leahseer

Ciao!
I'm a 20 year old female from West Wales in the UK. I may be moving to the Province of Varese in Sept 2012. I was wondering if there are any expats in this area. I am interested in getting to know some people before i move out there so that i do not feel so alone!

Leah

geoeurope

Hi Leah,
we are living a similar thought process.
We are a family with kids, the move is not that big geographically (from Milan) but beacuse of the short distance the lifestyle differences are very evident.

Our kids have been accepted in the European school in Varese. This is a big basin for the euroepan expat community (not only British).

We are considering our options but we also would need to move there for Sep 12.
Decisions...decisions.

Would you be moving there for work or for other reasons?

leahseer

Hello and thank you for the reply.
I would be moving there for work. I am actually going there tomorrow to view the town and meet the family I will be working with. If I accept the job I will move out there in sept. why are you making the move, are you currently in Milan? I know varese is smaller than Milan so I was unsure how many expats
Would be there. I have also been told that not many people speak English there, I'm unsure how much truth is in this?

Lorna at Vicenza

Be prepared for a few cultural surprises and best of luck to you.

leahseer

Hi lorna
Can you explain a little more, I'm nervous now! Lol

Garbatellamike

Leah,
have a read of this thread - it will give you some idea of what Lorna means:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...italy+20+years

Garbatellamike

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=motorino

And this one is even better

leahseer

Thank you for those. Very interesting to read. I don't expect it to be an easy time. I think though I am in a decent situation (compared to the woman with the young child in that link) as I have a job and accommodation lined up if I decide to accept. Another reason for me going is the fact I has been learning the language and need first hand experience in order for me to contemplate becoming fluent. I know it is not a good situation in Italy at the moment but for me it would be the only opportunity to do something like this as once I'm married with children I won't be able to run off......in theory anyways!

geoeurope

Thinking of moving there for our kids school. The European school is a very good school fostering a large expat community.

Varese is a town. Milan is a city. They are geographically close. I don't know what living there means. We were also considering the option of an au pair. Good luck, I hope you enjoy it.
You will not feel a bad economical climate in Varese, which is a rather wealthy town.
About running off when you are married, your husband had better have good running shoes by the sounds of it.

Garbatellamike

Leah,
don't think we are trying to put you off - you go for it.

We are trying to help you manage your expectations; i.e. it may be tough, lonely at times, and it is a different culture but there are also fabulous bits to Italy too (else we wouldn't ll be here ). Top tips = Be patient and bring your sense of humour - you'll need both in large measures!

Make sure you don't burn your bridges back home in case it goes wrong so you have a bale out option and come with expectations that it will be hard at times but what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

The fact you are learning the language will help massively and my spoken Italian is about 3 million times better after 8 months working here.

- as you rightly say, you are only young once. The very best of luck and be sure to post on how the visit went as we are a nosey bunch.

ciao
Mike

Lorna at Vicenza

Yes and people aren't as alone as I often felt all those years ago when there was no internet, no mobile phones, no cheap flights, no English TV, hardly any English books or newspapers. The books cost a fortune and were the old literature classics and I could only get a paper at the airport miles away. Phone calls home cost a bomb and were a rare treat.
I did learn Italian exceedingly quickly though.

HADENOUGHPIZZA

I went though that too Lorna, seems a century ago !

Lorna at Vicenza

Doesn't it.

It was nice to get letters though. In 1990 I was here, my school friends were at college or Uni. One was doing a gap year in France and another in the USA. We had hundreds of letters going backwards and forwards bewteen each other and we wrote to our families as well.

I still write letters sometimes to Aunts who don't have computers but not half as many as back then.
I make my kids write thank you letters to people

LivingHere

I live in Varese and found friends inside and outside of the expat community. My better friends are English speaking but that says more about me than the local community. My situation was completely different to yours because I arrived with a family. I hope you liked what you saw when you came last week.

Tweedpipe

I lived and worked in Varese for over 3 years and had a really great time, commuting quite frequently between Venegono, Milan-Linate, and down-town Varese. Our youngest (age 4 at the time) went to the International School there and loved it.
After the initial settling-in period of 1 month in a hotel, the most difficult problem was finding decent rental accommodation. Agents had next to nothing to offer, and although I realised there were a lot of places empty, it became evident that many Italians with 2nd properties leave them empty for when their children become 'of age'. Eventually found a good apartment overlooking lake Varese, but that took a lot of time and footwork. A case of not how much you can pay, but who you know.
From day-one we made special attempts to integrate with the local community, and that paid dividends especially regarding the language which I'd made up my mind to learn & speak upon arrival.
As mentioned elsewhere, when we were there, there was no internet, no mobile phones (thank God!), no cheap flights, no satellite/English TV, and English newspapers would have been hard to find even at the airport - but we didn't want or need them.
As we spoke English and French at home, this was the first time our son was starting English school tuition, and we were asked what our chosen option was for his 'second' language to learn in school. We naturally replied, "Italian", but were immediately told that wasn't an option as he would learn that the natural way during recreation etc - in the school playground. The options open to us (him) were a choice between French and German! As he already spoke French at home, we opted for German. I thought that 4 languages would be a bit much, but there was no need for concern. Without having any official Italian lessons he was speaking it fluently after 15 months - never did like German much though....
Taken overall, a very interesting period, and we have many fond memories of Varese, and our frequent shopping trips & weekend breaks into Lugano.
I wish you all the best. Let us know how you get on.