Asklemmy

I was planning on leaving if the orange got reelected. I only didn't because in the years between when I made that decision (2021) and now, I found myself in a relationship cohabitating with my partner. She's here as a refugee and can't leave or that gets rescinded. It took some serious soul searching to decide to retract my longstanding plan to escape this hellish fascist-speedrun. I was even doing phone interviews. If you think you could be happy, do it.

Italy has just changed it’s rules on citizenship. You now need to prove you had an Italian parent or grandparent in order to be eligible. Before, there was no generational cut off.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-curbs-citizenship-rules-end-tenuous-descendant-claims-2025-03-28/

Unless you're a directly targeted demographic, leaving the US is the coward's way out. You abandon everyone who doesn't have the means to flee. Stay and fight for something. Running away from problems doesn't solve them, it just cedes power to the problem.

As I haven't seen this mentioned so far: Be sure that you both learn the language.

Seen a lot of posts in other immigration heavy subs/communities where people move to europe and don't make any effort on learning the local language, and then are surprised/depressed that they can't find any friends or jobs

Hello, Italian here.

So I've been a traveller most of my life, for work, and when I was younger, like so many Italians, I dreamed of emigrating to so many different places; life had other plans, and I stayied. Luckily I was able to make a career in a profitable field, and over time I came to appreciate my own country, always looking forward to coming back home.
There's much to be said for Italy's cultural heritage and natural beauty, and anywhere you may be in our country, a weekend getaway to visit a beatiful city, historical sites, beach or mountainside is always fairly accessible.

While the rightward move is worrisome, we also have the factor that governments in Italy rarely last to the end of their mandate (we've been getting better on that), let alone get elected more than once. Italy was never rid of fascism, in part because that wasn't in the US' interest, but also always had one of the strongest communist factions in Europe, so who knows.

What I've got to warn you about is economic struggles: Italy has among the lowest wages in developed Europe, for most of us it is impossible to afford an abode alone, most people wait until they're married because it takes two working people to be able to pay for a single apartment or house (houses for most people are only affordable way outside of cities) and where possible we get mortgages, because rents are impossible; all of our lives are coloured by monetary constraints: we drive small cars because they're cheaper to own and operate, we mostly hang clothes because driers are another appliance you have to buy and are expensive to run, we rely on a deteriorating public healthcare system because private healthcare is, while usually accessible, an expense we cannot afford.

That said, if you can manage to find good paying jobs, in my opinion this is a good place to live. Of course you need to speak Italian, there's very low knowledge of English here.
Best work chances are in the North, unfortunately it's also the least appealing when it comes to natural surroundings, fog, humid heat and bad weather are typical unless you go WAY north to the Alps. If you really feel the need to be in a left-leaning environment, Emilia Romagna is the "red" land of Italy, since the country's creation has always been governed by left wing parties, and as such has among the best public infrastructure.

Let me know if you need to know anything more.

I mean you don't have to live in Italy after getting your citizenship they are an EU country with freedom of moment.

Progressive here too. We're staying on the blue coast.

Take a trip to Italy, as long as you can, and do a ton of research before you commit. That is a very large commitment, and you should have the language down pat, enough savings for a year, and a job lined up, or very strong prospects. If you are missing any of these things, I wouldn't recommend going.

For me personally, I wouldn't move unless there was significant danger. The grass is always greener. There will always be benefits and tradeoffs. I couldn't see my family moving to Italy, even if we were straight. Their slide is not too far off from our own.

Italian living in Italy here.
Yes we have fascists but the americans who commented this post ignore a couple things:

1. our form of government is different from yours, the multi-partisan system helps keeping those things in check;
2. Italy is a founding member of EU and is financially depending on it, so even the fascist know that they cannot just do what they want, otherwhise Bruxelles might pull the plug.

Thus said, the problem here is another: jobs. There is a high level of unemployment, expecially among people that don't work in super specialized environments, like engineering, CS or healthcare, just to make some examples. I have a lot of friends and relatives that had to move abroad just to make a living.
And I mean A LOT: my best friend lives in Australia, my brother in Ireland, literally half of the company I hanged out with as a teenager lives in Holland and I myself lived in Spain for a couple years before getting an opportunity here. So, unless you work one of these jobs I suggest you to priorityze another country.

Not to hate but what steps have you made to change your current situation? All Europe is moving towards the far right spectrum, if Italy were to be in the same boat are you going to keep on running? Why not try to improve your local community and make a change instead of running away. That’s the main reason why we are in this mess, instead of communities coming together, people leave and the o lay ones left behind are the ones voting for where we are at now.

Hi, Italian here

Italy, like many European countries, had strong social-democratic foundations. Many state jobs, strong state education, one of the best state healthcares out there, strong labour laws with contracts made by unions with specific job sectors.

That's now mostly on paper, and things change significantly from region to region. For example Emilia Romagna is still pretty strong on those, but go to the south and you'll see state school buildings being closed because they might collapse, or not offering any heating or A/C for the kids. Public healthcare is now very understaffed in most regions.

As for labour laws, companies aren't exactly too happy giving the expected raises or following work hours, and unskilled jobs are a disaster of underpay and unpaid overtime.

In general, social cohesion is hit or miss. Sure,most people are welcoming and friendly, but many of them are not paying all of their taxes. You're friends with the person in front of you, not with your whole nation.

Now that I broke some of the possible expectations: yes it's a good idea to come here. With time you will find some job, especially in the north and centre regions, just prepare for high rents in big cities and you'll be fine. Oh and possibly find somebody to help with taxes. If you decide for Rome, Napoli or Palermo, don't drive right away, take your time to learn how people drive here, what to expect etc

The far right national government certainly isn't good, but you're right that it's probably not that far off from most other big european countries right now. Definitely research the specific region you're moving to, there are often extremely large differences between regions in european countries when it comes to political leanings, general tolerance and economic opportunities and it's not always as clear-cut as "big cities good, countryside bad" or "north good, south bad".

Italy is being run by fascist lite.

You do realize you’re attempting to move to the country that invented fascism in an attempt to…escape fascism?

I can't offer much but to say I'm quite jealous, lol. My wife and I have researched just about every possible opportunity to do the same, just to find everything either doesn't apply to us or is just out of reach at this time (and for the foreseeable future). Asking for help around this topic typically leads to an insane amount of backlash online, so I've found...

If you're white and have a reasonable amount of money you'll be fine anywhere in Europe 😬..... I'm only half joking.

Just wanna say warm wishes, share your research if you find anything.

I wouldn't want to live near Napoli, or anywhere in the south. Italy is basically 2 countries. The rich north and the extremily poor south. It's a nice country but also has it's own issues. I love to go on holiday there, don't know if I would want to live there. But I have the luxury of living in The Netherlands, I guess anything is better than the US right now. Knowing the language helps a lot, if you do not speak it then for sure learn Italian, even if it's just the basics. Americans don't have a great status as expats or tourists, anywhere really, adjusting to the customs and loosing the americanism is recommended.