Put like that, it's funny! (all three in a single bed!)
Joking apart, it's a question of finance and in fact the same occurs in France, if the parents can't afford separate rent for their income-less adult child...

ahahah

woops

Engrish is my firstest langwage two

I was speaking to a bloke the other day - nearly 40 years old, fiancéd, has been working as full-time fireman for past 4 years (before that was an electrician), but still living with widowed mother and says he still can't manage to get his own place even to rent with fiancée, let alone get married .. (although I had a feeling he was doing OK thank very much still living with mummy )

Perhaps they could '' afford '' to rent but would have to make adjustments to their lifestyles, maybe cut back on holidays or something ? I know plenty of singles who live at home and are quite happy . They don't worry about the cooking or cleaning , they go to the gym and enjoy weekends away! Its just the way thigs work here .

yeah that's my point .. plus every other sentence he said was about his mum or his aunty or his deceased father or whatever .... a grown pompiere !
i didn't actually learn much about the fiancèe ..

I think it depends on the person ..but seems to be more and more common..my friend whom I am very close to lives at home with her parents...and do not plan to ever move out...Infact last year the father sold their lovely 4 bedroom home and bought a new home..but adjusted the build of it so that the three levels would be 3 seperate living spaces..so even though its a house it is actually three 2 bedroom flats within the house..he did this so that each of the girls can have their own flat and still live at home..and when they marry they can still live ther and have an extra room for the kids too..I was like WOW...however Im thankful because everytime we visit we always have two bedrooms and our own bathroom to occupy for free..hahaha

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum as of today! Just looking for some honest advice from people who have been through the experience. I'm a married father of 2 girls aged 5 & 4 and we live in Dublin. I have worked in the public sector here for 12 years and my wife is a secretary. I have been studying Italian in the Italian institute here and I am up to level 3 at Intermediate level. My wife has no Italian but I am just about to enrol my two little one's in an Italian non-native speaker course here in Dublin to see how they get on. Now, finally getting to my point. We were hoping to move to Italy with our kids for at least a year. We have no mortgage in Dublin and are bill free other than our rent from the local council. Because we rent from the local council our home is also secure once we continue to pay the rent, which isn't too much of a burden. We have significant saving to rent a property and live in Italy for at least a year. Our aim was not to go gung-ho but to rent and see how we get on. If I was able to get a job and it all worked out great if not, and we needed to come back after a year that would be fine also as we would have a home. I know from previous posts that finding work is extremely difficult at the moment, everywhere really not just in Italy but I was hoping that with the language that would be a help. If nothing else we are hoping that it will be an experience for our children and us of course! We spent a month in a place outside Venice last year and the kids adapted well. We have also spent time in Rome. Our hope was to move to either Abruzzo or Apuglia. For some reason I am drawn to Lecce, no specific reason and we have never been. We plan to go out and stay for a few weeks this September in one of these two places. I suppose our main concerns are schooling for our children, how they will settle in and which area is best, job prospects, and quality of life in the area. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello and a big welcome,

unfortunately I have to be very quick as I'm up to my neck in something .... just sat down for a 5 minute tea break and a quick check on here to make sure no nasty spam is about.

Anyway, if you feel like you've nothing to lose then why not go for it.
It is hard to get by without any Italian but the kids will probably pick it up faster than you if they are in school. Proper primary school doesn't start until kids are age 6 here so you could get them into pre-school first where there are no "proper" lessons like reading, writing, maths etc. and they'd have a chance to learn soem more Italian and make friends.

Jobs are tough to come by as you know.

Quality of life is I suppose what you make of it. Certainly the summer time is great for kids, plenty of sun, swimming pools, playing out, parks, beaches, mountains, pic-nics etc.

Fire away if you have any more questions and sorry I have to dash off.

Hi and welcome to here.

Looks like you've got it all going for you and you seem to be in a very fortunate situation re finances and such. In this case my advice is : go for it!
Your biggest hurdle will probably be all the red tape as Italians are born burocrats (as you may know - even though it's got a little better) but with good Italian you will probably get through it. Excellent experience for your children, and as mentioned before schools and things are always a good way for adults to socialise too.

I'd go for Apulia rather than Abruzzo, as I know it better and I imagine the weather to be better. There's also more in the way of tourism jobs and they'll be crying out for people with fluent English.

Just one question . .sorry if I'm being nosey .. but if it doesn't work out and you have to move back .. what about finding a job again in Ireland?? Someone like you working for the local council/State over here would *never* do a thing like that...

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply

Well i can go on a career break from my job for 6 months and see how it works out that way i'd have something to come back to if I was unable to secure work. Or, I can just take the redundancies that they are offering soon with the hope of getting another job if I did indeed need to come back. I am fortunate enough to work in a separate job as well weekends and they are happy to keep me on their weekend roster if I were to come back so that would be something. I know it is a huge step and maybe even a gamble but it's something that we are both passionate about and as I mentioned before if nothing else it will be a great experience for our children and us. Just talking to my dad recently kind of made up my mind. He was offered a job in New Zealand when we were young but never took the chance, he regrets it to this day. Although he is of course happily married etc he just feels he should have gave it a shot. Thats the way we feel now. If it works, fantastic, if it doesn't I'd hope we would all be the better for it and, we have a home to come back to which is essential.

Are you based in Italy now yourself? What has your experience been? Any idea of average rental costs in Apulia. Sorry to bombard you with questions.

Sperenza,
looks like you have thought it all through and have fallback plans, which is really good imho - as you identify getting a job is the long pole in the tent and a 6 month sabbatical to see how it goes strikes me as a pretty good idea.

The latest from IMF on the Italian economy (and job overall situation) is:
I am off to Lecce for the first in 12 days time and will let you know what I think (if you are interested).

good luck

Hi Lorna,

for some reason I have Lecce in mind, can you offer any advice on this region? I realise you are up north yourself. We were hoping to go out there in September for a look around with the view then to going back out full-time in June 2013. Would you recommend Abruzzo or Apulia? Is it easy enough to get kids into school? Having looked on the various sites they seem to say that you can get your children into school even without a job but I am not sure how true this is? I would be honest and say that I would be happy to do any job really, initially anyway! I read somewhere on-line that if you have no job when you arrive, you need to register your presence anyway and provide proof that you can maintain your family whilst living there.

Hi,

thanks for your help, yes I would be delighted to hear how you get on and your opinions on the area.

Yes, I've lived here for the past 25 years, so sort of hard to sum up my "experience", ie. life! Suffice it to say i came when I was young, free and .. .well, not single, but a post-grad still deciding what he wanted to do in life! Got married 2 years later....

Anyway you sound like you're in a comfortable enough position to be able to make such a move and so good luck to you!
Sorry I know nothing about rents down there . .I've only been on hols.

Once children are of primary school age (6) schooling is obligatory by law so it makes no difference if you have a job or not.
Pre-school from age 3 to 6 is not compulsory but nobody asked me if I could prove to pay the council sum of about 100 euro per month which is mainly for the school dinners. They do give the council school run places to residents of that council first though. There are private ones about too.

So, talking about residency - yes you will need to prove enough funds to keep you and your family for a year when you go to the town hall to apply for residency. You will also be expected to prove that you have private health insurance for you and your family so perhaps this is something that you can start looking into already.