After moving to Italy things changed for me in a way I could never have imagined. One night I poured my heart out on a forum,(Italymag) I received at lot of help, support and advice from people who didn’t know me but were kind enough to care.
Alma, have you read 'Ask me if i'm happy' by Kimberly Menozzi? Set in Bologna, it's fiction but she captures so much of the region of Emilia Romagna. A selection of other books here - http://www.italianreflections.com/the-bookshelf
The Italian government are throwing money at the problem, giving grants up to 40,000 euro for people under 40 who are prepared to return to the land. Generally it's offered if you (or family) either own or rent enough land to make a sucessful business. As long as you commit to work at it for 7 yrs and make some sort of effort to make it work you are in with a chance.
No you don't have to get an Italian driving license, you just have to get your UK one 'recognised' by the local driving agency. An Italian license will cost about 200 euro but to get your UK one recognised is around 60, for the medical and paperwork. (Paperwork being a pink sticker with your Italian address on, which is attached to your paper license) it's easy to do if you intend to make Italy your main residence.
Enel energia are proper b*stards they rung me when I was cooking so my son answered who is fluent in Italian and they said they could reduce my bills, I stupidly believed them and my bills increased by 3x, my winter bill for 3 months was E800 and as I couldn't pay i was obliged to stay with them until all bills were cleared. It took me nearly a yyear to sort it as evrytime I paid a bill a new one arrived. So hope no one else gets caught out by them.
Thanks all for the support, I am going to write another, just collecting material, never dull living in rural Italia! If you want to see photos I have a blog/FB page (don't forget to press like) - http://www.facebook.com/TheDiaryOfASingleParentAbroad Any feedback/likes on Amazon are appreciated and will help sales. I have editing issues (due to being too poor to pay for it) but have just had a friend/author on FB offer to do it for free. And after a magazine over here published an article about the book recently.which led to meeting someone who is a professional translater also offering a freebie so may be able to sell it in Italy. Might get that roof yet? And it all started on the Italymag forum.
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Ram, You are soo wrong. marmite is liquid vomit!
Alma, have you read 'Ask me if i'm happy' by Kimberly Menozzi? Set in Bologna, it's fiction but she captures so much of the region of Emilia Romagna. A selection of other books here - http://www.italianreflections.com/the-bookshelf
Here's a couple - http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/ski-holidays-farmh... http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/IT7576.htm
The Italian government are throwing money at the problem, giving grants up to 40,000 euro for people under 40 who are prepared to return to the land. Generally it's offered if you (or family) either own or rent enough land to make a sucessful business. As long as you commit to work at it for 7 yrs and make some sort of effort to make it work you are in with a chance.
Wetter summers? we just had 4 months without rain. 3 days with rain and back to tropical temperatures. I think they just make this stuff up.
No you don't have to get an Italian driving license, you just have to get your UK one 'recognised' by the local driving agency. An Italian license will cost about 200 euro but to get your UK one recognised is around 60, for the medical and paperwork. (Paperwork being a pink sticker with your Italian address on, which is attached to your paper license) it's easy to do if you intend to make Italy your main residence.
Ciao Lisa, The paperback won't be available on Amazon for a few weeks but you can order it direct (and cheaper) from this site. Thanks for your support. http://www.feedaread.com/books/The-diary-of-a-single-parent-abroad-97817...
Enel energia are proper b*stards they rung me when I was cooking so my son answered who is fluent in Italian and they said they could reduce my bills, I stupidly believed them and my bills increased by 3x, my winter bill for 3 months was E800 and as I couldn't pay i was obliged to stay with them until all bills were cleared. It took me nearly a yyear to sort it as evrytime I paid a bill a new one arrived. So hope no one else gets caught out by them.
Thanks all for the support, I am going to write another, just collecting material, never dull living in rural Italia! If you want to see photos I have a blog/FB page (don't forget to press like) - http://www.facebook.com/TheDiaryOfASingleParentAbroad Any feedback/likes on Amazon are appreciated and will help sales. I have editing issues (due to being too poor to pay for it) but have just had a friend/author on FB offer to do it for free. And after a magazine over here published an article about the book recently.which led to meeting someone who is a professional translater also offering a freebie so may be able to sell it in Italy. Might get that roof yet? And it all started on the Italymag forum.
http://www.artholidaysinitaly.com/ Pheona who runs this company could also offer cookery courses.