SimonTam

I've read quite few tales of people giving up on the living abroad dream, although I can't find any actual numbers percentage wise it led me to thinking maybe the best way to avoid a similar dissapointment would be to prepare ourselves for the loss of the things we would miss most.

Although it'll likely be another five years or so before we move and hopefully only ever to return for family, friends, and holidays. I think I already know my biggest miss, I'm sure it will be the humour.

So many Brits that I speak to after being abroad for even the shortest of time become incredibly immune to recognising irony, and completely lose the ability to recognise self deprecation almost at all!

As for taking the piss, well, I feel like there's a whole new market out there for brits abroad, like a mobile canned laughter device, for those awkward moments when the face drops and the over-sensitive and imagined insult seeps in.

I guess the same fate awaits myself, a shame but hopefully not terminal!

Did you go through the same process and did you ending up missing something unexpected instead?

Cheers.

Pica

I love Italians and their humour. It's certainly nothing I've missed about british humour and it's refreshing to not spend the evening out at a bar with drunks falling about. You have to realise that differing cultures have differing senses of humour. If you want to live in Italy you'll need to adapt somewhat.

philat98

Italians dont need to be filled with booze to relax and enjoy themselves for some reason. If Boris could work out the reason he could save the NHS a lot of money.

C.2s

I'm not really sure if other expats might lose their sense of humour (or not). However, I can talk from my experience about the italians. People are people basically, despite some cultural differences. And men are big kids...so banter is banter...Facebook is Facebook etc... and so taking the piss and self deprecating humour is alive and well.

​​​​​What do I miss? Welll...

Cider and pork pies...but I am getting used to missing all the other foods...I'll live

Going out with a group of people for a meal without everyone wanting to order f/@king pizza non stop...I mean it's fun at first but ffs Italy there's other food

I also miss talking about politics...watching theatre, films etc...the mixture of the language and contexts are still a bit impenetrable for me.

Family obviously. But you asked what was surprising and that's not really.

Cricket...that does surprise me. Can't get excited about water polo! 😀

SimonTam

modicasa

It depends what makes you laugh. If you are a huge fan of Benny Hill and Mr Bean you'll be well satisfied. If you like Victoria Wood, then its going to be thin pickings - Italians don't revel in observational humour, there is no joy in language, and if you like a pun, forget it.

GeorgeYoung

I miss the general ease of doing things - of knowing how things work, where to go, how long it will take, etc. Moving to a foreign country can effectively take you back to being a child, in that you have to learn how life works all over again. It can be fun, full of surprises and it can add to the spice of life but there are most definitely some days when it would just be a lot nicer to know exactly where you need to go and just get it done.

As for humour, once you can learn enough Italian to get around the obvious language barrier, I find very little difference between here & the UK.

I find the Italian fetishisation of the UK and their constant belittling of their own country quite tedious, however, they seem to think London's streets are paved with gold and see little to be proud of in Italy (apart from their home town of course which is obviously the best place on earth. W il Campanilismo!). I can understand their cynicism about Italy but it's not all bad.

As for cider, well I live in Trentino which produces millions of tonnes of apples a year yet there's virtually no cider industry! That was definitely a shock when we first moved here. There are one or two small producers here and in the South Tyrol but otherwise you don't really see it until you cross the Brenner Pass.

philat98

Italians seem to find dialects and accents very amusing. There was a Spanish film week at our cinema and the audience were laughing at the words the Spanish use for everyday items.

jonwel

Pork pies and Cornish pasties! But when I go to Britain I tend to find they're not as good as I remembered them to be - perhaps my palate has changed.
A good pint of draught bitter! I used to miss that a lot, but I'm glad to see there are more craft beers around in Italy too nowadays.
Talking about politics? Well, in the circles where I move there's plenty of chances to talk about politics, but outside these circles I find that if you say you're interested in politics they immediately want to know which leader you identify with, instead of asking meaningful questions like "what do you see as the main problems?" "what are their causes?", "what are their solutions?" "how is that to be achieved?". But I realise that sometimes there's more politicisation in Italy than the UK, sometimes less.

But in general after the first few years I adapted enough to miss the Italian way of life when I go to the UK.

AlexBrazillon

You need to enjoy Italian vibes! You need time to het comfortable there and at least you can invite your family to come to you

Lorna at Vicenza

If Italian vibes means SanRemo ...... forget it. Absolute trash.

philat98

Seeing Amadeus i start wishing Bruce Forsyth could be brought back from the dead.

SimonTam

I have just realised what the saddest change for me will be,........

British plugs!

These limp-wristed two pin efforts feel like dangerous crap, IMHO.

Geordieborn

This bothered me too when I first arrived in Italy and I found this Wiki page on the subject (find “Italy (Type L)” on the page). It was then I remembered (being old enough to do so) that we too in England had a history of naf plugs. A tricky one to modify when some are still using bell wire in Italy! When you look at the number of countries and the different types of socket, Italy is not alone.

philat98

Those Uk 13A plugs seem to me rather big and clumsy. Fused plugs are only needed because the UK uses ring mains. For things like chargers and lights the 2 pin Italian socket is a better option.