Top Ten Reasons to Move to Italy

Reasons to move to Italy are plentiful, especially when you consider the hard-hitting winters that much of northern Europe suffers each year. It makes moving to somewhere warmer seem like a pretty good idea. At Send My Bag, we have already extolled the virtues of living in Spain and France, but how about moving to Italy? Here are some reasons why you should make the dream a reality.

1. Italy’s heritage. Italy is a country steeped in thousands of years of history. This is in evidence in a massive 51 world heritage sites – the greatest number of any country in the world. Sites include the 4^th-century Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, the roman and medieval rock drawings in Valcamonica, Lombardy, and the medieval Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.
2. Fascinating cities. Many of Italy’s cities are world heritage sites in their own right – the entire cities of Verona and Venice, and the historic centres of Florence, Naples and Rome, to name but a few. These cities are truly beautiful, with something for the eye to behold around every corner.
3. Diversity of the landscape. There are also four natural world heritage sites in Italy, including the Dolomites and the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. Italy’s landscape is truly diverse, ranging from the Alps mountain range in the north, to the plain of the Po Valley, to Italy’s Mediterranean coast and islands. To top it off, the country also has dormant and active volcanoes. This diversity means that you can go skiing in the north of Italy in the winter, and can sunbathe in 32°C heat in the south during the summer – a great reason to move to Italy!
4. The weather. Italy gets nice and toasty during the summer, but is relatively mild for most of the year, in the southern regions at least. In January the average temperature is 8°C in Rome and a balmy 13°C in Palermo, Sicily.
5. Food and wine. So many dishes beloved in countries the world over originated in Italy – pizza, numerous pasta dishes and breads like focaccia and ciabatta. The Italians also do great sweet treats like biscotti, amazing cheeses, and they produce fantastic wines right on their doorstep. You can enjoy authentic Italian cuisine everyday if you move to Italy and can learn to cook Italian yourself, obtaining your ingredients locally from a farmers’ market near you.
6. The people. Italian people are known to be warm and friendly. It is custom to offer kisses on the cheek as a greeting and they are not afraid to make physical contact with people they have only just met, by touching or standing quite close. While this may be different to other, more reserved, cultures, it fosters a warm sense of friendship.
7. The importance of family. Italy is a very family-oriented country. This means that they make the effort to spend time together and thus achieve a better work-life balance than many other countries. It also means you’ll find that children’s’ needs are well catered for when you are out and about.
8. The universities. If you are thinking about studying in Italy, you could choose from some brilliant universities. The top three are Politecnico di Milano, Università di Bologna – thought to be the oldest university in the world, and Sapienza- Università di Roma. The latter especially welcomes international students and has around 6000 among its student body.
9. The language. The Italian language has got to be one of the cheeriest and most pleasant languages to listen to. Its musical and expressive quality lends itself so well to a myriad of emotions, and has been the vehicle for numerous masterpieces of literature, by writers such as Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. Moreover, Italian is one of the easier languages to learn due to the clear way in which it is enunciated and its relatively uncomplicated grammatical system.
10. Passion. Italians are well-known to be passionate people, not shy at expressing their emotions. This may take foreigners aback at times, but at least you know where you stand! This passion has also been channelled into Italian food, architecture, culture and art, making Italy the fascinating country it is today.

Thinking of making the move to Italy, or just going there on holiday? Don’t forget you can send your luggage to Italy with Send My Bag to help you settle in quickly and leave you plenty of time to sample all that life in Italy has to offer.

If you have been persuaded by these reasons to move to Italy, take a look at our tips on buying a home abroad to get you started.