The Best (and WORST) Things About Moving to Italy

I cannot wait to see how much hair this baby arrives with.

Food seasonallity is nature's limited edition 😂

You feel supported. The isolation we feel in the US is from never having people to depend on. This has only happened ove the last 30 years.

Harper seems like an intelligent, introspective gentleman. I'm proud to have him representing the USA to the Italians! 🇺🇸❤🇮🇹

Eva, Harper is correct about Greyhound buses versus European trains. The trains win. ❤

That sense of community is a rare find these days and something I would want for my own children if I could choose.

Seasonality means you eat the products at their best time. They are delicious and nutritious . I consider this the best of best.

Eating seasonal is also better for making sure we are eating a variety of foods, which is better for the gut and a balance of fibres and nutritients

My grandmother was a notary here in the US. She was first generation Italian American and whenever she had to notarize something it was a HUGE deal! It was like a sacred event.

In Germany we have a season for (white) Asparagus. I begins in April and ends in June. It can overlap with wild garlic (Bärlauch) or strawberrys. It gives you an imagination of how paradise or at least spring tastes.

We retired to Italy about 1 1/2 years ago. We moved for two main reasons. We couldn't live in the U.S. on S.S. without keeping jobs to supplement our income, and out of a whim, I started looking for real estate in Italy with the attitude of, " I know Italy is expensive but we are curious" Well, we found Abruzzo real estate and compared to other regions is the most house/apartment for the money and it was affordable! We came to Italy only for affordability and we didn't have any expectations, we just wanted to afford to live without working. To digest, we found the perfect size town, perfect location 7 minutes from the beach, and an affordable 3 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment with 2 parking spaces, one inside and one outside (big deal in Italy). Life is cheaper and we actually save money. That being said, taking all pluses and minuses, Italy is as good a place to live one can expect, but if we were rich, we would have bought a place in Italy and alternated between both countries 3 months at a time. We also have family in eastern europe and we are spending more time with family. Since I was a cook/chef, and my wife was raised in eastern europe, that the ingredients make all the food we cook exactly like we cooked in U.S. tastes so much better.......and our neighbors are so friendly, selling us olive oil from their trees, bringing us bottles of wine from their own grapes, bringing us fresh produce from their gardens, teaching us how to make limoncello from lemons we grow on one of our balconies, and being super patient with our Italian. You guys live on the west coast, in Abruzzo/Vasto our Notary charged me 100 euro for papers I needed to sign. Yeah, when we visit other areas in Italy, we are so happy we landed in Abruzzo.......wonderful, working class, not very turisty, baristas that could care less if you order a cappaccino in the evening, great outdoor markets with seasonal produce, more economical than most Italian regions, and our mail service is great, and we have an Amazon 5 minutes outside the city. Like when I lived in the U.S. and traveled, when people asked me where I was from, I said Texas, not america...now I say I'm from Abruzzo, i don't respond Italy.

The dislike of notaries is shared by everyone in Italy. It is one of those medieval institutions we need to move on from.

I live in the outskirts of Oslo in Norway. Our small wooden house is in a narrow street on a hilltop with no cars and with about 120 other units. It is like a small village inside a city. A view over the city on one side and forrest that goes almost to the boarder of Sweden on the other side of the house. We have a grocery store about 5-10 min walk from our front door but sometimes it takes hours to go there and back because we meet and talk to all our neighbours. In the summertime it usually ends up in a bbq with drinks or a walk in the woods together with someone. A nice feeling of community. AND we never say no if someone needs help with something. "Pay it Forward" is a great concept. Thank you for your Wonderfull videos. Greetings from Oslo,Norway.

The reason Sunday Lunch is so anticipated for Italian Families is because typically a family would have fasted before attending Sunday Mass and they are very hungry and love going home after Mass to enjoy a big family meal! I miss that tradition so much!

I’m not Italian. I grew up in Kansas, but I’m quite a bit older and I can remember as a kid that we always had Sunday lunch and we also would visit people throughout the week mainly with my grandmother we would go visit people who were sick or we would go visit people who had been widowed and might be needed checking in on or help with something maybe not quite the same, but we also lived in a big city, but we lived in a neighborhood, the overlook the Bluffs of the Kay river in a district called Argentine it was a very different time, but I relate to the highest social index of your Italian community

I think it’s called enjoying life and taking time for the good things in life

Trains over busses any day. Regardless of where you are. And Sunday Lunch should be a human right. Have a nice day, both of you!

I think the socializing and helping friends and putting more focus on people than a to-do list is also a way of life in small towns. I live in rural Colorado and this is very similar to how life is here, too.

There is growing evidence that having a community, people who have your back and who care about you, is a critical factor for a long healthy life. I think we ALL need to re-adjust our priorities to value those personal interactions much more. Quality of life isn't just about money and we can all live a better life if we choose.

Honestly, the last item sounds like a good thing. The problem that we have too much in America is we don't make time for people anymore. It's all just busy. Busy busy all for oneself. We need to slow down and spend time for each other and actually be a community again. The same thing goes for the Sunday lunch.