After spending my entire 20s and early 30s abroad i covered some serious ground working in Canada, Ireland, Cambodia, Honduras, Dubai, UK and most recently the Netherlands. I landed in the Netherlands 3 months before the pandemic broke out and was barred from my country Australia for years which did a number on my mental health with my mum unwell and i unable to return. I finally got a repatriation flight home and was in Australia working remotely for a year for the same Dutch company. I started to question returning to The Netherlands but with the sudden outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the fear of getting locked out of Australia again i was apprehensive, so i went and worked remotely in Bali and thought i might start a business and set up there as an option. My Dutch visa unexpectadly got revoked and i was suddenly devastated over the loss of it and everything i invested so hard in. I ended up with a severe mental health decline called burnout and had to return to Australia. Ive now been back in Australia recovering for 9 months and it’s not the place i thought or remember it to be. Friends have all moved on, even family members have their own lives, the lack of culture, innovation and it,'s isolation from the rest of the world gets me down. It’s so quiet here not much really happens. I know i probably sound spoilt and negative but im really struggling with life here and miss the Netherlands and being in Europe. Ive tried to find a partner for years and settle down somewhere but it doesnt seem to work out for me and i cant find anyone. Im female 33 now and feel like i missed the boat on relationships, family or having an interesting life. I guess being an expat for over 10 years has left my heart in too many places and i feel i belong no where anymore. I dont know what to do now since Australia is not giving me what i want, maybe i should try to move abroad again and try to find a partner somewhere else and settle down. Any experiences or perspectives on trying to settle down again would be helpful. I have no idea what to do anymore or am i just destined to be stuck like this forever.
It’s certainly true that there’s less nature in Europe than Australia. One irony I’ve noticed, though, is that what nature there is here in Europe is more accessible than in Australia.
When I lived in Australia, if I wanted to go for a walk in the countryside, I had to get in the car and drive for 45 minutes+ to get to a national park. Here in Italy, I can walk through the vineyards and forests around my village. The equivalents in Australia were all private land and inaccessible.
Ironically I’ve come across that more in Italy than Australia. There are a few lakes locally where people swim – either just informally or at resorts.
I think maybe I should be living in Italy 😂
It definitely has its pluses and minuses, like everywhere else. The bureaucracy can be a pain. For example, I can’t drive because there’s no way to exchange an Australian licence with an Italian one, unlike in most EU countries. I’d need to take test and lessons in Italian or German, and it’s expensive 😬.
I think access to the countryside varies by country, but it’s generally easier in the UK than Australia, for example. The UK has a large network of public “rights of way” (footpaths through the countryside) that Australia does not, for example. These are often pretty ancient, and unpopular with landowners. Unfortunately in Australia, it seems as if landowners had more of a say and didn’t allow for a similar system there.
I’m not sure of the legal basis, but similar walking tracks seem to exist here in Italy and (I think) in France.
Oh nice. To be honest I have been considering moving to Italy. I travelled there in September and absolutely loved it. The next place I settle will be where I do my phd though and I’ve heard some bed “reviews” about doing a phd in Italy haha I wonder if you know anyone doing a phd there?
I’d suggest that Italy is strongly regional, so worth figuring out which region would suit you best. There are lots of differences between the regions here.
As for doing a PhD here – that’s what I’m doing. What bad reviews have you heard?
I’d say there are only two main negatives personally:
(*) The standard studentship gives you about €1200 per month (net/tax-free), which is not great in the north of Italy or in a bigger city. You’d almost certainly have to live in a shared apartment and really be careful with money. It would probably be quite comfortable in a smaller city in the south of Italy, however.
(*) The bureaucracy can be confusing and annoying, both governmental and university. You can normally get through it eventually, but it’s a pain. Personally, I’ve found government bureaucrats to be quite friendly and helpful when you speak with them (though I gather this varies a lot between cities too), but this doesn’t lessen how difficult it is to figure out. As I said above, getting a driving licence is a real pain – that’s the one thing I’ve not managed so far.
I’d suggest the most important factor, regardless of which country you study in, is your supervisor. If you get a bad supervisor, you’ll be miserable regardless of where you are.
Hey this is really good info thank you! I think the bad reviews I’ve heard so far have been mainly the money/funding and bureaucracy like you said but from when you’ve said these don’t seem so bad. And money wise I guess it’s almost the same as australia 😂 I also am unsure of how important to speak Italian I’m a phd…do you speak Italian? I suppose this is something that will depend largely on the group and supervisor though.
Yes, the bureaucracy can be a pain, but it’s worthwhile putting up with. It’s easier if you won’t need to drive while you’re here too – that’s a real pain.
The other disadvantage with funding worth noting is that most universities here provide a scholarship rather than a salary. That becomes an issue if you want to live permanently in the EU, as most countries base pensions on the amount of years worked. A salaried PhD counts towards this (possible in Germany but not Italy), a scholarship does not.
I’m learning Italian, but I’m pathetically bad at it. I spoke some German when I arrived too, which helps here in Südtirol-Alto Adige. French would help in the Valle d’Aosta. Italian is surprisingly difficult to learn, but I think you’d get there eventually.
The exact requirements for language skills would likely vary between universities and departments. I think you should be ok in most science departments, but it’s worth checking. In France, the general rule is that science departments will let you take a PhD in English, but humanities departments will not, and it could be the case here too – I am not sure.
It’s still worth learning some basic Italian anyway, especially if you’ll be living outside a major city – it’s just invaluable for daily life. Finding an apartment or a room is likely going to be easier if you speak some Italian too. (I have to move again soon, so am struggling with this at the moment!)
One other fun bit of bureaucracy that’s worth mentioning is the permesso di soggiorno (residency permit). The student visa you’d get to come to Italy essentially only gives you permission to come here and apply for a permesso di soggiorno. It’s the permesso that shows you’re allowed to live here.
For this, you lodge an application at the post office – the forms look intimidating, but that’s because the same form covers every potential reason someone could apply for a permesso to live in Italy. The actual parts you have to fill out as a student are short and straightforward, and there are lots of useful guides online. You have to pay a fee and they give you a receipt and an appointment time to go to the Questura (state police station). This will be about a month after you’ve submitted your application at the post office.
At the Questura, you get fingerprinted and to have show them originals of passports and other key documents. There’s then a wait of about two or three months to get the actual permesso di soggiorno.
Unfortunately, during this time, you can’t really travel in Europe outside Italy. The only proof you’ll have that you’re legally allowed to be in Italy is the receipt from the post office. Italian police and border officials recognise this, but police and border officials in other Schengen zone countries don’t.
This is less of a problem in the first year, since you can use your default 90 days in 180 days Schengen tourist visa to begin with, but is a pain in subsequent years. Students are only given a permesso with one year’s validity, so you have to do this every year. Workers tend to get a permesso with two or three years’ validity, but processing times are even longer again.
It’s not a deal-breaker, but worth bearing in mind – there’ll be about 3 or 4 months in every year when you can’t easily visit places outside Italy. It’d be a particular pain if this ended up including the summer vacation – but then, that’s unlikely as a student, since you’re unlikely to arrive just before the start of the vacation.
Yeah as an Aussie I HATE cold water! Probably because I grew up on the Gold Coast where it’s warm… I’ve barely been for a swim since moving to the UK lol