“Oh Tina, you silly girl,” everybody at the table says, laughing, “that’s so cute that you think it doesn’t matter if you go outside right after you eat.  Chuckle chuckle, ha ha ha ha ha.  Everybody knows that if you go outside after a meal you get la congestione!”*

Six months later…. I’m on an air-conditioned shuttle bus, covering myself with a shawl, with a tummy ache, and frantically text-messaging a friend, “I ate lunch and then walked and then sat next to the air conditioning!  I think I have la congestione!”

*La congestione: an Italian phenomenon that takes place if you don’t allow for digestion to fully take place after you eat and go be where it’s cold, or go swimming, go where you might sweat from heat and make yourself cold, or really any sort of environment that has anything to do with being cold.  Apparently, it messes everything up as when you digest all your blood is concentrated on your digestive system.  When you go into a cold environment the blood distributes to the rest of your body to keep you warm and digestion is blocked.  Which is why you should always wear a scarf!  As a bonus, you could also get the influenza (not to be confused with the common flu), which is an Italian flu-like phenomenon that lasts exactly two days.  Remember, cold is evil!

1. Do your homework. I know your local university has had an exchange program with the Italian university for so many years, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to help you once you get to Italy.  Perhaps you’ve been offered a job, but it may not be wise to assume your employer actually plans on getting you a visa.  Even if they do, and even if your university does help its students, you would be wise to take the responsibility of doing as much research as you can.  One great place to start is Expats in Italy.

2.  Learn the difference between a visa and a permesso di soggiorno. It is very important to keep in mind that a visa simply gets you into the country.  To actually stay, you need to get your permesso di soggiorno, or stay permit.  The visa is important to have because it is sort of a springboard to get you started in the bureaucratic process of applying for your stay permit.  But that’s all it is.  When you have your visa in hand, remember that this is Italy and the paperwork is never done.  To get started on applying for your permesso, you can ask for help at your university or from your employer, or go to the post office where they have the application packages.  This is something that needs to be done within 8 days of entering Italy.  Again, the people on the forum at Expats in Italy are very helpful if you need to know more.  My friend Georgette at Insiders Abroad just posted a link to this very informative blog post dealing with just this sort of thing.

3. The magic number is 90. When you arrive as a tourist, you are allowed to stay 90 days.  But don’t assume that you can just hop the border every 90 days and keep staying.  It used to be so, but now you actually have to leave for 90 days as well.  That’s right – 90 days in and 90 days out.  And not just Italy.  You have to leave the entire Schengen area (which includes most of Europe) for 90 days.  Be very careful about abusing this rule.  I personally know people who have been caught overstaying their allotted 90 days and it was not pretty.  You could risk being banned from the entire zone for five years.

I don’t like to sound negative or discouraging, but it really perplexes me when people don’t do their research before coming over here.  Maybe I’m just obsessive-compulsive, but I would never move to another country, legally or not, without trying to learn as much as I can about how everything works.  It is completely your choice if and how you want to come to Italy, but no matter what path you choose, you will find that so many doors open for you if you just do your research before you move.  It’s worth it!

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net.  Do you have loved ones living in Italy?  You might want to click here to learn about cheap phone cards for keeping in touch. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hand trembling

The wind is passing thro’

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads

The wind is passing by.

I wonder if there is a Southern Italian version involving the various winds that we have down here.  How do you make the phrase: “When your curls are extra curly and your patio is covered in Saharan dust it’s probably the Scirocco” rhyme?  Or “When, despite the warm weather and sun, the wind makes your skin shiver it’s probably the Tramontana and you’d do best to drive a ways and take a dip in the Ionian Sea”…?

Growing up in Seattle, I never knew the wind to have different names, only because it wasn’t part of our culture to speak of the wind in such a way.  As far as I was concerned, it was a language reserved for deep sea fishermen.  Here, however, people base their activities on the wind, and every wind from every direction has a name that everyone knows, rendering it exotic.  The Levante, the Tramontana, the Scirocco (my favorite), the Maestro, among others.  I can’t keep them straight!

The two winds I do know very well by now are the Scirocco from Africa (my apartment stays humid, and outside the wind is warm and pleasant, though at times so strong it’s a nuisance to my hair, which I just throw into a bun) and the Tramontana from the north (it’s a cool wind but that’s when we choose the Ionian Sea over the Adriatic and have the loveliest beach days).

It’s rather impressive to me that such importance is given to the wind.  It’s something I love about living in the Mediterranean – here, there is a connection with nature that seems truly ancient.  From the wind to the soil to the sea to the phases of the moon.

How do people relate to nature where you live?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

The caffè on a sunny Sunday morning. Once in a while I enjoy leaving the house to get my coffee.  Since the weather is pleasant, if I’m in company I like to sit at one of the outdoor tables.  Italians who are in a hurry usually down a quick shot of espresso at the bar, but if I have the time I don’t mind paying the extra service charge for sitting down.  To me, it’s worth it: I get to people watch!  Being in the middle of the chaos of people sitting down (or getting up), talking over each other, ordering their coffee, while (very) well-dressed folks continue to strut by, is a true “Italy moment” for me.

The spectacular views. Okay, the whole world has spectacular views. But the views here remind me that miracles are possible.  Last week I was at lunch on the property of a friend who lives near the point where the Adriatic and the Ionian seas meet, and as I stood and looked at the panorama that lay before me, I began laughing.  When we think of things like this – Mediterranean water and sky so blue and clear – we tend to dismiss them as fantasies.  I realized, at that moment, that I am living the dream – that I can see things like this any time I want.  And only in Italy.  See for yourself:

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

These past few weeks have been full of serious reflection.  Not just connected to the fact that I’m settling in here in Italy, but also out of a desire to take care of my heart and make sure I’m happy from the inside.

I may not be responsible for how other people act or think or feel, but I AM responsible for my own actions/thoughts/feelings, and for the situations I choose to be in.  In fact, on the train from Florence the other week, it hit me that if I’m the one who is responsible for my happiness (and nobody else is), I can just decide to be happy!  Not that I wasn’t before, because I am a generally happy person.  But it’s a powerful realization.  And so I decided, on that train, to just be happy – consciously.  This has led to further reflection and further examination of my patterns in life.  Approaching these things from a positive viewpoint (as opposed to the common idea that we have to do all these things BEFORE being happy) has been very interesting and productive!  I feel refreshed and excited to move forward in life.  It’s kind of cool how the mind works.

So, I’m topping all of this off with a visit to a city that fascinates me.  I wish I had a better camera, but I’ll do my best with what I’ve got!

I bought purple gloves, stood in front of the Duomo eating ice cream, had a great aperitivo with Georgette and friends, and stayed with the lovely Katie.  Saturday I had the first half of the day to myself to walk around the city and I later met up with Katie and Laura, who I’ve been wanting to meet for years, for lunch.  Spending all that time with other girls who are making their dreams come true was really a spirit lifter for me.  It reminded me of what I have accomplished, and it reminded me how nice friendship is.

Florence is beautiful and it was a lovely reunion (I giggled and said to her “You’re so beautiful” more than once during this visit), but I fear that she has some competition from Rome in my heart for #1 major Italian city.  I enjoy knowing that I live a train ride from either city.  And that reminds me: as the train from Florence got into Umbria and closer to Perugia, I felt so at home.  As I embraced my dear tango friends, it became even more apparent to me.  I’m glad and grateful.

First, Infostrada made me wait a month, and every time we would try to call them, we either couldn’t get through, or my customer number didn’t exist.  And when we did get through and my customer number existed, they would hang up on us.  Finally, we found out that for whatever reason they had canceled my order on me.  Great.

So then I discovered Aria, which is kind of like Clearwire in the US.  I have to say, their customer service is amazing.  After my experience with Infostrada, it was so nice to have someone answer the phone, AND call me back at an agreed up on time to help me get an account with them.  Well, my Aria package arrived, and it turns out I have no signal where I live.  Luckily I have 10 days to cancel.

While I was waiting for all of this, I had the chance to try a loaner USB “internet key” from Tre, a cell phone company.  They gave me a 3-Euro SIM for it so I could try it out.  This gave me about three hours.  As soon as I tried it, I was convinced that this was a good service for me.  But since I had already ordered from Aria, I didn’t want to make any decisions just yet.

The other day I signed up with Tre, but there was a problem on a national level where they weren’t able to activate new contracts.  Luckily, they gave me a prepaid SIM to use in the meantime.  But then the new modem wasn’t compatible with my computer, which has quite the temper lately!

Of course, I realized the other day that Mercury was in retrograde, which may have something to do with it…

In the end, I happily write this from home.  I look up at the castle across the way and sigh with contentment.

I’m also very fortunate and really have nothing to complain about when I look at the big picture.

Click the image below to support Doctors Without Borders as they work to provide emergency relief in Haiti.

But I guess something had to give.

I ordered a phone and ADSL package right away, as I knew this could be a little more complicated and could take a while.  And boy is it taking a while!  I ordered it on the 6th of December, and still have nothing.  To the phone/internet company’s credit, they called me right away on my cell phone after I ordered, and sent a local technician to me in just a couple of days to get my phone line up and running.  Alas, there was little he could do.  See, my street name is confusing and easily leads people to think that I live in a particular fraction of Perugia, rather than Perugia itself.  So, the technician was from that fraction, and apparently can’t work in Perugia.  The technician was really nice and said they would take care of it for me, in terms of calling someone who actually operated in Perugia, and sending them my way.  I was content with this.  The good news is, he had a look around, and my apartment has a couple of phone outlets and there is already a physical phone line.  So at least there won’t be anything complicated to do in that regard.

But, nothing.  With Christmas around the corner I had a feeling it would be this way, so I just decided to live with it until the New Year.  Why swim upstream?  This week things should go back to normal in terms of business and we plan on making a few phone calls and getting all of this taken care of.  In the meantime, I’m using R’s office every day.  I thank him for his kindness and I hope he doesn’t get sick of me before long.

Not having internet at home has changed my work pace a bit, naturally.  My time is limited so I have to work a lot harder and faster (I need the internet to do research and check up on terms, etc., as well as to keep in touch with clients).  So I get the translations done and then while I’m at home with no internet, I proofread.  On one hand, it’s nice to get my work done and go home, but on the other hand, I want to work smarter, not harder.  But, that’s just the way it is right now.

Nights are lonely without the internet.  It’s amazing how much I rely on it.  I keep myself occupied, though: I read, write, sing, dance, bake cookies, and mop the floor.   Now that I have time (i.e. time not being used to surf the net) I clean the whole house almost every day.  But I’d rather be Skype-ing with relatives and friends in the US and Argentina, who are several hours behind me.  So hopefully this will get resolved soon.

1. The Internet. Cherrye recently published a great list of sites to look at before you make your move to Italy, and I second what she says.  While your experience will never be the same as anyone else’s, reading blogs and introducing yourself on forums such as Expats in Italy will be invaluable in your personal preparation.  Not only will you be able to get an idea of mundane life in Italy (yes, I put mundane and Italy in the same sentence), but there is nothing like being just a URL away from others who have already taken the leap.

2. Non-Italian Recipes.  Yes, you’re moving to Italy and you’re excited about the food.  I can’t blame you – we eat well here.  There are more pasta shapes than you can imagine, and the fresh produce is out of this world.  As you travel from region to region (if you can), you will discover all kinds of new dishes.  That said, there will come time when you crave foods from outside of Italy.  If you don’t live in a bigger city, you won’t have access to a lot of international cuisine.  Why not get creative and try to duplicate what it is you’re craving?  I made chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago (for chocolate chips, I could have used “gocce di cioccolato” from Perugina, but since I had a 70% dark chocolate bar, I had fun and chopped that up).  Right now I’m in sort of a Tex-Mex mood and am thinking of making fajitas for my boyfriend on New Years Eve.  (Here’s a great flour tortilla recipe.  For sour cream while in Italy, you can mix mascarpone with lemon juice, or use Total brand Greek yogurt.)

3. A Blog.  Before I discovered what a blog was, when I lived or traveled abroad I would send mass e-mails every week, detailing my adventures and attaching photos.  How wonderful it was to discover blogging!  While e-mails are great for relatives and friends who don’t want to bother looking at a blog, it gets a bit tiresome managing a mailing list.  Not only do I have my writings archived in a single place, blogging has enabled me to reach out to other expats with whom I can share ideas and experiences.

What are your essentials for moving overseas?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site where you can also buy calling cards to Italy (got that, relatives? I’m waiting to hear from you!) You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

I’ve had the pleasure of eating regular lunches with R’s family. It started with a weekly Sunday lunch, and now that I am using his office space for its Wi-Fi as I wait for internet in my new home, I’m eating with them almost every day.

Lunch, at least with this group, consists of a few courses and is the biggest meal of the day. At about 1pm or so, we head from his office to his family’s house, where there’s a warm fire going and the table is set.

We almost always start with pasta. I say almost, because the other day we actually had bean soup (served over pieces of toasted bread with extra virgin olive oil poured all over.) Each day, there is a different shape of pasta – one day we might have penne with pesto, the next day we might have spaghetti with a tomato-based sauce.

The first time I ate with them, I said “yes” to a second serving of pasta because I didn’t realize there would be another course. But, here in Italy, the pasta dish is usually a “primo”, first course. I still say “yes” to more pasta every now and then.

The “secondo”, second course, is usually some sort of meat dish and a side of vegetables. Yesterday we had his mother’s gorgeous meatballs with a fine tomato sauce. (I have yet to see Italians eat meatballs along with their pasta like in the United States. Meatballs here are nice and big and delicate, and are a course of their own.)

Just when I think I’m finished, the table is cleared and it’s time for a “dolce”, a sweet. This can be anything, cookies, a small slice of cake (though not too sweet or rich like American cake), or perhaps just a bite of chocolate. We always follow the “dolce” with fresh fruit, whatever’s in season. Right now that would be apples, pears and Clementine oranges. The fresh fruit is followed by coffee, which here is a shot of espresso. Apparently you always follow this order: first the sweet, then the fruit, then the coffee. I never knew that.

We relax for a little while after eating, and I take my seat next to the fireplace and enjoy the warmth.

This may sound like quite a lot of lunch, but the food is so fresh and clean here and the portions are small compared to American portions.  However, with the various courses, it’s still a lot more than what I’m used to eating for lunch, so I’ve omitted dinner in an effort to maintain my weight loss, and in the evening I just have a couple of slices of cheese, some salad, and a glass of wine.

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site where you can also buy calling cards to Italy (got that, relatives?  I’m waiting to hear from you!)  You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.