Today I am kicking off a new initiative on the An American in Italy blog: guest posts! Today’s guest writer is Barbara “Barbie” Palermo, an American in Sicily who obtained Italian citizenship through ancestry. Her husband (whose name is Ken, by the way — and yes, these two are real!) also got Italian citizenship through marriage. Here is their story, and a look at the process of obtaining dual American and Italian citizenship. Our Story After a brief encounter with a stranger on a bus in 2004, my husband returned home and excitedly shouted “We can get Italian citizenship and move to Italy!” He ..read more

If you are planning to live in Italy (or even just to come and visit), you are going to need to learn a bit of Italian to help you get around. I have written in the past about how lonely it can be to learn a language, but today I want to write something that is not just relatable, but also helpful. Whether you are learning Italian from scratch or you are trying to improve the Italian skills you already have, here are five tips that could help you get to the next level. 5. Language Learning Apps and Programs Language learning apps take the number five slot on our list because your mileage may v ..read more

In my last post, I gave you a list of American holidays that aren’t celebrated in Italy, and this time I’m here to do the opposite. This can be useful if you are in Italy and wondering why the bus doesn’t run on a certain day or whether you need to plan to visit your in-laws for a big meal! While Italy, like the U.S., has a lot of patriotic and historically linked holidays, most Italian towns have a special holiday honoring their city’s patron saint as well. These holidays are individual to the city, so I won’t list them here, but if you want to really get to know all the Italian holidays you ..read more

As American Thanksgiving grows near, I have been thinking more and more about a small beef I have with some of my fellow American expats in Italy. If I had a nickel for every time I heard another American ask “Where can I go to get a big Thanksgiving meal in Italy?” or “Which bars are celebrating the 4th of July in Milan?” I’d be a very rich woman. This type of question is all too common in expat groups and forums, and I think it is from a combination of just not realizing that our holidays aren’t all international and wishful thinking that somehow someone will make an exception for us. There ..read more

During the past two years, I have had to write about COVID-19 concerns that may impact your daily life in Italy (or your travels to it, if you don’t live here yet), then drought-related issues over the summer, and now I have to write about how to combat the effects of rising energy costs due, in part, to the war going on between Russia and Ukraine. The recommended advice for blogs like this one is to keep it light and to not focus on these heavy issues, but that wouldn’t be realistic. It may not be cheerful, but these are things we Americans in Italy need to know about. Between 2021 and the cu ..read more

Is this dress too short for a wedding? Do I need a tie at a First Communion? Should I wear a hat in church? It’s hard enough to know what to wear when you’re planning to go to an event in America — going to one in Italy is a whole different ballgame. In today’s post, we take a look at four different, common events in Italy and what to wear to each of them, based on interviews with genuine Italians who have been going to these events all their lives. What to Wear When You Go Out to Dinner in Italy? Speaking generally, Italians tend to dress a bit “fancier” when they go out on the town. You won ..read more

The theme for our first ever “My Italy Photo Contest” on Facebook was spooky photos taken in Italy, and our winner did not disappoint! Dustin Manley’s submission of a mural painted on a barber shop in Pomezia, Rome is definitely the stuff of nightmares, and perfect for the month of Halloween. As you can see above, it depicts a skeleton barber cutting the hair of another skeleton in a scene that reminds me a bit of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Talk about hair-raising! Unfunny puns aside, however, this is not the only spooky photo Dustin has taken during his walks around his ..read more

To most of us, living in Italy is a dream come true. That being said, it takes some time to adjust to your new home. But once you have figured out which type of trash goes where and your taste buds have adjusted to the different ingredients (both of which you can read about How to Be an American in Italy), you’re all set. But what happens when you go back to your original home after living in Italy for an extended period of time? We usually expect culture shock when we move to a new place, but a lot of us aren’t ready for the opposite side of the coin: reverse culture shock. Here’s a look a ..read more

I have told you about the documents you need to get married as an American in Italy, I’ve told you about how to get yourcarta/permesso di soggiorno, and I’ve told you how to get your tessera sanitaria. Next on the list for Americans moving to Italy is the residence permit. What is a Residence Permit? On the surface, the residence permit is very easy to understand. It is simply a certification that proves that you officially live in Italy. When you apply for residency, you are letting the Italian comune (as well as its government) know where you live and with whom, so that they have it in their ..read more

Okay, I have big news: I think I have officially completed the final level of the Italian bureaucracy challenge for moving to Italy! This month, I got the last important document I needed to live in Italy (as an American or otherwise): la carta d’identitá. And today, I will tell you how to get yours too. What Is the Carta d’identitá? The carta d’identitá is an identification card. On the surface, it does exactly the same thing as an American ID card: it serves to prove your identity. It has all your important information on it like your name, birthdate, address, codice fiscale, nationality, he ..read more