An Expatriate in Rapallo

Expat retiree Photoblog Gourmet

Moving to another country is interesting, infuriating, exciting, difficult, fun - it stretches the mind and opens the eyes. This blog will explore life as lived by an outsider in one of the most beautiful corners of the earth, the Italian Riviera. How do customs here differ from those of our home country (the US)? What ideas do we take for granted which have no currency here? Where can we get (or how do we make!) a great bowl of pasta al pesto? This will be a 'sometimes' blog. Comments are always welcome.

Tags: animals, travels, customs, events

The author

Fern Driscoll

Comments

Hi Fern, I'm looking around the world for a place to, perhaps, relocate. I lived in Italy for a time, was married to an Italian in Florence and wonder what you think of life there now? How long have you been there? Would you share your story? Sue
by Sue Z on 05/09/2008 at 17:24:56

Hi, Sue. Well, this might not be the best day to answer that question as we are embroiled yet again in bureaucratic nonsense. To me that is the greatest disadvantage of living in Italy - everything is hugely complicated, efficiency is not valued, and sorting out problems eats up an enormous amount of time. Do you speak Italian? I would never recommend to anyone living here without a good working knowledge of the language. I struggle, but my husband is fluent so we get by quite well. I don't know when you lived here, but everyone says life has changed a lot in the last decade - it is becoming more 'Americanized', at least in the cities. Out in the country I think things are pretty much as they were - good food, good wine, and everything closed from 12:30 - 4. Are you American? Americans are still well-liked here, so that is an advantage if you are. We've been here about 7 years now, but I have to be honest, it will never feel like 'home' to me. There are too many cultural references that one never learns as an immigrant. But I do love living here. One thing that's happened is that since Italy switched to the euro everything has become much more expensive. Plus there has been pretty bad inflation this year, so the cost of living may be higher than you remember. Hope this helped - feel free to ask any specific questions and I'll do my best to answer, but I'm no expert! Cheers, Fern
by Fern Driscoll on 11/09/2008 at 19:05:24