New Zealand or Italy?
 

Has anyone got and idea on where is the best place to live? We have travelled extensively, lived in UK, Ireland, Holland, Cyprus, Oman, South Africa and now living in Australia, and visited the States on nemerous occasions. What we would like to do now is find somewhere to put downs roots and call our permanent home. We are torn between NZ and Italy for various reasons, but we love to be surrounded by countryside and trees and warm weather. we are draw to NZ for this but Italy as it is nearer our families. Any feedback on life in either place would be greatly appreciated and I really do look forward to hearing from you. :)

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

The wine is better in NZ. ;)

K.

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

With the financial wherewithal, would opt to live in NZ and have a holiday home in Italy - spend the NZ winter in Italy during the European summer and do the family thing, then retreat back to NZ.

Depends if you are retired or still need to work? Depends on what your lifestyle priorities are? Depends if you have a budget to shuttle backwards & forwards - at least until the family thins out a bit or can afford to visit you!

I feel safe in NZ, love the space and the raw undeveloped feel to the country, which is close enough to be accessible from Wellington, where I live, which gives me the theatre/symphony/ballet/opera/restaurants/cafes with great coffee, which I think I would probably be lost without.

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Have only taken hols in Italy..can see why you would wanna live there!! I would like to live there in the perfect world. But we don't do the lingo, we need to earn money and I am not sure it would be so easy to fit into such a different psyche.

NZ on the other hand is relatively simple (save for the distance betwixt NZ and UK for return visits), there is a culture gap but we speak the same, there is very little red tape..apparently Italy runs on the stuff!!! I would like to spend a month in Italy every year..the country is utterly amazing..but NZ has so much more to offer us from a practical point of view. Realistically NZ is better for us..we have 3 very young kids..we are not awash with money..I think Italy is quite pricey to live in, then again some people think NZ is pricey, we find we are better off here than in the UK.....Italy wins hands down from a romantic point of view. But you can't eat romance can you? I tried once made an awful mess!!!!

Been in NZ for 18 months and all goes well. It has not been an easy 18months but NZ has far exceeded our expectations and we have a lifestyle that would be impossible to emulate in the UK. I would recommend NZ to anyone..so long as they had thought it through!!! We love it here. :D

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

A Canadian tourist was shot dead during Mafia crossfire last week while walking across the central Piazza in Naples, Italy. Racial tension is causing massive rise in murders in many Italian cities currently, the government is planning to bring in the army ! New Zealand 2nd in world´s most democratic country list, Italy near bottom of European countries. Italy is nice for a short visit, all those nice old buildings and the food, but, do would you really want to live there all the time ? all the sensible Italians emigrated long ago.

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

cultural oasis vs cultural desert...... tough one....

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

What's wrong with your current life in Oz? Why don't you want to put down roots there?

:beer:

Buzzy

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

It even made the NZ Herald today
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10408629

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

You need to ask? ;)
ITALY!

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Italians wear the best clothes certainly, small mountain villages have a designer clothes shop but NO grocers ! But do you really want to live somewhere which is ruled by gangsters , who drive and generally do what the HELL they want. In the north of England , there is an expression "All fur coats and no knickers", ie True Beauty is on the inside , people who are attracted to living in Italy are interested in surface, shallow things, while the rest is rotten to the core.
NZ has the best of British aspects, little corruption, stable, civilised, good, happy place.

World Audit is used by governments throughout the world !
http://www.worldaudit.org/democracy.htm

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

[QUOTE=brussels_sprout]
NZ has the best of British aspects
No it doesn't

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

I don't entirely agree - all those orange trousers and pale lemon jumpers thrown jauntily around the shoulders...

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Pardon???!!! Did I go to the wrong country for three years?

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Obviously :p

:D

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

Orange and Yellow ? Are you sure that you are talking about NZ and not Nepal ? Hare-Krishna, hare-hare , do you play the tambourine ?
Grrrrr is all the above not obvious if you live in Italy ? Everything is a mess there, (except food), the way they play football, the driving, the politicians.
In Anglo-Saxon countries, any small corrupt act by a politician is picked up by the press, but in Italy the press is controlled by corruption !!! Contrast David Mellor with Berlosconi.

Hey i have just gained my first star , yay

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

No, I was talking about Italy

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

No, some of the food is a mess too - I tried cow nerves the other day. But the rest of it makes me laugh, something I forgot how to do in NZ. I hate football so their wrong playing doesn't affect me, the driving is a far sight better than in NZ, but I agree it's an adventure everyday. The politicians are indeed corrupt. Oh well. The really big thing i notice about life in Italy is that I sometimes get a bit irritated by things but find I'm laughing about them two minutes later whereas in NZ I would get mightily f£@&*d off and be seething for at least a month, banging my head against anything hard and screaming like a banshee.

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

It happens all the time in NZ doesn't it, the Prime Minister, who controlls most of the media, bending the law at will (NOT). with contacts with the Mafia, large parts of the South of the country lawless, police controlled by the mafia, multiple attacks on immigrants, kidnapping. Ex-King of Italy recently was found to been involved in racketeering and importing prostitutes. There is Rust everywhere, democracy is nothing but a mere sham in Italy, half of legitimate business has links to organized crime, it is a covenient way of laundering money for them. You just try opening opening an Italian food company in Italywhen you are a foreigner and you will soon get a visit from a couple of hoods with violin cases, and they are not musicians !
Article from today's BBC, remember not to visit Naples if you are "doing" Pompei
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6108916.stm
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6105492.stm

Yes please live in Italy (while you can )

Re: New Zealand or Italy?
 

I once (it was enough :) ) went to Palermo, Scicily, which is the birthplace of La Cosa Nostra (da mob).

I saw hundreds and I mean hundreds of dead people. Old and young, babies even. It was awful :eek:

To find out why highlight below with your cursor ;)

They had all been mummified. I dont know what I was expecting at a Catacomb, it was a tourist attraction. :scared: