Possible move to Italy information needed...........Please!!

[jmg1]

I am considering moving to Italy for a year and staying if it works out. As some of you know I am a single Dad with 3 children under five and 2 dogs. I have Pet Passports for the Dogs.
I need help/advice on oraganising the following:

1. Recommendations on which part of the country to go to and how to find a 5 or 6 bedroom house to Rent for one year. Rental about £2k per month.

2. Two people to provide practical help, like au pairs who could live in, who can speak italian.

3. Best way to start learning Italian before I go, I am not good at languages!

Thank you in advance.

lol re dogs! at leastt hey are sorted!

OMG - you are very brave, but wow what an experience and how good for the children to be able to pick up bits of another langauge. No advice, but am very jealous - all those pasta, wine and Italy is so beautiful!

my mum went to Italy as a nanny (she was based in Florence and Cortina D'Ampezzo - ski)

The people she worked for were very wealthy and all their Italian staff had limited but useful English, enough to warn mum that she was standing on a snake anyway...
I'd contact a UK nanny agency, they may have someone who speaks Italian or is a native bi lingual who could help you settle in for a few months. double as a childminder too. Over there put the two younger girls into Montessori Nursery, your lovely little lad can toddle off to school. Kids adapt brilliantly esp under 5's.
Being a child is a universal language.
Shall check with my Mum, she may know someone suitable too...
As for learning it, if you cannot do the usual ways quickly bets way is too buy a phrasebook and learn one new phrase a day...
Basta!!! means stop, enough (ie at the kids) short for abastanza.. I think...
As for where to go... Oh gosh don't tempt me to start looking..

Can't offer any advice but am interested in people's views too as also considering a move there. Umbria is lovely. I'm hoping to go to Lake Garda in 2 weeks time so will let you know what that's like. The only thing I do know is that there are condensed language courses, usually 3 months part time I think. With regard to au-pairs, The Lady magazine is the place to advertise usually. There are also alot of agencies listed in there too. hth

HOw exciting!!!

I forgot to say we will need to be near to Bi-Lingual Schools + Nurseries

btw there are apparently a fair amount of
ex-pats in Tuscany so imagine there will be a few international schools. Spacemonkey may be able to tell you more.

Go for it jmg1 -
rome has lots of international schools - but don't know about house rental. Could a relocation agency help as you don't speak italian (yet!) I saw an italian thread here last week perhaps post there to get info from some italian mumsnetters? Plus contact consulate & see if they can point you in direction of good agencies or adverts for houses.
Language will come very quickly when you're there especially with having children who are like sponges & will be teaching you!! (even if they're little)
Would recommend a trip over to checkout area you choose, get local paper...
Good luck & all the best

Jmg, Spacemonkey's mum lives in Italy, she may be able to advise you somehow.Do you want me to ask her to post?

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piffle, where is Montessori Nursery?

Lou, yes if that is ok.

KS, I have my own UK based business but where I live does not really matter for the business. At the moment I work mostly from home and go into London sometimes, if we are in Italy and I obviously could not go to London so often it would not matter. I can use Agents to take care of that side of the business.
Re: city or country, don't really mind anymore.
I have just found out that the house we live in could get about £2.5k to £3k per month after taking 10% off for agents fees so that is roughly what I would pay in Italy.
Thanks for the link will take a look at that site later. Do you know if the site has info on finding potential Italian Au Pairs?

< hi ks!>

I remember my friends in Rome (who were Italian) saying that it is dead easy to find good au-pairs/nannies because that's what nearly everyone does, there's very little day-to-day use of nurseries for babies and young children. Not much practical help, but vaguely encouraging.

The BBC do quite a good course called Buongiorno Italia here that starts you off with basic but useful Italian, where-is-the-bank as opposed to the-pen-of-my-aunt stuff.

jmg1

There is a list of some International Schools in Italy here although there may well be more as these are only the ones which subscribe to the International Baccalaureate programme. Not all would cater for little ones but they'd at least give you a feel for possible areas and might be a good contact point for bilingual or English speaking nursery schools, availability of au pairs, suitable property etc in the vicinity.

As a side note we also let out our house in UK and pay 15% management fee (+vat) to the Rental company, let alone maintenance costs, so make sure you budget carefully.

hth and good luck

Hi jmg1. I am actually deciding whether I want to move to France or Florida....I have two kids under 5 and am moving for their sake, but I also have a dog(Bichon Frise...white ball of fluff). Anyway, just wondering what doggy passports were. Never heard of that before. Does that mean they do not have to go into quarantine??

ttfn x

Sorry, that link now won't just select the Italian schools unless you order by country and scroll although I'd got a summary before ! There is another site here which may be more user friendly.

2wildbabies, Yes no quarantine for the dogs. Basically you get the dogs vaccinated against rabies, the dogs also have blood tests and boosters later. It is called the Pet Travel Scheme I know it covers most of Europe and I think other Countries are joining the scheme.

ks, where did you live when you were in Italy?

ooh good choice of country jmg, Italy's great

my mum lives in Umbria - it's beautiful but you might want to be nearer the coast with children. I'll ask her when I speak to her next. Also my sister has just come back from Piemontese and Tuscany so I'll ask her too!

Michel Thomas Italian Course is fantastic. You'll be speaking proper sentences in a matter of days.

jmg1, hi. Being half italian, I would highly recommend italy. My parents have several properties there and we go frequently. They are very child friendly and I don't think you'll have any trouble finding au pairs etc. I would suggest heading no further north than tuscany. I saw someone advertising a house in tuscany recently that sounded great. I think it was here under vacation rentals. I could certainly get names of people in Cortona (tuscany) and/or Rome for you. If you plan to communicate with the uk by internet, you should check that the house that you choose has dsl already available and hooked up. Phone service in italy is terrible and I've heard lots of horror stories about promises of dsl that never arrived.

jmg.....We moved to Italy last year and opened a restaurant.....we love it and ds is SO happy here. We live in a tiny village in Mensano, Tuscany and it is beautiful.

If you want any info then contact me directly. I would probably be able to find you a house here as a friend of mine does that for a living here.

The kids will love it and will pick up the language easily.....you, however, may not....as I havent either!!!!!!!!