back on going out and reached my financial goal in August 2013. I spent that fall getting my visa which I received that December and moved to Rome Jan. 10. It was a one-way ticket.

However, acquiring that visa these days is not easy.

Visa

You must decide which visa you want. You need something for more than the three-month tourist visa everyone is granted when they arrive. Deciding what visa is easy. What are you going to do in Italy? I retired. I didn’t want to work. I applied for a residenza elettiva. That means I have permission to live in Italy for a year as long as I don’t have a job and, thus, take work away from an Italian. Agreed. All I want to do is eat the best food in the world, drink the best wine in the world and live in the most beautiful city in the world. And I’ll contribute money, lots of money. If you show you have enough or will earn enough, you’ve overcome the biggest hurdle.

However, if you must make ends meet and need a job, you’ll need a visto di lavoro, a work visa. Good luck. In between my two Rome stints, I came close to getting jobs here twice. I applied and received two work visas from the Italian Consulate in Chicago. The jobs fell through, leaving the visas to be worth no more than the passport pages they were stamped on.

A work visa is no longer easy. Immigration has become a major issue in Italy and the government has clamped down on them. I inquired about one last year to work as a film extra and studios told me don’t bother. I have a better chance at the pope granting me sainthood. (More on getting a job below.)

One way to insure a longer stay is a student visa. Come to study the language and enroll at one of the universities or language schools. However, this is tricky. Be careful. Many schools promise to get your visa while you’re here but never come through. While in the U.S., get proof of enrollment and acquire a visa before you ever leave for Italy. The lengths of student visas differ. 

Check websites at the Italian consulate nearest you. Here’s a list, including the states in their jurisdiction (https://ambwashingtondc.esteri.it/ambasciata_washington/en/informazioni_e_servizi/la_rete_consolare).

Colorado’s is in Chicago. You must look up the requirement for each visa and when you acquire everything on the list, set up an appointment at the consulate to hand over your paperwork. You then must wait to see if you get the prize.

Housing

One of the requirements for any visa will be proof of housing. I took a place sight unseen for two months just to get the contract. It was a tiny 330-square-foot, second-floor cave but in a fantastic location near Campo de’ Fiori in Centro Storico. In those two months I could research the neighborhood I wanted to live in and take my time finding an apartment. AirBnBs will offer two- and three-month contracts and often negotiate a price.

Seeking a home in Rome can be brain scalding. The Internet is filled with real estate and rental agencies with lists of apartments that go forever. Do what I did. Contact a property agency and have them find one for you. In both my stints living in Rome I went to Property International. Both times I wound up renting the first place they showed me.

After my initial two-month apartment in 2014, Property International found me a beautiful 485-square-foot apartment with a huge 380-square-foot terrace overlooking the Tiber River for 900 euros a month. I moved two years ago and Property International found me a bigger flat with heat and air-conditioning (rare in Rome), a big flat-screen TV, huge closet space and a wrap-around fifth-floor balcony for 1,000 a month, the same amount I wound up paying after four years in the previous apartment.

Agencies are expensive. It’ll cost you the equivalent of your first month’s rent. But the next day when you’re lounging in your new home in whatever city you choose, you’ll forget you paid a single centesimo.

Health insurance 

This is another visa requirement but here there is good news. Many European agencies specialize in insurance for foreigners. I use Expat & Company out of Belgium. They cover medical procedures, prescriptions and exams. The best news is medical costs in Italy, even if you’re not part of the state health plan as I am not, are a fraction of the cost in the U.S.

Expat & Company always returns emails, takes calls and promptly pays insurance claims. In my particular situation, as a single, 64-year-old male, I pay about 1,525 euros a year.

Work

I never held a job in Rome and with the government cutting way back on work visas, I’m not making space for my Oscar as a film extra. The best way to get a work visa is to land a job with an American business or corporation overseas and they can get through the red tape for you before you leave. Then again, if that was available, you probably would’ve done it by now, right?

A common money maker in Italy is teaching English. It’s a bad idea for numerous reasons. The biggest one is the money. It’s usually awful. One teacher friend says most schools pay between 8-15 euros an hour. 

Rome has numerous language schools but some require teaching certificates such as a TESOL or TEFL. Many teachers give lessons in students’ homes and are not paid for their time or travel costs. Without an EU passport, it’s really tough getting a job legally.

“Eighty percent of the jobs in Italy are under the table so no one cares,” Di Gregorio said. “Nobody’s going to care. Schools don’t pay that much anyway. You’re not going to hire an American legally and go through the visa process and they quit and you pay the unemployment. The visa process costs money. Why would they do that? They have a bunch of illegals who’ll work under the table.”

She has seen that among Americans, too.

“They live here illegally, most of them,” she said. “We have so many illegal Americans it’s embarrassing. At least half of the Americans who come to Expats are illegal. You get stopped on the streets, you’re American. Because you’re American you get a pass to break the law.”

Language

This isn’t a visa requirement but it’s a requirement to live comfortably. Although you’re missing out on acclimating into a culture, you can get by speaking English in Northern Europe. You can not in Italy. I live in Rome, one of the most famous cities in the world with 9 million tourists a year. Many people speak a few words of English. Some are conversational. Few are fluent.

The farther south and rural you go, the less English you’ll hear. If you don’t learn Italian, you will starve. Almost no one in public markets speaks English. Almost no one speaks it in hospitals and public services.

Find a language course months before you move. Find a private tutor. Get tapes and workbooks. Do everything you can to build a foundation. When you move here, find a school or private instructor. Make Italian friends. Do language exchanges with Italians who want to learn English. I have been a member of ConversationExchange.com since I moved here.

You will struggle for a long time, especially if you’re old like me. I’ve lived  here more than eight years over two stints and I still don’t understand people well enough to call myself fluent. But it’s essential to do daily business, to better understand the culture that will embrace you as much as you embrace it.

Plus it’s fun. You’ll want to talk to your local butcher as much as your fellow American expats. You’ll want to know how to curse in local dialect to earn street cred in your neighborhood bar. And isn’t a new culture what you’re seeking?

So if you have a dream, live it. Italy’s not going anywhere. I’m certainly not.