Our first year in Italia

One year ago…

It was one year ago today that we landed in Italy, the country we would like to make our permanent home. We have met many new and interesting people, seen many beautiful places, eaten a lot of great food, and been able to experience what it is like to live in a different culture. This blog has been a way for me to document our adventure.

If you have followed this blog for awhile you will know that this has not always been an easy process for us; we were denied a visa by one consulate before we could even leave the United States and have had and continue to have our share of bureaucratic headaches since arriving here (you can see these under “the process” tag). Anyone who would tell you that Italy, or any place for that matter, is perfect is either lying to you or has only been there on vacation.

There are the Italian drivers, the ugly suburban architecture, the bureaucracy, the lousy dollar exchange rate, my struggle with the language and other things that come with life in Italy. But…there are so many great things about living here that in our view they outweigh the negatives. The term “bel paese” is commonly used to convey Italy and to me this means many things.

There are the friendly people who are patient with my poor Italian language skills, the Italians people who have helped us with the system, the food, the food, the food (yeah I like Italian food!), the different wines that every region has, the rolling hills, the majestic mountains, the sandy beaches, the slower pace of life and of course – the caffe’.

God willing, this will only mark the end of the first of many years to come for us here in Italia.