Column: what would it be like to live in Italy?

What would it be like to live in Italy? I was camping in Northern Italy the book La superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and this thought never left me. With every page I turned of Pfeijffer's ode to his new home city GenoaI kept wondering.

How would I like to live in Italy? Would I even want it? Would it be possible? Maybe when I'm retired? Or would I like to start a campsite or B&B?

Secretly I was quite a bit jealous of Ilya. That one day he just got on an old bicycle to Italy and eventually didn't leave there. You need quite a bit of courage for that, to live so far away from everything that is familiar to you.

I didn't think I could. On the other hand, I also felt connected to him. We both studied Latin and Greek and are both very attached to our student city of Leiden. If he can take that step, why can't I?

In any case, it wouldn't be my love for Italy. Ever since I first came to Rome as a teenager, this country and especially this city have fascinated me immensely. The long history that you see on every street corner, the beautiful language in which even the simplest things sound beautiful and of course the feeling of la dolce vita that you get in this country. Who cares, enjoy life anyway!

But the holidays passed, my normal life as a teacher of classical languages ​​started again and La superba faded more and more into the background. Until one day, my friend casually showed me a leaflet with PhD positions all over Europe that he could apply for. He didn't really like it, but my eye immediately fell on that one vacancy in Italy, in Verona. He had never heard of it, but the research seemed interesting to him, so he sent an application without much hope.

Even when he was invited for an interview, we didn't think too much about it. Nice, a few days to Verona. But when he was actually hired, doubts set in. Was this really what we wanted, three years away from our family, friends and everything we were used to? Would I cancel my permanent contract for an oral appointment with a professor in Verona?

But the answer was a convincing yes. If it all came to nothing, at least it would be a nice adventure.

From that moment on it went fast. I quit my job, we rented a house without ever seeing it, and we got married in between. We have been living in for two years now Verona, a beautiful city that now really feels like home to us.

And what is it like to live in Italy? I would like to share that with you in my next blogs.

To be continued…