Moving Abroad - Why Move to Italy?

They say people move abroad for two main reasons. Either you are ‘moving towards’ or you are ‘moving away from’.

‘Moving towards’ is a good foundation. Your reasons for relocating abroad are positive. For example, you want to experience life in another country, to learn a new language, to stretch yourself and be challenged, to live in the town or countryside and perhaps have a more relaxed lifestyle in a location which offers you more for your money.

‘Moving away from’ can be more problematic. Your motivations tend to focus on the negatives – getting away from the terrible weather, escaping the soaring crime rate, the daily commute, the binge drinking culture, a job you hate … Negative people tend to take their negativity with them, so moaning about the home country turns into moaning about the new country and ‘why the hell can’t they do things right, like they do back home?’

The difference may not seem that important now. But once you have uprooted your family and the honeymoon period is over you will need to keep focussed on the positive reasons that you decided to move in the first place.

Statistics from the Institute for Public Policy research on the BBC’s Brits Abroad pages, put the number of British people living permanently abroad at 5.5 million. Two main groups are highlighted as typical emigrants - young skilled professionals or middle-aged and older retired and semi retired who are investing in property abroad..

Why Italy?

Compared with Spain’s 760,000 ex-pats, Ireland’s 290,000 and France’s 200,000, Italy’s figures of 26,000 ex-pat British residents seems quite low. But that is one of its main attractions. Italy is not Britain with sun! Here are some other good reasons to consider moving to il bel paese (the beautiful country.)

• wonderful food and wine
• great variety of countryside to suit everyone from beach lovers to mountain addicts
• friendly, welcoming people
• more than its fair share of culture
• top global tourist destination
• good standard of living
• affordable property, certainly compared to the UK
• large number of SMEs and growing entrepreneurial culture
• Just to keep it balanced, you also need to consider these important points:

• Italian bureaucracy is notorious for a reason
• many Italians don’t speak English, so you will need to speak Italian.
• unemployment is relatively high
• the cost of living is not as low as it was in the days of the lire

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