No, Americans, You Can’t “Just Move to Italy”

But, if you make it through this post, you might still want to try.

Jill Francis
9 min readJul 11, 2022
A blonde woman and a black woman sit eating pizza with wine glasses in front of them.
Photo by Adrienn

It’s the weirdest thing. Does anyone have any idea why so many people from the US are asking me about moving here to Italy? Are you guys ok over there or what? I am guessing something must be up because I’ve answered so many questions about shipping containers, I feel like Maersk should have me on the payroll. Oh wait, y’all just figured out that the whole place went ass-up like, two weeks ago? And you’ve been reading lots of stuff online about how you should “Just move to Europe”, right? Because surely, the provincial little towns of yore are so lacking in the skills that the super savvy New Worlders would bring, yet so rich in unpasteurized dairy products that they would be thrilled to have you. It would be a step down from your current lifestyle, you think, but you’ve taken a deep breath and figured you can learn how to navigate cobblestone streets, late dinners, and life without Costco. “Ok, ok,” you sigh. “I’m ready to make the leap.”

Yeah, not so fast, Davy Crockett. Let’s have a little reality check.

First of all, who am I to have an opinion on this? I am an American who has lived in Italy for almost five years. It took me almost two years of Olympic-level getting jerked around just to get a…

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Jill Francis
Jill Francis

Written by Jill Francis

American immigrant in Italy with too many degrees in Psychology. I write about everything I’m afraid of. jillfranciswrites@gmail.com

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