The Cost of Living in Italy

I will be writing a lot about the cost of living in Italy because many people who are thinking of moving to Italy want to know how expensive it is to live here. I can only talk about my experiences.


It is very difficult to say if it is more expensive or not than in the USA for many factors which I will not get into right now. I can tell you how much I spend for various things with a four person family (2 adults and 2 children), living in a small town in Tuscany.


Daycare is expensive for Italy standards in our small town but much cheaper than back home in the USA. We pay approximately 350 euros a month for 5 days a week, half days and lunch & snack included. Private preschool on the other hand is about 120 euros a month 6 days a week, half days and lunch included. Our child could stay until 4 pm with no increase in cost. A babysitter would cost about 7 euros per hour.


Doctors and medical care in general can be expensive if through the private sector. What is the difference between private and public? If you go through the public sector, you have to schedule an appointment through the USLL and most often your appointment will be in months. You have to see the doctor they advise you to see for your town and specialty. Everyone has the right to see the public doctor or dottore della mutua. These visits are free or you pay only a minimal amount. If instead you prefer to see a private doctor who takes appointments it costs about 70 euros (pediatrician). Blood tests vary. Again if you do them through the public sector they are free or minimal. If you do them privately, they can cost between 70 and 150 euros depending what exactly you are having done.



The cost of gasoline is expensive. I pay about 70 euros to fill up my tank which lasts me about 2 weeks time. I do very little driving and only around the town. The gas bill for our home is about 850 euros every two months in the winter. Food costs us around 100 euros a week. Electricity and water bills cost 150 euros and 75 euros respectively every two months.

If you have any specific question on how much something costs let me know as I would be more than happy to share any information I have.

Schools and Raising Children in Italy

My post on raising children in Italy is really a request for information and experience from those who have raised or are raising children in Italy. I have to say that I am concerned as any parent would be about the education system in Italy. I have heard both good and bad about the public school program and really would love to hear from people on this.

I finally found a site that is devoted to children in Italy...www.italiakids.com and I understand that soon there will be also a forum whereby you can actually meet people in your area of Italy that have children to plan play dates,etc. One thing that I have always been looking for since I have had children is to meet other native English expats with children in my area of Tuscany.

There are so many changes going on right now in public Italian schools. The private sector is very small in Italy and non existent in my area. I have heard that the elementary schools are good while the middle school and high schools do not properly prepare the students for university. I have heard that it is very subjective according to who your teachers are and if you are "simpatico" to the teacher or if the teacher likes you. Yeah but is this so different in the USA??

Changes that are going on right now include introducing the "grembiule" or apron in elementary schools. This is worn in preschool to keep the clothes underneath from getting dirty but also to dissuade against wearing name brands,etc. Most parents are for this change!
The other change for the entire school system is introducing the "maestra unica" or single teacher instead of having many teachers. This would mean laying off thousands and thousands of teachers. There is much controvery over this measure as you can imagine and the first "sciopero" or strike is scheduled for October 30th. Parents and students are both pro and against this. Right now children even at the elementary school level have several teachers for multiple areas of study (math,language,history,etc).

I want to hear from expats regarding the Italian school system, these changes and their experiences!!

Culture Clash as an Italian American in Italy

I have talked to fellow Italian Americans about this topic before and it justifies to be discussed. There is something about being Italian American that makes you want to get to know the country that, in my case, my parents' came from. Growing up I always felt very Italian and when I decided to move to Italy I figured this is going to be easy and I won't have any problems with culture clash because hey I am Italian. Wrong. I might as well have been Japanese, Indian or any other nationality. The only thing I had going for me was I spoke the language pretty well and understood almost everything. But I still had and have at times culture clash.

The food I ate as an Italian American in the USA is different from the food I eat here. Italian Americans eat spaghetti and meatballs which they do not eat here. Yes they have spaghetti but meatballs are not so big, at least where I live. I get a kick when I speak to other Italian Americans from Canada or the East Coast because they can tell you all sorts of things they did as Italian Americans and just figured this is how it is in Italy. Foods are different, words are different and lifestyles are very different. Italian Americans know all the dialects from all the small towns around Italy. If I use a Abruzzo dialect word talking to my husband (Italian) he will look at me like I am an alien of some sort. He has no idea of what I am saying. Can I hear from some Italian Americans about this??

Lifestyles are different. I am still very American in that if an appointment is at 1:30 pm that is what time I should be there. But here everything is so easy going. They say don't worry no one expects you to be there exactly at that time. Here there is nothing wrong with waiting at the doctor's office for two hours because he does not take appointments. We once waited at the hair salon for four hours and I only stayed because I was in dire need for a wedding! So culture shock is still very big for me even though I am Italian American and have lived here for 10 years!

Day care and Preschool while Living in Italy

The first day of day care is scary I think for any mom and that is even more the case while living in a foreign country. My oldest son never went to day care and I was happy with that decision looking back. Now I have two children and things get more hectic and for many reasons we decided to try out day care for our youngest child.

So the first day of day care was yesterday when I actually waved goodbye, got into my car and left. He was fine with it and as he saw me grab my purse, he happily waved goodbye, said bye and blew me a kiss. His complete sense of being ok with it gave me a sense of “ok I can handle this.”

What did I do? I went straight to the gym which I had not done in a long long time. I felt good really about doing something for ME! Moms and dads, you can totally relate to this I am sure. After four years of doing everything for everyone, days and nights….I feel the need to do now for me! So that means going back to the gym, finding work I can do from home, and devoting some time to me!

After running a whole bunch of errands, I quickly went back to get my little angel. The teacher happily told me all went well and that tomorrow (today) we will try having him have lunch at school and see how it goes. He is a pretty independent guy who loves to eat so I am sure all will go fine. In the back of my head though I know and told my husband that if I am not totally content with this arrangement I will put off putting him in day care.

My oldest son went back to preschool for his second year and really enjoys it. He has made a lot of friends that he talks about and he is fitting in nicely. He is bilingual and knows now that his Italian friends and teachers do not speak Italian. He proudly says though that he speaks English too! If there are any parents out there that can tell me how the bilingual thing is going for their children, I would love to hear from you. I will devote a future post to it too.

I have to admit that the whole school system out here frightens me mainly because I am not familiar with it. I have heard so many negative things about it that I am seriously considering to home school them. Any thoughts and comments from you guys out there I would appreciate too. Education is so important and like any parent, I just want the best for them.

With that said, I have to go pick up the youngest and see how his second day of school went!Ciao.

What I love about my small town and living in Italy

Many of my friends back home in LA ask me what it is like living in Tuscany, especially in a small town. Chiusi has a population of approximately 9000 people and growing. This includes all the little surrounding towns, called “frazioni”. I have to say the one thing that I do love, that really puts a smile on my face is the fact that you know so many people and they know you….by name! Imagine going to the pharmacy and everyone greeting you by name and asking about your entire family, knowing all their names, where they go to school, what they did this summer. You cross the street to the bakery and they greet you too and tell you you don’t have to buy the bread today because your husband got enough this morning when he brought your son to buy a snack. Amazing. When you go to restaurants there is always someone you know sitting at the next table. This was so foreign to me being from LA. How often do you run into the same person twice in LA?? I mean you have to plan meetings weeks ahead, right?

Owning a home and living in Italy, especially in a small town keeps you closely tied with your neighbors. There is a certain warmth you get when your neighbour brings you “mimosa,” a yellow flower, every March 8th which is “giorno della donna” or woman’s day. My neighbour Anita not just brings me a flower, but an entire branch from her tree!! I now kind of expect it from her and if I don’t hear from her, I call up to find out if she is feeling ok!! What a nice, sweet lady. She will stop you every time your car passes her house and ask about the entire family and get angry if you don’t accept her chicken’s fresh eggs of the day! I call it my “drive through” only I get fresh eggs, onions, tomatoes. I adore Anita.

Moving to Tuscany and /or visiting Italy also means really savoring the new foods of each season. In LA I kind of just took for granted that everything at the supermarket was always available. Now I know there is a time to buy olive oil, walnuts, chestnuts, cantaloupe, apples, peaches and all sorts of delicious foods. Now I look forward to getting the new olive oil (olio nuovo) in which the olives I see from my windows are picked in November. I watch the farmers and see as they carefully pick each olive. No wonder why it is so expensive!

In this small town I have not yet met or know of another American who lives here year round. Sure there are many who come and go, spend holidays here and maybe months too but I am the only one that actually lives here. So I am treated special and you know what, I like it. I like this unspoken title of the American. I am also though very proud of where I come from, L.A. I am proud to be American and the USA will always be home sweet home. You don’t really really appreciate home until you are far from home. So right now I have the best of both worlds. I consider myself on an extended vacation in Tuscany but home is always L.A. When I tell those from Chiusi I am from Los Angeles, the usual response is “Wow.” When I tell my friends in LA I live in Tuscany their usual response is “Wow.”

Can I just say that parking is great in Chiusi. I have unfortunately adopted the Italian way of parking so give me a bit of space and I will stick my car in it in anyway, shape or form. Parking is always available and pretty cheap too. If there is no parking, just drive around the block a couple times and something will surely open up. For now I will take advantage of living in Italy and really appreciate all this small town has to offer!

Seasons and Closets while Living in Italy

Having been born and raised in Los Angeles, I was somewhat spoiled and oblivious to seasons, heavy clothing and the whole “cambio di stagione” or changing of seasons with regard to your closet. Let me explain. In L.A. most of us have closets that are built into the walls. Some people have walk-in closets and others have those where you just slide open a door and are arm’s length away to anything you want to wear. So my moving to Italy had an impact even on how I stored my clothes!

Let’s be honest here. Los Angelenos don’t really own winter wear. You may just put on an extra sweater if it is cold but who actually owns coats? Anyhow having said this, living in Italy has a totally different scenario. In Italy, be it the weather (colder than LA) or be it the great importance of how you look, Italians own every type of jacket for every type of weather. You have the light raincoat, the heavy raincoat, the light coat, the heavy coat, the bomber, the leather jacket, the leather coat, the ski jacket, and then each of these in various lengths and colors depending on your attire, shoes etc. So this is a big affair. These are just for outerwear. The same holds true for clothing. You have the light pants, heavy pants, jeans, skirts heavy or light, suits, shirts of all types, sweaters of all fabrics, weights, colors, etc.

Anyhow what happens when the seasons change?? If you move to Italy, you will see that there are no walk in closets, at least I have never seen any yet. Instead Italians have beautiful armadi or closets that are furniture pieces. These armadi have two levels in that the bottom level you put all the clothing of the current season except the long apparel like coats that go in another section of the armadio. On the top level you put all the apparel of the next or last season. This is where it gets tricky. Basically on the days you decide to do the change of clothing you take a long stick like instrument with a hook on the end (I am sure this has a name) and one by one like a balancing act, you put the hanger on the hook and place it ever so carefully on the rod above. I laugh when I think of this because you have no idea how many times the whole thing just fell on my head. I opt now to stand on a chair and do it the old fashioned way.

Oh don’t even ask me where Italians place their shoes??!! Again in LA you just place them on a shoe rack at the bottom of your walk-in closet or something similar. In Italy there is another piece of furniture called the scarpiera which is meant to hold shoes. However the space allotted to the shoes is somewhat small and does not hold ankle boots or regular boots nor my husband's shoes which are too big. So what do we do?? We have shoes everywhere, stacked ever so carefully as to not ruin them. I try to be somewhat organized in my stacking, with shoes for the current season at least in the front in view and others in the back. We are big on shoes but that is a different post altogether. Living in Italy means being creative with space and using it very wisely.

Routines and Living in Italy

Having a family in Italy is no easy chore. Unless you are some kind of a true aristocrat and can afford a live in babysitter, house manager and a live in cook, the routines in Italy can kill you.


Pane, Pane, Pane
In this culture it is a crime not to have fresh bread everyday. This means that someone in the household has to go to the local bakery everyday to buy just enough bread for the day. It is truly an art in knowing exactly how much bread you need for the day. Do not even think about using the bread the next day, for aside from being frowned upon by your now spoiled husband and children, one day old bread in Italy is rock hard. So for those of us who do not have the art down, we end up with old bread on a daily basis. I cannot grate the bread without grating my fingers and throwing away food for me is truly a sin. So I am lucky enough to have “Anita” , a farmer who lives next door and who happily accepts my bread for her chickens and pigs.

Mealtime
This has to be the number one daily cause of anxiety for me. There are only a few full day programs in Italian schools, which means no cafeteria! When I found out that children come home for meals everyday, I nearly had a heart attack. “Ok let’s get this straight,” I asked around, “you mean my whole family comes home for lunch everyday?” Yikes! For my American friends, let me explain that this is not just getting sandwiches at a Subway or chicken at Pollo Loco. This is setting the table with a tablecloth, silverware, usually a pasta dish, a second course meat or fish dish, veggies, and yes that x!!!%&(/&(R fresh bread ! This in itself is one good reason to move back to the USA! So if you work from home like I do, it means taking off a good two hours for the whole ordeal and then waiting for dinnertime when it all pleasantly takes place again. No wonder why productivity in Italy is so low.

Still want to move to Italy?? Read on…

Trash & Mail
Ok since we are complaining, let me tell you about the trash system. Aside from being extremely expensive as far as yearly fees, we do not have anyone picking up our trash nor is there a trash bin within a logical radius. Trash must be divided (this is a great thing) for recycling and you do not have your own trash bins. They are usually a few blocks away and each neighbourhood shares one or more. So you have to bring your own trash already divided daily to these bins.

As for mail, I can never figure out why the postal worker drops off your mail at your house but cannot pick it up. So you have to physically bring your mail to the post office for delivery.

Kilowatts & Storms

I have gone through 3 telephones and 2 television sets in the past 4 years due to thunderstorms. Why is it that my appliances get burned during them here and not at home in the USA? I know I should not be comparing.

Each family has the right to 3 kilowatts of power. This means that you cannot have two major appliances running at the same time or you will be shorted. Don’t even think of using your hairdryer while the washing machine is going!! Multi tasking is just not big in Italy!