Birtles

Hi, I lived in Italy for three years from 99-02 and I'm seriously thinking of returning as the UK is turning into a nightmare - high taxes, crap weather etc So I'm wondering what the work situation like, I'm an experienced joiner but I can turn my hand to most things. Is there much construction work about?

JohnCodega

Hi Birtles,

being a joiner, only suggestion I could give you is to try with the "yacths" industry (you'll be working in yacths interior).

I visited few companies in bergamo area:

- Ferretti yacths (bigger group & excellent company - they might appreciate your english background)
- www.cantieridisarnico.it
- www.sessamarine.com

An experienced joiner I guess might get net salary of 20.000 - 25.000 euro / year

Good luck

Lorna at Vicenza

HIGH TAXES


surely you remember just how many taxes you were paying when you lived here!
I'm convinced that there is a mean little man in an office somewhere whose only job is to come up with an idea per day of another way of screwing some euros out of our pockets !

katu

LOL, are you joking?? We are planning a move back to the UK to avoid the high taxes here!! Other than alcohol everything is more expensive here and we only see about half of my OH's salary.

Not to mention the anti-foreigner vibe and tiger mosquitoes.

Lorna at Vicenza

I've been here too long for that to be a real problem anymore but i do undertsand where that thought is coming from and i do have it myself from time to time

Birtles

Stay where you are. Don't make the same mistake I did.

katu

Tell us more..... do you regret moving back to the UK?

Birtles

Before you return, think about why you left and I will promise you whatever reason(s) you had for leaving Britain continue today. The country is a mess. The law abiding and working citizens are taken for fools in this country.

cornishvellan

you obviously didn't live here long enough...

Marco78

if' you are coming to italy to avoid high taxes... you definitely chose the wrong place!!
by the way, high taxes is exactly the erason why I'm LEAVING Italy!!

ok 4 the weather, that can be a good reason to choose Italy vs, UK (even if Bergamo isn't exactly a town kissed by the sun...)

katu

I am possibly unusual in these parts because I didn't actively look to leave the UK, an opportunity arose to live abroad for a bit and we took it. Without the opportunity we would never have considered it.

I don't know if you are an expat, but I doubt it from your post. Those of us who are know how good the UK really is

juliansdaughter

I'm a British citizen and I've been an expat in the US, Italy and various places in the middle-east and, for me, Italy wins hands down.

Taxes are awful everywhere, if the politicians don't get you one way they will in another, and while I realise most Italian governments couldn't run a menage and the taxes are dreadful, I still have a better quality of life in Italy. My electricity bill for Lazise in December was the same as Edinburgh for April, the fruit and veg (I'm a vegetarian) is way better and cheaper and I don't stay in at night because I'm scared of drunk muffin tops and people doing transactions for sniffs of solvent at bus stops and it takes two buses (each way) to get to one of the only 4 or 5 cafes open at night in this so-called cosmopolitan city. Whenever I read, and I do regularly, that Edinburgh is one of the most desirable places in the UK to live it makes my flesh creep. What on earth is the rest of it like?

I do realise though that being single makes a difference. If I had a family to house, feed and heat I might feel otherwise.

Sorry I know nothing about getting work in Bergamo

Maggie

katu

I agree that being single makes everything different, I couldn't comment on Italian nightlife as I have barely ever experienced it, being tied to the house with sleeping children!

The electricity does seem cheaper, but the gas is WAY more expensive and we couldn't afford to turn the heating on this winter just gone because of it *bbbrrr*.

Italy has many good points and if I were Italian or had an Italian husband it could possibly be ideal, but as foreigners here we feel as though we are always on the outside looking in.

juliansdaughter

I can't comment on the nightlife either, I'm the nerdy kind of single :-)

I didn't realise gas was horrendously expensive, I've always had electric heating, but ta for telling me - I'll know to avoid it when I go back.

Maggie

Birtles

Marco, it depends what you're getting in return for paying high taxes. I live in Britain, I have lived in Italy, I am married to an Italian whose family all live in Italy. So I spend a lot of time between the two countries and this gives me a great understanding of the differences between the two countries. I know about the high cost of living in Italy and I know about the difficulty in finding work that exists there but when I weigh up the two, I strongly believe Italy offers a better way of life.