Moving to Italy

Finding a Place in Italy

Big news: We found an apartment, and it checks all of our boxes and more. Great size, amazing location (right in the center of the city, walking distance from the girls' school), within our budget and it has AC!

A bit about the search process: finding a rental from outside of Italy is tough - especially if you don't speak Italian yet.

I worked with an agent who suggested a few spots (all bad fits), so I started doing my own search and started sending her listings; she'd call the agents who posted them and connect us when relevant. Most of the apartments posted are indeed managed by agencies, which means we'll have to pay an agency fee (usually two months' rent).

Not all agencies respond, so actually getting a video tour is rare. We had only a couple, and both apartments looked great (always better than the listing photos, by the way); the first one was a bit on the smaller side, but the second one was exactly right. We're now reviewing and negotiating the rental agreement and it all looks great.

I'm very excited.

School

We're now preparing for the new school - the education system in Italy is very different from the one in the US. It sounds like it's stricter (not good) and more challenging (very good).

In the US, you don't have to shop for books and almost all supplies are provided by the school. Here we got long lists of very specific books and items to purchase prior to the school year.

Some of the books are provided for free by the local council, but the girls will need their codice fiscale (Italian tax code that also serves as a national ID number) sorted out first. We'll have to handle that once we arrive in Torino.

Decluttering

I really hate the task of decluttering; it's both hard and extremely uninteresting. I've been doing donations, Facebook Marketplace, ebay and gifting random gifts to friends and neighbors. I have an inventory spreadsheet I'm maintaining - it's not comprehensive by any means, but it does help my mental health.

We just had a call with the moving company (they'll be here on August 5th). They will be the one doing the packing and we'll just show them what stays and what should be packed. We did a video call in which I showed them everything.

I feel better now after this call, as now I have a pretty good picture of what that day will look like.

Finding a Place in Italy

Renting a place in Italy from abroad is not easy - especially since I don't have the language skills yet. I'm working with someone to make the calls on our behalf and that helps.

We have three main requirements: size, location, budget. It's not easy to find a place that checks all of our boxes, so we'll probably have to compromise on size. We're very fortunate to have friends in Torino that are happy to lend us their apartment for the first few weeks there, so I'm less stressed about that part as well.

It's time for a new language.
I'd like to replicate my younger-self English learning environment: listen to Italian as much as possible.

Here's what I'm doing:

• I have two apps I'm trying to use daily, each for a few minutes. Memrise and My Words. The former is for progression of learning with different types of lessons and ways to practice, and the latter is my personal dictionary of words.
• We found a local teacher who comes to our house once a week. His focus is conversational Italian. Just got started with him, so we'll see how it goes.
• I'm watching instructional youtube videos. My current favorites are Elisa's Italian School and Italy Made Easy.
• Italy Made Easy also have a really cool podcast series in Italian.
• I'm trying to watch movies and TV shows in Italian (shoot me a message if you have recommendations!). Disney+ has a bunch of content that is dubbed to Italian, so it's easier to watch Encanto and Bluey in Italian after dozens of times that we've watched them in English.
• Lastly, I picked up this book called Short Stories in Italian for Beginners - finishing a story can be very rewarding.

At this point, if 10 is a native Italian speaker and 0 is someone who knows nothing about Italian, I'd score myself as a 2. Hopefully I'll be able to report some progress here.

What's on mind right now:

• More decluttering (we need to stage the house soon, while living in it)
• Learning Italian
• Dealing with the guilt over moving the kids to a new, foreign country
• Realizing that now this is happening in about 3 months

I'll write more about how I learn Italian next week.

Currently, most of my day to day activites revolve around the decluttering piece. It's more emotional than I've imagined, so I'm working on separating the decision-making from the doing, and then allocating my time/energy appropriately.

Since I'm the one who led this change, I feel like my job is to be the cheerleader for all Italy-related activities. That's tough - I'm experiencing the same mixed emotions as my family does.

The move target is mid-August, 2026. There are a few moving pieces in this project:

• Financials, taxes planning
• Finding a place to live in Italy (Torino)
• Finding a school for the kids
• Decluttering, selling, donating items in the US
• Selling the house
• Phone, mailing address
• Business continuity (my coaching business)
• Learning Italian
• Saying goodbye

Each of these will have its own action items and considerations.

Figured I will start journaling the different decisions and updates around this project.

Yes, I've created a spreadsheet, and I also have a few supporting to-do lists. I'll keep updates here relatively short.

I thrive on questions and feedback, so please feel free to drop me a note.