Hello. Our names are David and Lizzie from Australia. Lizzie is 24 years old and I am 27. Having spent much of the last 12 months travelling Sth America, Europe, and Asia we are now looking forward to the fresh, exciting challenge of living and working in Italy.

We both have Italian backgrounds but won´t lie about the very little Italian we speak. We would like to attend a school part time and work part time as well. We are not fussy about the type of work as our main priority is to learn the language and experience Italian life.

Can anyone help us as to how we can arrange living in a houseshare with other Italians (so that we are forced to speak Italian) and also colleges and work?

As yet we have no idea which city to reside, this will be determined by which city best suits our above mentioned needs. We heard that a college in Perugia subsidises education for foreigners.

We greatly appreciate and help any of you can offer. We arrive in Rome on the 9th of October with nothing more than our backpacks and hopefully some advice given to us from this forum!

David and Lizzie

Are you coming on the youth worker visa? Sounds like fun.

What kind of visa are you arriving with?

Lizzie has a British passport while I have a 1 year working holiday visa.

Lizzie has the right to live anywhere and seek any work in Italy, but must still get a carta di soggiorno. You must get a permesso di soggiorno per lavoro. Both must be applied for within 8 days of arrival at the local questura.
Which questura is hard to say. You'll have to support yourself anyway you can until you decide. In winter the obvious source of easy jobs is the ski resorts but they are not so obvious for schools. With little Italian, I suspect low level tourism jobs are what you can get. I think Venice and Florence have enough tourists out of season to be possible sources. Florence has universities and schools for foreigners.
You may not be able to get anything better than cleaning rooms or carting luggage without Italian, as of course many of the tourists are Italian. Desk clerk would require Italian as would barrista.

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Lizzie has the right to live anywhere and seek any work in Italy, but must still get a carta di soggiorno. You must get a permesso di soggiorno per lavoro. Both must be applied for within 8 days of arrival at the local questura.

Is this right regarding the carta di soggiorno? I didn’t get mine until after a few years of living here – probably not correct, but, when I did go to get it the lady - who was one of the more clued up workers at the questura imo - told me that I needed to have the original of my work contract – I only had a copy as this was before I learnt to always go with originals and 3 copies of EVERYTHING, so in desperation after waiting for hours, I said ‘can we pretend I don’t work here then and you give me whatever carta sogg necessary’ to which she replied, if you don’t work here you don’t need a carta di sogg’…So this means that you can stay here permesso free til you start to work.
That said, I know quite a few Brits (teachers) who work here without a permessos – the ones who are here for a shorter time are often not even aware that the need it due to the EU.

Regarding jobs for Lizze and David, I think it would be good for them to try the ski resorts for the winter season – I think they’re recruiting now – Sue Fischio knows about this I think. Then maybe after do some teaching. The teaching doesn’t need Italian and I’m sure there are ski resort jobs which don’t require Italian.

Recently, they switched it so that all EU citizens get the CdiS instead of the PdiS but before, there were many more items that were needed for the application. If the person at the questura said you only need the CdiS if you work, she did not understand exactly what a CdiS is.

Although the law is due to change, as it exists I believe EU citizens must get the carta still. They don't need permission to work, but they do need registration. I was told that's what separates them from us non-EUs. We get to apply and reapply over and over for permission, and they don't need permission but still have to register so Italy always knows where they are.
Having just spent a small amount of time in Naples, I would guess things are done a bit differently, no matter what the law says.
(How can an IC train originating in Naples sit at track 15 for at last 3 hours before moving to track 17 where it then leaves one hour late? So then everyone misses his Rome train connection?)

How about good ol' teaching English? You don't need to speak Italian for that and it's steady work. Lizzie may need to get an actual job with a contract to get her carta di soggiorno though - as opposed to teaching under the table (I had to and I'm an EU citizen - or else they said I would have to get private health insurance).

Can I also vote for Rome? Not as overrun by tourists as Venice and Florence (OK there are lots of tourists but the ratio is not quite as bad as in the smaller touristy cities) but still plenty of work in tourism for foreigners. How about working at one of the "Irish" bars? They don't tend to require much Italian.

Another option would be to go to an untouristy city - maybe in the south - and teach English there. There are tons of English teachers in Rome, Florence etc but very few in smaller towns with fewer foreigners. And you may learn more Italian living in a place with fewer foreigners.

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If the person at the questura said you only need the CdiS if you work, she did not understand exactly what a CdiS is.

That's very likely. And as I said, she seemed a bit more clued up than the rest, so you can imagine what the others are like. Hopefully I'll never (EVER) have to go back there. Excpet perhaps in a nightmare.

Until you figure out where you want to land, it might be hard to pin point what options you have as all the regions/cities are different. We have folks that live all over Italy so someone will be able to steer you in the right direction. Good luck and keep us posted as to where you end up settling.

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Originally posted by Judith in Umbria:
We get to apply and reapply over and over for permission, and they don't need permission but still have to register so Italy always knows where they are.

Yeah, in theory us EU citizens should not need to apply and reapply over and over for "permission" to stay here. However, my carta di soggiorno says that it expires in 5 years time. So Ill have to go back to the dreaded questura (shudder!) in 2011 and reapply for my carta di soggiorno (kind of ridiculous since under EU law I should not need any kind of permission from the Italian government to live here but I digress).

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However, my carta di soggiorno says that it expires in 5 years time.

Mine is open ended, so thank god I am spared a return trip to the the questura. This just shows that it's the luck of the draw with permessi, depends who you meet down the questura as to how long it lasts - or so it seems at least.

Like I said in an earlier post Ramona, different cities and regions have a mish mash of rules. My carta never expires. I do not know how that happened but it just did and I count my lucky stars.

p.s. I hope to meet you when I move to Rome, what do you think?

The info that the questura gives on this is that for EU citizens,

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The carta di soggiorno is valid for five years, or the length of time related to the reason of residence. A renewal can be made at the request of the interested person, and is for an unlimited amount of time in the cases where it was issued for five years. For carta di soggiorno that was issued for the purpose of study in Italy, a renewal for each year beyond the initially foreseen period of study it will be necessary to demonstrate the participation and positive results within the course of study. In the case of a carta di soggiorno that was issued for work in the border region, it will be renewed for five years at a time.

The carta di soggiorno is a valid personal identity document for no more than five years after its issue or from its renewal. The renewal for this purpose can be made at the request of the interested person, with updated information about the place of residence and with recent photographs

For non EU,

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The carta di soggiorno does not have an expiration, but must be reconfirmed within 10 years of its issue. It is valid as an identification document for five years after its issue, after which it needs to be renewed (only for identification purposes) with the latest data on residence of the holder, as well as updated photographs.

http://www.expatsinitaly.com/arrival/cartasoggiorno.html

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In the case of a carta di soggiorno that was issued for work in the border region, it will be renewed for five years at a time.

Thanks. What does this bit mean? Border region?

Just to update you on the current eu citizen situation.
The new teachers arriving this year at the school have been told by the questura that the carte di soggiorno no longer exists and they are now able to stay and work with their british/eu passports only.
This is a change from last years intake who were all required to go to the questura for the carte.
I would still go to the questura because, as somebody else said, there is often discrepencies beteween the application of the rules here.

Thank you all for your replies, they have been a great help. As we land in Rome we may take up Ramona's suggestion and give it a go in the big city.

Working in an Irish bar and or teaching English sounds like fun. Can anyone help us as to how to apply for a post teaching English. Is it possible to do so over the internet?

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Originally posted by David & Lizzie:
Thank you all for your replies, they have been a great help. As we land in Rome we may take up Ramona's suggestion and give it a go in the big city.

Working in an Irish bar and or teaching English sounds like fun. Can anyone help us as to how to apply for a post teaching English. Is it possible to do so over the internet?

In a word - no (although you never know!) Everything works via connections here so the best way to get a job is to meet face to face. I got my eng teaching job (horrible pay but that's another story) by calling schools out of the phone book. They did not require CELTA but required some previous teaching experience. Anyway read all the other threads on Eng teaching to get the low down.

David and Lizzie, one thing you don't say is whether you ar married or not. Since Lizzie is pretty much granted the right to stay in itlay with her EU passport, once she has settled in and gotten residency in Italy, I think she could ask for you, David, to be given a "family reason" (ricongiungimento familiare) permit to stay.

Also, your job options will improve drastically once you both get some fluency with Italian. Spoken Itlaian should be enough to grant you acces to most service jobs, spoken and written Italian will open up about any kind of career.

Regarding the houseshares, you can easily find ads for such arrangements at the universities, but these usually offer only one bed. Your best option is, probably, to find an apartment to rent than put up an ad at the university to find one or two people to share. A two bedroom apartment, with bathroom and kitchen, is usually shared by four people, two in each bedroom.