r/ItalyExpat

Hi everyone, I'm about to move to Italy like in 10 days.

I'm from Ukraine and left the country because of the war. My parents live and work in Germany. But even though I speak perfect German I decided to go with Italy and move there, because of better climate, more reasonable tax rates and conditions to acquire residence permit and housing.

I felt like Germany is a good place reside, if you want to take advantage of the social package, but as soon as you want to do some more it's pretty hard to make a living.

I still have not decided where to settle and currently I'm struggling with finding some accommodation in good price range for the first couple of weeks.

I'm gonna go to the north of the Italy for the first period. Considering residing somewhere around Tuscany. But also heard good things about Bologna. I don't have a strong preference where to stay.

What would you recommend where to go if you were on a budget?

Is it even possible to rent something for short term (from couple of weeks to couple of months) but not at tourist prices?

As a bonus: I will not be able to buy a car the first couple of months, so are there some car rentals I can rent a car for a couple of months at affordable rates?

Just wondering has anyone here managed to get themselves a software/IT job in Italy and if so, how easy or difficult was it? From doing some research before it sounds like working remote in Italy for a UK/Irish based company seems to be easier. Although I sometimes wonder how easy or difficult it is to get a job with an Italian company. I can see some jobs on LinkedIn however the ad's are usually in Italian and I've only done basic Italian so far.

I was reading an article online about a woman who moved to Italy and I think she said she used Wise for her bank account.

I had never really considered some sort of online bank like that if I moved there but I get the impression it’s easier to set up than a regular bank account locally?

Any thoughts on bank accounts there?

Thanks

We are in the middle of buying a small barn (70 sqm) that needs to be completely renovated. When meeting with a local architect (whose other works we really like) he told us his fee will be 20000 Euros and around 8-10 percent of the construction costs. When we were building our house in Austria, we payed a percentage of the construction costs but the 20000 Euros seem way to much. Especially when the estimated construction costs are around 100000 Euros. Does anyone here has any experience with paying architects in Italy?

I am turning 21 pretty soon and i fell in love with italy when i had the opportunity to visit my family that lives in sicily and milan. After quitting basketball i dont know what i really wanna do for my job for the rest of my life. I know a little Italian but was thinking of doing Italian course while i save up for a language school in milan. I was thinking of doing 2 years and finding a part time job while attending the school, after i was seeing if i could attend a university in italy to get a degree ( obviously i will be figuring out what job so i can get the correct degree). My dream would be to live near the coast and in an area i can take trains to visit my family in milan or plane to sicily. Ive always thought of maybe trying to play professional basketball in italy or even becoming a model ( these are my thoughts and obviously things i look into on my own). overall is attending a language school to become proficient in Italian and then going to a university after a good start or even possible to get my foot in the door for a future in italy?

I booked with a smaller Italian rental company and they asked me to send front/back photos of my driving licence and ID via WhatsApp before pickup for “registration on the police portal”.

At first I censored some personal information, but they replied saying the documents could not be registered like that and asked for uncensored versions.

Is this a typical process in Italy with smaller rental companies or should I be concerned?

Ciao a tutti!! in 4 months I’m going to university in Italy, either at Università di Siena or Università Politecnica delle Marche.

One of the things that worries me the most is how I’m going to make friends with Italians 😭 I currently speak Italian at around an A1 level, but I’m planning to improve a lot during these next 4 months. I also speak Spanish (native) and English (C1).

I’ve heard some people say Italians prefer speaking Spanish rather than English with international students, but I’m not sure if that’s actually true 😭

If anyone has experience with this or has any tips, I’d really appreciate it 💗

Hi everyone, I have a decent work experience in e-commerce field but I am unable to find ANY job at all. I haven’t learned Italian yet and while I know it is important but I can not wait too long. Please share your experience how did you guys manage to find work? TIA

US company without an Italian entity, looking at hiring our first Italian developer full-time-equivalent and trying to scope the partita IVA route before we commit either way.

he’s offered to invoice us monthly through his partita IVA which is the cheaper path apparently, but everything I’ve read says Italian tax authorities can reclassify this as lavoro subordinato if the working relationship looks like employment, fixed hours, sole client, integrated into our internal tools and processes.

And reclassification penalties land on the company side which is what worries me.

trying to figure out where the line sits, is partita IVA workable if we keep things project-scoped with multiple clients on his end, or does the Agenzia delle Entrate basically treat any long-term sole-client engagement as employment by default regardless of contract language.

and if reclassification risk is real, is the alternative going through an EOR or do most US companies just absorb the cost of opening an Italian entity once they hit the second hire.

Have you dealt with this from the company side without regretting the call they made?

I’m trying to better understand when someone officially becomes subject to taxes in Italy during the relocation process. Does Italian tax residency begin once you get a codice fiscale, when you physically move to Italy, or only after completing residency steps like the permesso di soggiorno and registration? I’m also confused about how taxes work in the year you move. Are you taxed for the entire calendar year, or only from the point you officially became a resident in Italy?

I tried putting this in r/permessodisoggiorno/ but no one answered:

I was in the US military and was living in a tiny village near Aviano/Pordenone. I REALLY miss my Italian friends and my village as they really made me feel at home there and taught me a lot. I have felt homesick ever since I left back to the USA.

Now that I am out of the military, I am retired and have a pension. I make around $60k per year. From what I gather, that's enough passive income for the Elective Residency Visa.

1. I understand I need healthcare, money, flights set, and a lease agreement or purchased property. How in the world do I do that from the USA? My savings are modest, but not enough to outright purchase a home in north Italy (I know mortgages are very hard to obtain as a non-resident foreigner).
2. What kind of lease agreement satisfies the ERV housing requirement — does it need to be a full annual contract, or will a shorter-term furnished rental work?
3. For health insurance, does international expat coverage (like Cigna Global) satisfy the consulate, or does it need to be from an Italian provider? I would prefer an Italian provider.
4. What's the best way to transfer from USD to Euros? I've been hearing Revolut or Wise.
5. Are there any tips for the visa process? Does anyone have experience with the Houston consulate for the ERV? I still have my codice fiscale from when I lived in the Pordenone region.

That's really the only questions I have at the moment as I am in the beginning stages of this. Thank you for any useful information in advance :)

After working clinically with American expats living in Italy, the most consistent thing I see is also the one almost no one warns them about. It hits between month 4 and month 8 of the move. It is predictable, it follows a recognizable shape, and it is almost never depression in the strict sense, even though that is what people often arrive thinking it is.

I write this because I had a wave of new American patients this spring all walking in with some version of the same description: "I think I made a mistake," or "I feel like I am disappearing," or simply "I am not myself anymore and I do not understand why."

If you are in this phase, this is not failure. It is the work.

What is the 6-month wall

The first 3 months of an expatriation generate what psychologists call honeymoon arousal: novelty, dopamine, identity expansion. Everything is interesting and you have stamina for the friction.

Around month 4, several things converge:

• The bureaucratic exhaustion accumulates. Permesso, codice fiscale, residency, bills, doctor registration. Each item is small. The cumulative load is heavy.
• The second-language tax becomes constant. Operating in Italian even at B1-B2 uses cognitive resources you did not budget for. The brain treats this as low-grade chronic stress.
• The identity gap shows. In English you are a competent professional with humor and nuance. In Italian for at least 12 months you sound like a polite child. Most adults find this intolerable in ways they did not predict, and the response is usually avoidance, not adaptation.
• The social architecture from home stops feeling close. The friends who said "we will visit you all the time" have visited once. Group chats fade. Italian friendships are slow to form and you are still legibly transient to the people you meet.
• Romantic disillusionment arrives. The Italy of your imagination meets the Italy of bureaucracy, dog poop on the sidewalk, and unreliable plumbers.

By month 5 or 6, the cumulative weight crosses a threshold and the nervous system shifts state. The honeymoon arousal collapses into something that looks and feels like depression. It usually is not.

The four faces of the wall

In the cases I see, the wall expresses itself in four typical shapes. People rarely have one cleanly, more often a primary and a secondary.

The freeze. Avoidance becomes the default. You stop initiating, you let your partner handle the bureaucracy, you order in English at the bar that speaks English, you cancel plans. Days blur. You tell yourself you are "settling in" but you are actually withdrawing.

The lash-out. Irritability becomes the primary channel. You snap at your partner over small things. You feel rage at Italian inefficiency, at how slow the postal system is, at how your partner's family does not understand boundaries. The rage is real but disproportionate.

The fog. Low-grade depression. Sleep more or less. Lose appetite or eat more. Lose interest in things you usually enjoy. This is the one that gets misread as clinical depression most often. Sometimes it is, but more often it is the nervous system processing a load it has not metabolized.

The flight. Active fantasies of going back. Checking flights. Telling yourself you tried and Italy is not for you. This is sometimes correct (some moves should be reversed), but more often it is the wall talking.

Why it usually resolves

The wall is not a verdict on the move. It is what happens when your nervous system finishes the honeymoon and starts the actual integration. In the cases I follow over time, most people pass through it between month 9 and month 14, often quite suddenly. One week they realize they ordered a coffee in Italian without thinking about it, or they had a real conversation with a neighbor, or they felt at home in their apartment for the first time. The system has rebooted.

This is not guaranteed. Some people stay stuck and need either clinical support or to reconsider the move. But the modal case is: it resolves if you do not panic during it.

What helps practically

Three things, in order of return:

1. Lower the bar of what counts as a good day. A successful interaction in Italian during this phase is one where you said something, were not understood cleanly, and stayed in the room. Not a clean exchange. Most people grade themselves on the wrong scale.

2. Pick one structured weekly thing in Italian where you do not have a choice. A course, a sport, a volunteer role. Not networking, which lets you opt out. Structured commitment because the brain treats forced repetition differently from optional repetition.

3. Sleep and movement. Both are not "self-care" platitudes here. The wall is a load issue. Sleep and movement are the two cheapest levers for a nervous system that is running too hot. People who skip these and try to muscle through it tend to extend the wall by months.

When to actually worry

Most of what people describe in this phase is the wall, not depression. But some signals are worth taking seriously:

• Suicidal ideation or self-harm thoughts. Not a wall problem. Reach out: 988 in the US, Telefono Amico in Italy, or any local provider.
• Sleep collapse for more than two weeks without partial recovery.
• Drinking or other substances visibly escalating.
• Inability to function at work or with children for more than 2-3 weeks.

If any of these, talk to a clinician. Not because you "have" something serious, but because having an outside professional accelerates the work.

One last thing

If you are in this phase right now and you found yourself nodding through this post, I want to say one thing clearly: you are not failing the move. You are doing exactly what every adult nervous system does when it crosses a threshold of accumulated cognitive and social load. The phase is not the verdict. The phase is the work.

I am a Dutch of 39 born and raised in Amsterdam. I'm now over two years in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend in Northern Italy. She lives in a village close to Milano. We would love to end the long distance part of our relationship and we consider me moving to her place. I am looking for people that can maybe give me some extra information about how it would be for someone like me(Dutch, citylife, non remote working) to move to a village in northern italy. I would love to hear from you

I’m thinking about moving to Italy for a year in the fall of 2028. I will have a 4 1/2 year-old son and a 2 1/2-year-old daughter. My wife and I will be able to work remotely and or take a sabbatical to study. We are thinking bologna might be a place to spend 9 or 10 months but are open to other ideas. I’m putting it out there now because planning in advance seems like it would make it more possible. My Italian is basic, but if I have two years, I could get it up to speed we are coming from New York City. Any insight or thoughts would be appreciated.

I am a italian citizen living in the uk for last 7 years. As i have family home back in italy and traveled there every year for a period i didn't register for AIRE (I KNOW its very stupid of me). So i still have may italian address/residency. Now i am planning to move back in to italy permanently. But i cant exchange my driving licence as i got it from uk but my address was still present in italy!

So i am planning to live in germany for 6/7 months. There i can exchange the uk licence to eu licence. Also i belive i dont have to register for AIRE as i intentd to live less then 12 month.

So my question is in future when german licence expires will i have any issue renewing it in italy?

Or i better of registering AIRE it now, before i exchange it in germany?

I appreciate any advice

Hi Everyone.

I am currently living in Italy but still working for my UK employer as PAYE l. We did not submit an A1. I know about the double taxation treaty and everything there is to be found online, but can anyone provide advice on what they have done in this situation or similar? As far as I understand , registering as partita IVA does not sort out all.problems as providing services for the same company would br considered a continuation of employment?

I didn't declare italian residency in UK so for now they are not reporting to Italy.

We have absolutely no Italian clients or anything and I work one week a month in UK. My resdience started last year in may in italy.

I will have.do my tax return soon for 2025 and I am not sure of anything really. Do you upload contracts and P60 when filing accounts, or how does it work?

Can someone recommend a good accountant or tax adviser for this? I live in Tuscany.

Hi! I’m an American living in Vicenza but I’m not associated or working with the military base and so I don’t have access to anything American there. I’m moving into a new house and new to redo my bathrooms and my kitchen and also decorate the whole house. In the US I would know exactly where to go but here I’m am totally lost. I’m looking for Wayfair or CB2 budget furniture. So nothing too pricey but also not cheap stuff that will break in a year. Can anyone help?

And if someone from the US base is reading this can you tell me if you have an app a Facebook page where you all list furniture and home items that your are selling when moving out of Italy?

UPDATE:
Thank you all for your suggestions! I like in the Dueville area and have definitely used both IKEA and Mondo Convenienza but was looking for more design options. Thank you and I will take all your suggestions into consideration during my home decor and renovation hunt.
Unfortunately as I am not associated with the military base I don’t have access to any of their Facebook pages for furniture or other resale items. Total bummer.

I am looking at apartments in Bologna and wondering if the website is as reliable as Airbnb etc. I know there are some problems with not seeing the places in person elsewhere.

Also, is there a lot more paperwork for it than Airbnb on the renters side? And does it really matter where you stay in the historic district or is it all pretty safe and uniform?

Thank you!