Any curiosity about life in Italy? How it is really like to live in the northern part of the boot shaped peninsula?
So, I am a father, I love and have cats and dogs, live in a small town in northern Italy, and and I work full time in a field related to software, technology and loosely transportation. I also lived in Rome, one of the biggest northern italy metropolies, and in smaller places like Pisa.
In a previous life I traveled around lots of the world and in my current life I am training for an Ironman.
All of this, while living in the above mentioned country.
Specially for US lemmiers, but also people from other parts of the world, anything you want me to explain, clarify or just answer about all of the above?
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Do you live in the montains or metropolitan? How is the transport like over there?
I live in the countryside nearby metorpolitan area. Transport as in mass transit could be definitely better. It’s barely acceptable for students, and that’s still not good neough. We would need better and more capillar public transport. Still mostly car-only outside the city.
Roads are not that bad, and traffic is survivable compared to other places like Milan, Rome, Naple and such.
What do Italians think about the law changing to no longer allow Italian descendants to become Italian citizens?
Vorrei dire ‘Ciao’!
Sto provando a imparare italiano, ma so che ci sono molto non lo so. Spero che non ti dispiaccia se provo a parlare italiano
Vorrei leggere libri per bambini e ragazzi per migliorare. Quali libri come questi ti piacciono?
Come ti sentono delle persone degli stati uniti? Ho applicato per cittadinanza jure sanguinis, ma ho paura che persone lì non si piacerò. Come ti senti di jure sanguinis, generalmente?(actually I just saw that you already answered this when Fondots asked it, scusami)Sai qualcosa di scalata in Italia? O delle rocce lì? Vivi in Piemonte, sì? Penso a Finale Ligure - la conosci?
(annnnd because I’m certain I made mistakes, in english)
spoiler
I just want to say ‘Hi’!
I’m trying to learn Italian, but I know there’s a lot I don’t know. I hope you won’t mind if I try to speak it :) I’m still a beginner
I would like to read children’s books to improve my speaking. Which ones do you like? (Which ones did you like when you were a kid / for your kids?)
How do you feel about americans? I applied for citizenship via jure sanguinis, but I’m afraid that people there won’t like me. How do you feel about jure sanguinis, in general?(and my apologies if you don’t like it or us. I get it)Do you know anything about rock climbing in Italy? Or the rocks there? I think of Finale Liguria for that - are you familiar with it? Since you live in Piedmont?
Oh and in bocca al lupo per la tua gara! Grazie per il tuo tempo :)
How is public transport in your area?
In the big city nearby, not that bad. There is a very efficient subway, but too small for the city, and an extensive network of busses.
Tickets are 2€ for 1 hour, with some 40-60€ euro monthly cards, depending if you have discounts.
Outside the city less good, there are suburban busses and train lines, but efficiency is not great. And are much more expensive.
If you need to travel across cities there are busses and trains, often running late but overall quite cheap.
My daughter take the train to go a few towns away for school every day, like 20min each way, the annual students card cost 600€ but covers a pretty wide area outside the big city.
What do Northern Italians do on April the 28th?
The day of the death of a dictator is something to be celebrated, I think. Given that it was Northern Italians who dealt the final blow that freed Italy, how do they commemorate it?
It’s a bit more complex than that.
We celebrate the 25th of April as Freedom Day, we don’t celebrate killing people even if they where dictators. Its bad taste.
Also, it seems that more then half of italy still like Mussolini and his legacy so.
Also, north Italy was also the place where the Repubblica di Saló, or the last fascist strongold, was located. So I guess it’s not a matter of north and south, rather of fascists and non fascists, which where both equally shared among the country.
So no commemoration, and a bit of second thoughts also on freedom day given how many new fascists ww have. Mind me, they are also pretty ignorant of their own history, so… Go figure.
Where do you live now?
What’s the food like where you are? Are there any regional specialties you love?
I visited Florence last year and couldn’t get enough of it, I’m actually heading to Milan later this year so looking forward to getting stuck in again
Now I live in Piedmont. Local food is not really an highlight I guess.
“Bagna caoda” is an anchovy and garlic dip eaten with fresh vegetables. Meh.
“Fritto misto” is a mixed platter of fried everything, from liver to vegetables. Meh.
“Albese” is raw minced meat with olive oil and parmesan, this is actually pretty good.
“Vitello tonnato” is sliced beef, cooked, with a sauce tuna based, kind like Mayo but with tuna, this is also pretty good…
In Piedmont, there is also a very famous local race of cows called “fassona”, the meat if pretty great, specially steaks.
But if you like wine, well, search Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Nebbiolo… and also “Erbaluce” di Chivasso. Piedmont is great on wines. Barolo is kind of the king of wines… My father has a few very old bottles still. We opened a bottle from the year i was born, when i turned 40. And it was amazing… (other bottles of the same age where meh, so it’s hit and miss, but still 40 years???)
Does everyone get ski lessons with school in northern Italy?
Nope! None of my kids got sky lessons from school. We took them to the slopes to get lessons tough.
None of them currently lime skying too much actually. My wife does, but not the sky with the slopes, what we call “scialpinismo” where you put skins under the sky and go also up without lifts
Cross-country skiing (scialpinismo) sounds like the best kind of skiing.
Yes! Cross country skying was the word.
Too difficult for my skills… But yes, it’s the best. Also very dangerous around here as the risk of avalanches can be really high.
Cross Country is usually on narrow skis mostly on the flats.
The skins and convertible bindings is some times called randoné, like in French, or ski touring or backcountry skiing.
How cold does it get in winter time? Assuming you don’t live in dinner mountains^^
I live 30min from the Alps, but still at 300m elevation. We get cold winters, a few weeks of freezing as minimums goes, but rarely stays freezing at noon. We get once or maybe twice a few cm of snow per year (last winter, zero).
Summers are pretty hot and humid (32-38°C, with minimums sometime above 30). Its definitely getting hotter tough, two years ago I installed AC units on the bedrooms, and we now use them a few nights in summertime.
Adding to that, for example yesterday morning we had a low of -2°C, and a high of almost 18°C in the same day…
My house is an independent almost 100 years old building, and i need about 4ton of wood pellets to heat the house from 1 october to 1 may, more or less.
What’s your favorite coffee, and method for brewing coffee? I’m in Liverpool UK, however I love Italian coffee, as I’ve visited Italy half a dozen times. So I get Guglielmo classico delivered, and use a Moka pot.
Guess what? Idon’t drink coffe! And they have not yet cancelled my citizenship…
My wife like Kimbo coffee. Using a moka of course…
Do you still have income in dollars? How is the cost of living, healthcare, etc? How does retirement work for a foreigner that has Italian citizenship? Thank you.
We have euros of course, and I am paid in euros as well. Wages are kind of low… Compared to germany Switzerland and even france, we make less buks for the same job.
But cost of living is also less, so overall… We are still poorer than many other Europeans… But life is still expensive. We make a good income, and free education, free healthcare and such amnenitoes do compensate.
Retirement is contribution based, so the more you work, the more you save in your retirement (state funded us company fundrd plus yourself funded). You cannot retire before 68 (maybe 70 nowadays) and usually need 40y of work, or maybe 45 nowadays.
Of you are a foreigner, I guess you need your retirement from whatever country you come from.
Anyway you can live with some 25k euros gross per year, but I recommend 50k or more at least. We are above that, but also have two kids four dogs two cars and a nice house (… In the woods)
Dollars? Not even in Liras anymore.
Do you go hiking? Do you have any favourite areas or refugios to recomend? Any good areas for wild camping where it is tolerated?
I’ve been doing some fantastic hikes in the Dolemites and Bergamo, would love to do more of it.
I love the places around Val Chisone, Val Pellice and Valli di Lanzo. A bit less renown, but nonetheless beautiful Check out the Rifugio Lago Verde near Prali for example…
I also like Rifugio Città di Ciriè at the Pian della Mussa. You can reach it by car in summer, but you can sleep there and do lots of hikes. For example, you can hike to the top of the Ciamarella, which is a 3900m top. There is a small (highly melting) glacier to cross, but it’s really just an hike. No crevasses. The main difficulty is the altitude.
Also, there is a hiking loop i just love in the valley of Prali (inside Val Germanasca, inside Val Chisone) you can actually hike the entire valley starting from Gigo di Prali all around the mountains on the north-east side. You hike up to 2900m first, passing Rifugio LAgo Verde, then following ancient military roads, keep at around 2000-2500m for over 20km until Rocca Bianca, passing the beautiful basin of the 13 lakes on the way. Overall the entire loop is 35km. When i was 25 i did it in 11/12 hours. LAst summer when i was training for a few trail runs, i did it in a about 5h 30min.
So you’re here in Piemonte then 😉 I’m bookmarking that list for the summer. I’ve been here 3 years and not hiked as much as I’d have liked. But I’ve mostly made up for it in cycling and skiing.
Amazing, thank you so much! Will check it out!
I travel to Italy by train pretty often, and it’s a shame to pass by northern Italy without stopping for a hike. :)
Happy to share, privately, a track of the itinerary if you ping me.
is it true that italians hate pineapples on pizza?
Personally I don’t, but indeed it’s quite absurd. Like a cheeseburger with a donut inside probably…
Anyway yes, expect to be made fun of and yelled if you order one.
Nothing is absolute. I’ve had pineapple puré on a pizza at this spectacularly good one.
You hiring for DevOps? ;)
Sorry… Not hiring… :)
But DevOps are needed, and I guess you could find a job… Who knows
There’s these little biscuits my italian exchange family used to eat at breakfast that were really good… They were donut-shaped, about the size of an oreo and a little bit dry but they were so good! Any idea which ones I’m talking about?
Did they have white stars on them? Maybe the Bucaneve from Doria? https://www.doria.it/prodotti-dolci/bucaneve
found them!
Macine! Yeah they are nice with milk, but recently the recepy changed a bit and they don’t taste as good… Enshittification I guess
I believe the only logical response here is 🤌
Yes, and i do actually do that gesture…
What are your thoughts on the recent changes to Italian citizenship by descent laws?
Like a lot of Americans, the thought of leaving this country has crossed my mind on more than a few occasions recently, and I’ve spent a little time looking into any options I might have to get citizenship elsewhere. Since I have some Italian ancestry, Italy was probably my best bet until the recent changes.
It was a longshot anyway, I don’t exactly have 100+ year old Italian birth certificates hanging around to prove that ancestry, so I’m not too broken up about it, but I’m curious how people there feel about those changes.
Well, for what is worth i voted to have the citizenship timeline reduced in the last referendum on the matter.
Currently, you need to be born from italian parents (at least one) to become italian, there is no ius soli (however you write that, i might be italian, but my studies of Latin dates back long ago), but you can marry or civil-marry somebody and get citizenship after some 10 years (IIRC). That referendum was trying to lower that time to 5 years. Which means that you pay taxes, but cannot vote or get a passport for that time. Actually, in some cases you can vote for local elections i think (not 100% sure which ones) but not political, european or state wide elections.
I believe that if you contribute to the country, live here with plans to stay forever (or for a reasonably long time) and elect Italy as your country, you should be allowed citizenship.
Nothing really changes from this perspective. I can tell you that in small places people are not very keen to give cirizenship easily, while in big cities people are more open, like mostly every where i guess.
Anyway, without citizenship you need a “permesso di soggiorno” (permit to stay) which is kind convoluted, annoying and short lived to get. It expires often (yearly?) and it takes months to renew, so you cannot leave the country for big chunks of the year a time, and you get accomunated to “illegals” because well, you are one of them until you get your permesso renewed. I have friends who needs one, and it’s kind of annoying. Longer work contracts of study could help with some 3 years long “permesso” but it’s hit and miss i am told.
