How to Italy

Why I love summer in Sardinia

Summer is definitely the time of year when living in Sardinia comes into a league of its own.

After months of being held hostage to the cold weather (oh, okay, 21 degrees), I finally get to:

* Conduct conference calls while looking at the waves crash gently onto the beach below my house.

* Have business meetings while swimming in the sea the colour of peackcock feathers.

* Work outside on my jasmine-clad patio.

They were three of the things that led my friend Emma, who was out here last weekend, to comment:

"You give a whole new meaning to working from home."

Teaching jobs in Cagliari

For those of you that missed my Tweet on the subject, there are teaching jobs going in Cagliari with British Institutes.

Photo credit: giuliomarziale

If you fancy working near Cagliari's city beach Poetto, you'll need to:

• Be native English speakers
• Speak Italian
• Have Trinity/CELTA teaching certification
• Have EU citizenship

To apply, send your CV and covering letter to Sandra Pala at cagliari@britishinstitutes.it. Oh, and tell them that you saw the vacancy mentioned here.

An Ice cream a day...

An ice-cream a day.

That's one of the most common antidotes to the long, hot summers in Sardinia. And who am I to disagree with Italian experts who clearly know more about the subject than me?

Eating gelato, as ice cream is called over here, has been a popular pastime in Italy for hundreds of years. Even the ancient Romans enjoyed a scoop or two of snow and ice mixed with fruit, wine and honey.

It's not difficult to see why:

(photo credit: yud)

But if all those mouthwatering flavours don't tickle your tastebuds, maybe these will:

(photo credit: Lilian33)

And if they don't, there are always these:

(photo credit: Itsamish)

Needless to say, when you're in Sardinia to take part in one of our Absorbing Writing workshops, we'll be finding the time to eat some ice cream.

After six years in Italy, I've finally found my favourite flavour. I wonder what yours will be?

Useful sites for living and working in Italy

As I said yesterday, I've officially become a Twitter addict. I've found it really useful for sharing my favourite links and websites I've discovered.

Here's a round up of some of the urls and news:

* www.lowcostaccounting.it, www.contipronti.it and www.101professionisti.it for low-cost accounting options in Italy

* Craigslist now in Bologna, Tuscany, Genoa, Milan, Campania, Perugia, Rome, Sardinia, Sicily, Turin and Veneto

* www.milanexpat.com - the best links for expatriate life in Milan

* Starting a business in Italy? You'll need these sites: www.agenziaentrate.gov.it & www.inps.it. Try www.actainrete.it & www.formaper.it

* www.casasanruffino.com - fabulous B&B run by two Brits in Le Marche who've realised their dream of living in Italy

* Looking for an English-speaking job in Italy? www.jobsinmilan.com would be a good place to start

* Want to learn Italian but there aren't any courses near you? www.myngle.com has individual and group lessons via Skype and online

* Want to buy property in Sardinia? Start here: www.sardiniapropertyfinder.com, www.preciousvillas.com & www.housearoundsardinia.eu

* Need office space in Italy: www.italycenter.it, www.mbcenter.it, www.pickcenter.com, www.businesscenter.it, www.regus.it

* If you want to export, click on the Italian Trade Commission's website www.ice.gov.it. It has 16 offices in Italy and over 100 worldwide

* www.milanin.com - business networking club in Milan so successful it's now spreading to other Italian cities

* www.girlgeekdinnersitalia.com - informal networking dinners in Milan for women in IT. The driving forces behind the initative includes Sara Rosso, aka Ms Adventures in Italy. Featured in Glamour, Marie Claire and a host of others, I'll have you know.

What's your favourite Italian piazza and why?

And after lots of updates on Twitter, I'm back to blogging. For those of you who don't use Twitter, try it. I've met loads of interesting expats in Italy and around the world on there.

Lots and lots has been happening here: buying an apartment, selling the land, making revisions to book, consulting, writing articles, becoming a permament citizen meaning Italy now has to treat me like an Italian, changing residency from one town to the next, wasting lots of time changing residency, doctors' appointments, wasting lots of time making appointments, hassling Telecom for wifi, wasting lots of time hassling Telecom for wifi -after four months of badgering them, they finally got their act together last week and sent us the router - and working on launch of another business project.

In other words, lots and lots of excuses for not being on here. Oops.

I'm easing back into this blogging malarky slowly and vowing to include loads more images on here. Not least because Joanna Young has prompted me to do so in her latest Tweet (that's what the messages you post are called) on Twitter. You can what that is over at Confident Writing.   

Here's the first one of my favourite Italian piazza: Santo Stefano in Bologna where I used to curl up with a cappuccino and my textbooks when I was a student in the city.

Photo credit: aleric86

But enough of me. What's your favourite Italian piazza and why?

 

Twittering about Italy

With lots of interviews, deadlines, consults and meetings, I've got a busy week ahead and won't have too much time for blogging.

There's lots of stuff I want to tell you though, so I'm going to be Twittering for the next week, including lots of employment and business links.

You'll see my three latest updates in the righthand column of www.howtoitaly.typepad.com underneath 'recent comments'.

But if you don't want to miss any of them, why not join up and follow me? Or do you own Twittering, too?

If I carry on drinking red wine, will I get to vote when I'm 101?

After all that recent doom and gloom about Italy being in the doldrums, this story in yesterday's regional paper Il Sardegna brought a smile to my face.

To Efisio Piras and his devoted wife Silvia, it was just another election.

But the crowd who had turned out to see the elderly couple arrive at the polling station to cast their vote on Monday disagreed.

For between them, Efiso and Silvia Piras have clocked up 200 years, making them the oldest couple to vote in Italy.

Efiso, who celebrated his 101st birthday in January, is an intent follower of politics and insisted on going to vote. Consequently, his 99-year-old wife followed suit.

But as strange as it might seem, the couple, who have been married for 76 years, are not that unusual in the village where they live.

Orroli, set in the heart of Sardinia's Barabagia region, boasts a population of 2,540. Of those, 39 are aged 90 or over and 17 are centenarians.

The village was also home to the oldest man in Europe: Giovanni Frau died in 2003 aged 112. 

Longevity in Orroli - and, more generally, Sardinia - is put down to the healthy lifestyle and the red wine produced on the island.

With all the vino rosso I knock back, maybe there is hope for me yet.

   

 

Berlusconi sweeps to power - again

I can't believe has voted in Silvio Berlusconi for the third time.

For those of you not up to speed with Italian politics, yesterday's election was the 62nd to take place in 63 years. As for self-made millionaire Berlusconi, who owns three commercial tv channels, a national newspaper and now has indirect control of state television RAI, it's his third term of office in 14 years.

The result led one of my friends to text me with the words "mi vergogno di essere italiana" (I'm ashamed to be Italian).

The situation is serious: the country is on the brink of recession, wages are among the lowest in Europe and the north-south divide looks sets to become even wider, thanks to the Lega Nord's strong electoral performance. Click on Sara Rosso's Snapshots of Italy in her blog MsAventuresinItaly to find out more about the party's campaign spearheaded by Umberto Bossi.

Living la Dolce vita in Italy?

Yesterday, I posted about the quality of life in Italy.

For those of you who have fallen in love with Italy but haven't lived here yet, don't go anywhere before reading this. It's an accurate summary of life in Italy by Deidre who is moving part-time to the US for work after living here since 1991.

Sardinia in April

I love Sardinia in April.

I love seeing life start up again after being packed away in boxes all winter. On Monday, I drove past my favourite restaurant, L'Oasis, and the iron gates were still padlocked shut. Yesterday, however, was a different story. The gates were opened for the start of the summer season, with the sign at the entrance gleaming like new.

But most of all, I love watching the tourists who will always look like tourists no matter how hard they try to fit in, thanks to their satorial choices. Flip flops, sandals, white trousers, swishy Boden skirts and anything linen or Per Una are a few of the giveaways. Others are lobster red skin and getting dressed up in their holiday best to go out to dinner at 6pm while the rest of us are still digesting lunch and getting into the mid-afternoon workload.