By Roadjunky, Posted Sep 25, 2006
Sections: Italy Intro Italy Basic Info Meet the Italians Travel Tips Romance and Dating Work in Italy Italy Accommodation Health and Safety Transport in Italy Immigration Rome Milan Venice Bologna Verona Tuscany Lucca Pisa Sienna Florence South Italy Sardinia
 Beware of Italian 'lentocrazia'; better not let them know you exist (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8533266@N04/) |
Working in Italy
Anyone with an E.U passport can work in Italy but the bureaucrats will make you jump through lots of hoops first. La burocrazia is sometimes called la lentocrazia (lento = slow) in Italy and the civil servants are famous for wasting everyone’s time. The best thing to do in Italy is avoid the bureaucracy whenever possible by simply not letting them know that you exist.
If you don't know 'bellisimas' from your 'bollos', you can kiss your job prospects 'arrivederci' (http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaheershahid/)
Italians are keen to learn English and you can earn a living as an English teacher, earning around 1000 Euros a month. If you can build up your private students then it can be more lucrative though the real money is in teaching to the corporate world, if you can blag your way in there.
Knowing Italian is pretty vital to finding work in Italy as few speak a second language and if they do there’s a good chance it will be French or German.
If you manage to get an interview, do your best to look smart. The other Italian applicants will no doubt make you look like a tramp in comparison but they’ll make concessions knowing that you’re a foreigner and don’t know how to dress.
Try your luck and your skill busking at the piazza (http://www.flickr.com/photos/67233917@N00/)
Wherever there’s tourism there’s a buck to be made and whilst you could ask the Africans or Indians to let you sell sunglasses, kids’ toys and handbags with them, you’re better off touting your skills; the piazzas in Florence and Rome are thick with artists offering to do caricatures, selling their paintings or else busking with chalks on the sidewalk.
Another option is to shut yourself up in a library and learn all there is to know about the great artists and sell yourself as a private tour guide. Look smart, bluff whatever questions you don’t know and you could make a good living as long as the authorities don’t cotton on to what you’re up to.
Agricultural work in the south is pretty much slave labour with corrupt farmers exploiting immigrant labour but there’s apple picking in North Italy in the autumn and pay can reach around 60 Euros a day if you pick fast.
The rain banished the May heat and turned the narrow streets of Florence into death zones with umbrella prongs passing at neck-height. Confused gaggles of tourists made the pavements unpassable ...
There was a feel-good article in the Guardian the other day about laughter classes in Tehran.
God knows there’s lots to laugh about. Here’s a comic speech given by the ...
