This year, in an unprecedented leap – namely, because I have worked in a traditional employer-employee setting since I was 16 so the thought of not obtaining a regular pay cheque was pretty daunting – my wife and I decided to take a year to ourselves, leave work behind and spend time abroad. We are living in Italy, primarily in the south of Italy where we plan to someday own a second home. We are enamoured with Italy, its buildings, its cuisine, its wine and as land-locked Canadians…its proximity to the sea. Collectively, we have travelled to Italy on vacations 10+ times, but we wanted a more authentic experience before committing to purchasing a property and making Italy our retirement goal. We also wanted to experience a non-touristy Italy, deep in the wild, wild west of Puglia – affectionately known as the “heel of the boot”.
In considering our plan to move, we had a laundry list of questions we hoped to answer: What is Italian life like in the winter? What do Italians do all day? How easy is it to do household tasks in Italy such as cooking meals, doing laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping? What size of town or city do we need to live in to satisfy our adventurous nature? What does it cost to live daily life in Puglia? Will the grocery stores have proper taco ingredients (just in case they didn’t, we brought some taco seasoning packets)?
So, a few months into our trip, we have already concluded our basic research and I thought I’d share some observations on Italian life from our North American perspective. These are a few things that we have taken notice of so far that you might find of interest as well.
winter life
I can’t speak to the beautiful winters they have up north in Italy, but I imagine skiing in the Italian Alps, attending the Venetian Carnival and staying cozy in a mountain cabin are right up there as top experiences. Life in Italy in the south is a bit different. For starters, it’s not nearly as cold. When we arrived in January it was a balmy 13 degrees Celsius (55 Fahrenheit) versus a typical -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) in Canada. Our beautiful stone house, however, was frigid, as in we could see our breath indoors at every hour of the day, at least until the fireplace was running and taking the chill out of the air. Natural gas is quite expensive here from what we’ve experienced, so pellet stoves or wood fireplaces are frequently used as a heat source. Compared to the HVAC heating system to which we were accustomed back home, a bedroom that could moonlight as a meat locker took a bit to get used to when temperatures outside dropped on cooler days. Thankfully, by mid-February, the south heats up enough that we thick-skinned Canadians can chill on the beach in yoga pants basking in the 16 degrees Celsius (60 Fahrenheit) sun.
what's on the menu?
Our preference for the south of Italy is, in part, driven by the cuisine. You won’t find a lasagna or spaghetti bolognese on the menu; rather, in Puglia, the most common meals are pizza, pasta with seafood and fish. The diet is a Mediterranean one. In the grocery stores we can buy lots of fresh fish, poultry and an incredible variety of cured pork (prosciutto, speck, pancetta, etc). If we feel nostalgic for one of our staple foods from Canada ーe.g. tacos with vegan ‘ground round’, tofu stir fry, wedge salads ㄧ it’s doable, we just need to peruse a few grocery store chains looking for variety. Our tiny town has three grocery stores, various options for fruit and vegetables, a weekly market for fresh local products, bakeries, a wine shop and a convenience store (tabaccheria). If we can’t find something specific, we go on a mission to another town with a grocery chain known to have the goods. Conad, Dok and Todis seem to cater to a greater variety of products you’d see in a North American grocery chain. Canadians will also appreciate that unlike our heavily regulated alcohol sales, Italy stocks their grocery stores, tobacco shops, take out restaurants and, of course wine shops (enoteca) with a wide variety of wine, beer and spirits. So, when we’re picking up our chicken for the evening meal, a 3€ bottle of vino can also make it in the cart.
Operating hours
We learned long ago on a trip to the tiny island of Procida, on an excursion through the Amalfi Coast, that hours of operation in smaller centres in Italy can vary widely. I distinctly remember a shopkeeper was closing up his tiny grocery store around 11:00am when we walked by. We asked in our broken Italian, “a che ora aperto?” (loosely “what time do you open?”) and received a reply in English “ahh, okay, one…eh…two” as the shopkeeper tilted his hand indicating the times provided were an approximation. Basically, he was saying: I’ll open up when I’m back and the shop is open. Cool. We completely appreciate a business’ needs to justify expenses versus profit. Especially in tourist off-season, there is no need to be open all day or keep regular hours. Locals will come buy your goods when they see you are open, or, I guess, they can call you to ask. In the vast majority of cities and towns we’ve been to in Puglia, operating hours are usually 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning until noon or 1:00 in the afternoon. Then they close and reopen around 4:30 or 5:00pm for a few hours. Sundays nothing is open except the tabaccheria, coffee shop and some restaurants in the evening. What’s going on from midday to 5:00 in the evening when nothing is open? Nap time (riposo), an extended lunch, time with family, wine o’clock, we really are not 100% certain, as unaccustomed to sleeping during the day, we are out on bikes, hiking, navigating the bus or train system or watching the ocean while time passes. These extended closing hours either explain or further confuse the incredible speed at which Italians drive. Either they are booking it to get somewhere before the shop doors close or to get home for a home cooked lunch and riposo, revitalizing them for a few more hours of work.
All this to say – it’s been a short time, we’re largely over any culture shock, and are still whole-heartedly convinced the south of Italy is our jam! By exploring, asking questions, being really, really patient, and going with the flow, we have settled into our new dolce vita quite nicely.
Stay tuned for more musings to come as we continue to embrace Italian living.