Ask Me Anything

I live in the countryside nearby metorpolitan area. Transport as in mass transit could be definitely better. It's barely acceptable for students, and that's still not good neough. We would need better and more capillar public transport. Still mostly car-only outside the city.

Roads are not that bad, and traffic is survivable compared to other places like Milan, Rome, Naple and such.

I had no idea, to be honest, that this was the case.

I think there is no discussion on the topic at the moment, i can tell you what i do think about it. Well, since if you are a citizen you have the right to vote on our political elections, if you dont actually live in italy and are not affected (properties in Italy, relatives still living here and so on), you should not be allowed to vote. So, while i don't care if you get citizenship by ancestry, i do mind if you influence italian political elections without any stake in them.

It's a general point of view, i have no specific case, just an opinion.

Ciao Choss! sei il benvenuto a scrivermi in italiano, non temere di sbagliare, solo così si impara. Cercherò di correggerti, ma senza troppa ansia.

Ho fatto arrampicata sportiva in passato, ma sempre in palestra (tipo bouldering), la montagna mi piace viverla con il trekking e la corsa (trail running). Conosco bene Finale Ligure, specialmente per il mare. Ci vado spesso... ho fatto giri con la bici e nuotate in mare, ma non ho mai arrampicato li. So però che ci sono tra le falesie più belle della zona, è molto famoso come posto per arrampicare.

Quanto agli americani, ho vissuto per parecchio tempo negli USA, tra Seattle, Greenville TX e Atlanta, GA (specialmente qui). ho diversi amici americani e credo che gli americani siano un grande popolo, molto amichevole e fondamentalmente bravo. Però anche molto ignorante, nel senso che non sanno, non conoscono. E questa è colpa della scuola, dlel'istruzione, che negli USA è piuttosto scarsa proprio a livello di cultura generale. Così molti dei "problemi" con gli americani nascono dal fatto che credono di essere i migliori al mondo e che tutto il mondo dovrebbe assomigliare agli USA, per buona fede, non perché sono presuntuosi o cattivi.

Io credo che se vuoi vivere in italia e contribuire alla società qui, allora è giusto che tu possa avere la cittadinanza. L'italia permette la doppia cittadinanza, quindi se puoi per qualche motivo (es. jure sanguinis) averla, perché no. Però non sono un avvocato e non so nulla dell'argomento, quindi ti auguro buona fortuna al riguardo! Tutti e due i miei genitori sono italiani, per cui posso solo considerarmi fortunato, in fondo dove nasciamo va a culo.... (it's pure luck = andare a culo, literally going with the ass)

Alcune piccole correzioni, non dimenticare gli articoli ("sto provando ad imparare l'italiano") e poi credo tu abbia dimenticato qualcosa qui "ma so che ci sono molte cose che non so" (there any many things i don't know, literally).

Quanto a libri, sto leggendo dei libri di Nicola Pesce https://www.mondadori.it/autori/nicola-pesce/ e scrive molto bene e in modo anche facile da leggere, senza parole troppo difficili. In particolare i suoi libri con animali come protagonisti.

a presto!

interesting celiacs is so common in italy.

Well, actually it's more and more common to see piazza places that caters to celiacs with gluten free products and freshly backed pizzas. One of our favourite pizzeria around us recently renovated and created a dedicated gluten free pizza oven with fully separated workflow. Also, in the bigger town nearby there is a "pasticceria" dedicated to gluten-free sweets (like cakes and such), and the main "focacceria" (place where you buy focaccia, a kind of different pizza but to-go only) has a dedicated gluten free shop next door.

So i would say that Italy has evolved quite a lot and support celiacs pretty well.

I don't know about pasta, but given that in every supermarket the gluten free aisle for pasta is usually well stocked, i guess that should be also available in at least some restaurants...

As a person that also lives in northern Italy, and that have a girlfriend with a series on food intolerances, I can confirm with what OP already said. If you are celiac you can find options now days (obviously much more if you live in a city). If you are lactose intolerant you can also find options (Italy is also a place where lots of cheese is consumed, and many recipes involve some kind of cheese or cream). If you are both at the same time, well that's where problem starts appearing.

If by any chance you also got a vegan in the group well it's better to just cook yourself (obviously exaggerating but still your options of places may be very limited).

All this to say: you can find options now (when I was a kid it was unheard of), either with big restaurants/pizzerias that have a double kitchen, or with dedicated places that are fully gluten free.

Did they have white stars on them? Maybe the Bucaneve from Doria? https://www.doria.it/prodotti-dolci/bucaneve

isnt that mostly southern italy they were living in, its considered the "south"

He said Northern Italy ;-)

I believe i never seen that Family Guy episode, which one is it? i could watch it out of curiosity.

As for the mafia... We lost the war long ago. Mafia (camorra, andrangheta, whatever there are many, you call them) is everywhere specially in the north. The more money, the more mafia. Mafia is also in the government (remember Berlusconi? also our current government is full of mafia related people) but do not think of the mafia from the movies. This mafia is a business organization, they care for stealth and profit, not for public executions and bombings. That was a broken strategy from decades ago, mafia evolved...

Actually, fun fact on mafia, the allies where able to land in Sicily in 1943 because they supported mafia giving money and weapons to overthrown the fascist government, which alway tried to destroy mafia. So we actually have mafia today thanks to the US meddling and winning the war.

Actually, mafia would have come back anyway also under fascism i guess,its more a way of thinking and a way of life, like helping your friends and thrusting your kinfolks. But i am no expert, and this would be a different post anyway.

It's a bit more complex than that.

We celebrate the 25th of April as Freedom Day, we don't celebrate killing people even if they where dictators. Its bad taste.

Also, it seems that more then half of italy still like Mussolini and his legacy so.

Also, north Italy was also the place where the Repubblica di Saló, or the last fascist strongold, was located. So I guess it's not a matter of north and south, rather of fascists and non fascists, which where both equally shared among the country.

So no commemoration, and a bit of second thoughts also on freedom day given how many new fascists ww have. Mind me, they are also pretty ignorant of their own history, so... Go figure.

Well, for what is worth i voted to have the citizenship timeline reduced in the last referendum on the matter.

Currently, you need to be born from italian parents (at least one) to become italian, there is no ius soli (however you write that, i might be italian, but my studies of Latin dates back long ago), but you can marry or civil-marry somebody and get citizenship after some 10 years (IIRC). That referendum was trying to lower that time to 5 years. Which means that you pay taxes, but cannot vote or get a passport for that time. Actually, in some cases you can vote for local elections i think (not 100% sure which ones) but not political, european or state wide elections.

I believe that if you contribute to the country, live here with plans to stay forever (or for a reasonably long time) and elect Italy as your country, you should be allowed citizenship.

Nothing really changes from this perspective. I can tell you that in small places people are not very keen to give cirizenship easily, while in big cities people are more open, like mostly every where i guess.

Anyway, without citizenship you need a "permesso di soggiorno" (permit to stay) which is kind convoluted, annoying and short lived to get. It expires often (yearly?) and it takes months to renew, so you cannot leave the country for big chunks of the year a time, and you get accomunated to "illegals" because well, you are one of them until you get your permesso renewed. I have friends who needs one, and it's kind of annoying. Longer work contracts of study could help with some 3 years long "permesso" but it's hit and miss i am told.

We have euros of course, and I am paid in euros as well. Wages are kind of low... Compared to germany Switzerland and even france, we make less buks for the same job.

But cost of living is also less, so overall.... We are still poorer than many other Europeans... But life is still expensive. We make a good income, and free education, free healthcare and such amnenitoes do compensate.

Retirement is contribution based, so the more you work, the more you save in your retirement (state funded us company fundrd plus yourself funded). You cannot retire before 68 (maybe 70 nowadays) and usually need 40y of work, or maybe 45 nowadays.

Of you are a foreigner, I guess you need your retirement from whatever country you come from.

Anyway you can live with some 25k euros gross per year, but I recommend 50k or more at least. We are above that, but also have two kids four dogs two cars and a nice house (... In the woods)

Dollars? Not even in Liras anymore.

In the big city nearby, not that bad. There is a very efficient subway, but too small for the city, and an extensive network of busses.

Tickets are 2€ for 1 hour, with some 40-60€ euro monthly cards, depending if you have discounts.

Outside the city less good, there are suburban busses and train lines, but efficiency is not great. And are much more expensive.

If you need to travel across cities there are busses and trains, often running late but overall quite cheap.

My daughter take the train to go a few towns away for school every day, like 20min each way, the annual students card cost 600€ but covers a pretty wide area outside the big city.