Hi, I’m Peter, and you’re reading Anywhere Italy.
Our mission is to cover the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip, in person, one at a time. Come along for free, or pay to keep us on the road.
I love this American phrase: “this is not my first rodeo.” It’s a bit too ballsy, so I don’t use it often, but it definitely belongs here: I’ve been an immigrant before. This is not my first rodeo. Lived years in London in the 2010s.
The first six months, maybe a year, is the honeymoon phase, especially if you come from a very different culture. I’m Hungarian, so coming from the grey, fatalist mindset of Eastern Europe, the UK truly seemed like a land of possibilities. And I lived centrally, in Camden and Islington, so I got the full dose. Within weeks, I was drinking tea instead of coffee. Within a month, I was putting milk in it (I still do). After two or three months, I was arguing with people that London should be a city-state. It took about six months before I considered getting into cricket.
Then, after a year, or rather after my first fully lived-through British winter, when you understand what horizontal rain means, I started to feel less pumped about Britain. I also realized that the Heathrow injection (an instant 5 kg gained on landing at Heathrow) doesn’t go away. And though my salary was mind-blowingly high (I was an executive in advertising), so high that I literally couldn’t spend it, nothing could compensate for the weather, the working hours and the constant chaos the city brought on me. The honeymoon was definitely over.
But that’s the amazing part. That’s when you can make a proper decision. Stay? Go home? Adapt? Change something? Now you can decide without the rose-tinted glasses.
Something similar happened in Italy. But this time it wasn’t new: I knew exactly what would happen. I have to give it to Italy: it took more than two years for the honeymoon to end. Probably because I still have no connection to the Italian labor market. I don’t have an Italian job, and I don’t have to work with Italians. If I did, the honeymoon would have been over within weeks. But even without that, some things changed.
It’s a matter of perspective.
Some see carefree dolce vita in Italians sitting endlessly in bars and cafés, as if they had no jobs or anything else to do. Others see stagnant productivity, high youth unemployment and carelessness.
Some see a laid-back attitude in every kind of service: playful people waiting tables, serving at the bar, cutting your hair, giving massages, training you at the gym. Others see a complete lack of service standards, total disregard for quality, and the mind-blowing impossibility of getting someone to focus on one thing, like a table’s order.
Lastly, some see the fundamental superiority of Italian cuisine, the near-perfect ingredients, and the almost religious way Italians approach anything to do with food. Others see a shocking conservatism that rejects anything non-Italian, and zero interest in international cuisine. It’s almost impossible to find non-Italian food, even in big cities, and when you do, it’s mediocre at best. And don’t get me started on international street food or fast food. I believe those are missing from the Italian mindset entirely. Fast food especially: I don’t think they even understand the concept.
I could go on and on. But this is where you make a deal. It’s like marriage: once the honeymoon is over, you start to see each other’s flaws. And you make a deal. Do I want to go on this journey despite all the shortcomings, because the overall picture outweighs the problems? It’s your choice. But you can only make it once the honeymoon is over.
Me? I made my deal. I’m here, and I’m happy to be here, despite all the problems I see and live with.
But if you’re considering moving here for good, I can’t stress this enough: spend some time here before you make the final decision. Let the honeymoon pass. See this country not as a dolce vita postcard, but as a real country with real people and real problems.
Because travel is easy. Who doesn’t want to live in that fishing village or hilltop town? When you say “I’m spending my vacation in Italy,” no one asks why. It’s one of the most beautiful countries on the planet, if not the most beautiful, so of course you vacation there. But what do people say when you tell them “I’m moving to Italy”?
So when I write about the problems and the things Italy lacks, this is why. I’m not ruining your dream. I’m giving you the reality, because I don’t just visit, I live here.
But like most of you, I started out here as a traveler.
Updates of this week
So, I’ve just finished moving to Turin. I guess you can say you’ve moved into a house once you’ve bought cable organizers, painted them the color of your walls, waited for them to dry and stuck them up to hide those pesky cables. I did that last weekend, so I guess I’ve arrived.
Meanwhile, I wrote up my travels in Umbria. I lived in Rome and Tuscany, so Umbria was always just a few hours away and easy to get to. Plus I had friends in Todi, so there’s another excuse.
I wrote about Todi here:
And I wrote about a possible road trip, because Umbria can be done as a loop:
These came out before this week, but I haven’t promoted them yet. Also, maybe because of the riots we’ve had in Italy, or because I’d always wanted to write them, I published two off-topic articles, mostly about politics. I rarely do this, and it won’t become a habit, I promise. Anywhere Italy stays a travel and expat publication, not a political one. That said, two articles. The first is an introduction to Italian politics for non-Italians:
It’s important if you live here, because it helps you understand what all the fuss is about. The second is one I’d wanted to write for a long time, on a topic you can hardly escape here: the mafia.
Both articles, especially the mafia one, are long, so take your time.
If you missed what I call the Grand Opus of Expats, last week’s six-part series on where to move in Italy, it starts here:
Lastly, I’ve published three books (also available on Amazon) based on the guides I wrote here: one on Versilia, one on the Arno Corridor, and one on Lunigiana and Garfagnana, a hidden region within Tuscany.
You get all of them, plus every future book, when you become a paid member of this publication.
