ITALY - Expat Contests

Expat Blog Awards 2013

10 Great Things to Do in and Around Milan

Milan is not on every tourist’s to do list when visiting Italy, but there are plenty of things to keep you busy at any time of the year. Here are some of the highlights worthy of checking out during a stay in the city. 1.    The Duomo- Milan’s Duomo is just one of those sites that never gets old. Each time you walk past, it’s...

Expat Blog Awards 2013

10 Signs That Confirm You've Gone "Full Italian"

Robert Downey Jr. will be the first to tell you that you never go full Italian.  But if you’re planning on living in Italy for more than a few months… the chances of going “full Italian” are pretty strong.  Truly being an Italian is rooted deeper than the country in which you live or the ancestors to which you are...

Working Abroad

Adjusting to Italian Business Practices

For an American in Italy, adjusting to the norms of Italian business and commerce can be somewhat of a challenge. You really need to downshift by a couple of gears and stop trying to impose your former work ethic on your current job situation. Not to say that Italians don’t work hard. They do, but they go about their workday at a...

Writing Contest October 2012

Adventures in (Overly) Exotic Coffee

This morning I drank a cup of monkey butt. While that image sinks in, permit me to explain. I am a great coffee lover. I look forward to my coffee the way (I’m told) smokers anticipate their cigarette, or (I’m told) crack users lust after their crack. (There’s a reason I mention crack, bear with me). I’m not addicted to...

Writing Contest October 2012

At Least You Can Have a Decent Coffee While You Wait

I step out into the glorious sunshine. It's only the end of May and I'm already wearing a summer dress. I take a leisurely stroll along the cobbled street, waving and shouting a hearty CIAO!! to passers by. I turn onto the beautiful main piazza in my lovely little town. Time for a coffee methinks. One of those little cups with a silly bit of...

Expat Culture Shock

Culture Shock

Personally, the term 'culture shock' has always held an aversion with me. When I moved to Tennessee from my hometown in New York, strangers would say in their southern twangs, "New York huh? Well there's yah some culture shock!" With these simple words, the stranger would remind me of every bagel, late-night slice of pizza and skyscraper I so...

Writing Contest March 2013

Five Italian Food Rules that Foreigners Need to Know

There is a saying among Italians that goes, “Italy is a country with a million laws, but no rules.” Like most clichés, it survives because there’s some degree of truth to it. But—like most clichés—it’s also an oversimplification. There are some rules in Italy that can be bent and others that can be broken. There are even a few...

Writing Contest October 2012

From Expat to Immigrant

I hadn't intended to come to Italy. Argentina was where I wanted to be, where I could ride polo ponies across pampas plains and fall in love with handsome gauchos. That was the plan. Europe wasn't even on my list. It was too close to the UK and not enough like an adventure. Then a job in southern Italy fell into my lap. There wouldn't be...

Writing Contest October 2012

From Thailand to Italy

My wonderful journey started, thirteen years ago, when I decided to marry my Italian boyfriend and to transfer to live in his country. At that time, thanks to my studying in Italian literature in my university, I already knew a little bit about Italy and its culture. However, who in the world doesn't know Italian food, Italian artists,...

Expat Blog Awards 2013

Living in an Italian Village by the Sea – Pros and one Con

Although I am only a quarter expat in Pizzo - if you can call it "expat" after all - I decided towrite about our European home base in the most southern region of the Italian mainland: Calabria.Italian countrymen further north often look down on Calabria – unjustly, thinks the Calabrese. Calabria is indeed different from the North. In...