I need some ideas
@lurchandpasta (22)
Italy
August 16, 2009 11:02am CST
I am a foreigner living in Italy, I have lived here for 3 years and have no friends here. The guys whom I work with are not the kind of people I socialise with and the rest of the people seem to show some remorse towards strangers.
My goal is to enjoy life here in Italy for my wifes sake, but there are so many factors that I hate about living here. For a start, we live in an appartment, I am used to houses, but these are difficult to find for rent here, unfortunately, we cannot afford to buy. It gets so hot here in the summer, that one cannot even think, this makes me very aggitated and grumpy.
We live in the central part of Italy because it is close to my mother-in-law, I would prefer to live nearer the sea. There is very little entertainment in the town or surrounding areas where we live, so we both tend to spend a lot of time on the internet and we get aggravated with each other for this.
Although my wife was born here in Italy, her family moved away when she was six years old, so she speaks italian with an english accent and therefore is considered a foreigner, she too has no friends here.
Basically I am looking for ideas for things that we can do together to stop us from getting so bored and aggravated all the time.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Aug 09
Have you tried to look for friends online? There other members from Italy here on MyLot, maybe some of them live in your area and would be interested in meeting you? Or how about a local forum?
I have lived in Italy as foreigner myself, but I had a penpal from Italy, and we met when I arrived in Italy. He helped me a lot, introduced me to his friends etc. His friends were very nice to me, and they asked me many questions about my country. It was never a problem that I was a foreigner, but maybe things would have been different if I hadn't had my penpal.
I lived in Bologna and Ravenna when I was in Italy, and I don't know your area that well, but if I were you I would "explore" the area as much as possible. If your own town is boring, you could visit other parts of the country during the weekends or the holidays.
@lurchandpasta (22)
• Italy
16 Aug 09
Thank you for the idea Porcospino, i will have a look around on here to see if there are any other members who live close to us and are interested in meeting up.
I am glad that you found things quite easy here in Italy, we are living in the Umbria valley, maybe places like Bologna and Ravenna are more used to having foreigners in their area.
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
16 Aug 09
I suggest that you visit the seaside at weekends if you have time to spare then. You could try to go to an Italian language class so you could get chatting to the locals. You might like to visit an ex-pat club somewhere in Italy to make some friends that are in a similar position to you. Good luck.
@lurchandpasta (22)
• Italy
16 Aug 09
I like the idea of visiting an ex-pat club, funny how things work, we have just been out for a walk and seen one, so we will be going to see about joining them there.
@ilyzium (1197)
• Canada
22 Aug 09
My friend was kind of in the same boat as you when she moved to Sweden with her Swedish born husband. I know she complained that she'd tried befriending Swedish people and had found them to be not very receptive, and she's a very friendly person. Do you want to know what she did? Well, she put up signs all around town, at various train stations for eg, looking for friends to hang out with/shopping/dining out/ etc. Well, after one month she had so many responses that today a year later she has tons of really good friends. Yes, it might be an unusual way to make friends but it worked for her.
