Italian frustrations

Divorcing Italy

February 1, 2009

Rossella and I returned to Italy the week before Christmas, having been away since June 30th. That was the longest period I’d spent out of Italy in 18 years. I was uneasy about this re-entry, expecting it to be traumatic. I thought I would be making a decision about whether I would ever willingly live [...]

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What I Miss About Italy

January 4, 2009

unconscious (?) irony: a shop in downtown Milan displays this antelope head next to a photo of Brigitte Bardot, who, retired from acting, is a big animal rights activist Since I moved (back) to the US earlier this year, a number of people have asked me what I miss about living in Italy. It’s a [...]

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Leaving Italy

March 19, 2008

Once again, I’m doing something unusual: leaving my husband behind in Italy while I move (mostly) to the US for work. And, as usual, I’m struggling to explain to people what I’m doing and why. (The story of my life is that there is almost no question about me to which a simple answer can [...]

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Italy Changing: La Dolce Vita Ain’t What It Used to Be

March 8, 2008

A few days ago I posted a message on the Expats in Italy forum about the fact that I am (partially) leaving Italy to take a job in the US. This has engendered much discussion, and has raised some points that I want to expand on. Simo, an Italian now resident in the US, wrote: [...]

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Mad at Italy

March 3, 2008

Is it possible to be angry with a whole country? At the moment, I am furious with Italy. It was never particularly my dream to live in Italy. I ended up here because I married an Italian, he got a job here, and it seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. When [...]

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Off the Phone in Italy

November 13, 2007

Since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve gotten out of the habit of telephoning: anywhere, anyone, for any reason. Aside from the enormous difficulties of installing a phone line in Italy and keeping it working (which, if you’re lucky, you will only suffer through once), everything involved in using a phone is simply ridiculously difficult here. [...]

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Web Women Weekend

October 28, 2007

^ the finer points of CSS – Tara and Elena in my kitchen Increasingly frustrated with the low visibility of women in technology in Italy, back in June I and a few like-minded ladies hatched a plan to start doing something about it. The first step was to get together. So I invited them all [...]

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Shut Up or Go Home – No Culture Likes a Kibitzer

April 17, 2007

I was recently interviewed for an article about third-culture kids, to be published in the Christian Science Monitor. In an hour’s taped phone conversation, Erik Olsen asked many questions, including: “Being an outsider in all cultures, how does that make you feel?” I thought for a moment, and said: “Superior.” No doubt that statement will [...]

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barCamp Roma: January, 2007

January 30, 2007

The full gallery of photos from my attendance at barCamp in Rome.

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Telecom Italia: The Whole Ugly Saga

August 30, 2006

This page is mostly a collection of previously-published material, bringing together in one place the long, painful story of our experiences with Telecom Italia. And the story keeps growing… May 22, 2003 Setting up simple household utilities in Italy used to be an arduous process. As one friend put it, getting a phone line installed [...]

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Pursuing a Dream of Italy

June 7, 2006

(The earlier part of this story is here.) Actually, we didn’t spend the weekend together as a family. Ross stayed in Lecco because she had parties to attend. Enrico and I left Friday morning for Tuscany, to join a large gathering of people from the Expats in Italy online forum, a few of whom we [...]

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The Post Office: An Italian Tradition of Bureaucracy

February 15, 2004

I hope that my friends and relatives have forgiven me for the fact that I have never mailed presents to them from Italy. I either have something shipped directly from a company in the US, or I wait til I’m in the US myself, preferably actually visiting the person in question, to give gifts. This [...]

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