Your Guide to Moving to Sicily 🔴 Live Q&A for Future Residents

𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲! In today’s live video, Croce and Carol Amato share their insights on what to expect when moving to Sicily, Italy.

Are you dreaming of trading your daily grind for a life of sunshine, history, and delicious food? Sicily might be your perfect match!
This stunning Mediterranean island offers a slower pace, vibrant culture, and breathtaking landscapes – no wonder it beckons so many!

But before you pack your bags, join Croce and Carol Amato, veterans of living in Sicily. They will share their invaluable insights and address some of the most pressing questions about relocating to this captivating island, from financial considerations to embracing the island’s laid-back lifestyle.

Moving To Sicily

▶️ In this live Q&A session, Croce and Carol Amato will cover a spectrum of essential topics, including:
• Cost of living in Sicily: How does the cost of living in Sicily compare to your current location? What are the essential expenses you should consider?
• Worried about relocating to Sicily for the long term: Is this a permanent move for us?
• Language considerations: What language challenges can you expect to encounter, and how can you overcome them?
• Water resources: Is water scarcity a concern in Sicily, and what measures are in place to ensure adequate water supply?
• Living near Mount Etna: How does living near Mount Etna impact daily life? Are there any safety precautions you need to take?
• Healthcare in Sicily: What is the quality of healthcare in Sicily? Are there any language barriers or cultural differences to be aware of?

Whether planning a permanent move or simply exploring the possibility, this opportunity to learn firsthand about Sicily is invaluable.

So, join us for this live Q&A session and discover the joys and challenges of living in Sicily. Let’s embark on this exciting journey and turn your dream of relocating to Italy into reality.

Sites with properties for rent and for sale: Immobiliare, Casa, Subito, Idealista

Video Transcript:

Io sono Croce e mia moglie, Carol, Amato. Yes, that’s in Italian. Welcome to the channel, guys.

We really appreciate you taking time to be with us today. I am Carol. This is Croce and today we are talking about all things Sicily, moving to Sicily.

Croce retires at the end of December, and we are going to be talking about what you need to do to be able to go to Sicily. Now, we are Italian citizens. I am a dual citizen. Croce is as well. He was born and raised in Sicily. And if you’re not an Italian citizen, it’s a totally different process. And we’re not legal experts, but we’re going to give you some tips today. So be sure to put your questions in the chat and I will monitor that.

In fact, welcome to Jessica. Welcome to Daniel; welcome everyone that’s joining.

We are appreciating you being here with us today. Now, the first thing I want to mention is that for non-EU people, for non-EU folks, the first thing you have to do is get a visa.

And that — a lot of people are under the assumption that you can come to Italy and get a visa. You cannot do that. You have to apply for a visa in your country of origin. And there are many types of visas. There are work visas, student visas, in particular circumstances, all kinds. There’s the main one we’re going to talk about today is the retirement visa, which is the elective residence visa.

And they passed this past spring the digital nomad visa where freelancers and self-employed people can apply for that visa. Now, there are a lot of, you know, stipulations about it, but you can apply for that if you’re self-employed or you’re employed by a company, and they want to send you abroad. And you can apply for that visa.

But we do have some recommendations of some experts that you can contact if you want to get particular consultation for your individual situation because everybody has a different story, right? That’s right. There are laws in place, but I’ll tell you each family, each couple, each individual has a different need.

So, the non-EU folks, first of all, you have to get your visa. That’s number one. I don’t recommend buying property until you know you can get a visa and get your residency in Italy. You can buy property. It does not automatically come with residency. Just because you can buy a property doesn’t mean that’s going to make you a resident. So, they’re two separate things.

So, and again, we’re not legal experts, but this is just our experience with having been in Italy for many years. And so we want to share some things with you today.

Put your questions in the chat. We appreciate it. Hi, Salvatore. Welcome, Pam. It’s good to have you. Hope you’re doing great. Yes. Okay, so round two for Sal. That’s great. Okay. Well, awesome. So, if you’re not an Italian citizen, the first step is getting a visa, deciding on what kind of visa, work visa, student visa, or the elective resident visa, which is the retirement visa.

And then there’s the digital nomad as well. And there’s other types as well. And you can check, I’ll tell you, a great resource that I have learned a lot. And that is Studio Legale Metta. And Nick Metta is a lawyer. He owns a law firm, and they’ve been in business for decades. They’ve been in business a very long time. They have a team of people and professionals. Of course, it’s for a fee.

But, you know, when you go online, and you read, and you search Google, and you go on consulate websites, and you piece all this information together, a lot of times it’s just hard to make sense of what order of steps you need to go through. Sometimes a little hand-holding is good. That will make it easier.

Yeah, I mean, I would definitely book a consultation. If I was in the boat of needing to get residency, needing to get citizenship, I would probably get somebody to help us. Because it’s just a lot easier if you can, if your budget can handle that.

But welcome Leticia. She is joining us from Buenos Aires. Wonderful to see you. Hello, Doug. Good to see you. I’m monitoring the chat over here. So excuse my profile, but good to have you all.

First Steps

So I wanted to talk also about the first step is the visa and you must do that in your Italian consulate, in your country, your home country, right? You can’t expect to go to Italy and get a visa there. Now, that’s the first step. Then residency and residency, it depends. It depends.

But boy, oh boy, you can get some really missed information out there. There’s some, you know, a lot of different perspectives on things. But if you go to the right source, and I would highly recommend your consulate in the state you reside.

Now, a friend was just telling us at lunch, we went to church, we had a lunch together, and now we’re home from church. But a friend was just telling us that he’s dealing with citizenship. And the consulate is in Houston, here in Texas. However, they are deferring him to Washington, D.C. I don’t know what’s happening, but after COVID, everybody’s swamped, and you may get deferred to a different office. So call, check the information for the emails, and that’s where you’re going to get the information of where you need to go, what you need to contact.

Now, visa and residency, so it’s better to make sure. Yes, and to be able to get a visa and to be able to get residency, you have to prove income. Now, this is passive income. It really doesn’t matter how many properties you own. It must be income, something coming in to show Italy that you’re not going to be a burden on the system. I think that’s why.

And I think it’s 31,000 euros for a single person. However, the authorities have leeway in their interpretation of the law. So you may hear 31,000 euros for a single person from one person, one agency, and someone else might tell you it’s more, that that’s not enough.

So it’s just the way it is. Now for a couple, it’s 38,000 euro. And then for each dependent child, on top of that, it’s 20 percent higher of whatever your total is.

It would be 20 percent more per dependent child. Now, it could be like income from rentals, but it has to show as income, passive income, not just assets and property that you own or things that you own. And the amount of that it has to show as something coming in monthly. You just want to make sure that you have enough to live there.

So that’s, no, we don’t deal with that. So we are more knowledgeable about how citizens go to Italy and get residency and our steps are much different. Let me scroll down so I don’t mix this up.

And I did mention that buying a property does not automatically give you residency. A lot of people think that, and it’s not true. Okay. So we have to establish residency when we go.

We already had residency when we were there, but we have to sign our lease agreement with the owners of the place we’re going to be living at. And we’re going to get a copy of that lease agreement. So we have to take our passports and our documents, plus a copy of the lease agreement, to prove that we have a place to stay. That we have a legal place for us to live. And take that to the Comune and then apply for residency there. And they’ll basically switch the address from the old one to the new one.

Unless they throw something in the mix because you never know what they’re doing. You never know with Italian bureaucracy. It’s infamous for being slow and difficult and many steps and unpredictable. So we’re going to be very just patient and flexible because that’s the way you have to be when you go to Sicily.

Let me check check chat here. Ciao, Benjamin. Good to see you. I hope you’re doing well. And put your questions in the in the chat.

Who to contact to rent a house? Very good question, Leticia. We recommend several websites. We found our first villa, and we can put a link in the description or in the comments when the live ends.

And by the way, guys, we’re probably going to go about 30 minutes because there’s bad thunderstorms in the area, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And so we’re probably going to cut it off at about 30 minutes.

But Croce, what are the websites that we found our rental the last time? Leticia: Idealista, Subito, Casa, Immobiliare.it. Yes, .it for Italy is the extension. So you can try those.

And they do have short stays. And if you’re not a citizen yet, you can stay 90 days in Italy and then you must leave. And those websites have short-term rentals, and they’re called seasonal, and they’re called, what’s the word? Transitorio. Okay, transitorio.

But you would look for three-month rentals, and they’re all furnished. There’s Airbnbs, there’s rentals. I mean you can go on Airbnb, but there’s also Airbnb-type rentals on those four websites.

And there are more than those. It’s not just limited to those four, right? Yeah, there’s a lot more.

But let me check chat. Idealista is a good site. Yes, Benjamin has that. You’ve been to Ortigia. Wonderful. Awesome. I have not yet. So we have a lot on our bucket list.

But I wanted to cover a few things also. Let me go down to my notes here. Okay, and Italy has permitted dual citizenship with the United States since 1992. So no need to renounce citizenship of the U.S. or anything like that. And we were married in 1981. And they changed the law. I got in very easily with the citizenship. I’m a citizen by marriage, and I never had to take a language test.

I’m fluent in the Sicilian dialect, but they do require, now let me go down here, you have to pass a language test if you’re applying for citizenship through the naturalization process or by marriage. Since 2018, everybody has to pass a language test. And oh, my goodness, it is intermediate, B1 test.

And you can find schools that actually give you a certificate. That will certify that you are prepared. And then you’ll take the test. You’ll get a certificate once you pass the test. But there are Facebook groups as well, guys.

But let’s see other questions. I’m trying to get citizenship through my mother’s line. It can be an arduous process. It really can.

How far in advance should you apply for your visa? It depends on the consulate. I would say at least six months ahead. At least six months ahead. And if you want to go through Nick Mehta at Studio Legale, yes, in Calabria, and I’ll put the link.

Let me throw that in the link, Croce. Let’s see here. Let me grab that. There’s an article he did about the elective residency visa and the permesso di soggiorno, which is a permit to stay. I’m going to copy this link, and throw it in chat so you guys can copy and paste yourselves.

There is the link. Hope it went through. Permesso di soggiorno? Yeah. All right. There we go. Did it go through? I don’t see it. I pushed the arrow. I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.

But anyway, okay. What’s the weather like in Sicily? Very similar to Texas.

Oh, I have too many characters. Let me just get you his short. Let me just get you his home site. There we go. I have too many characters. That’s why it didn’t go through.

The weather’s kind of mild. Around 40, 50 degrees right now. It is. But winters can feel a lot colder because the places are not insulated. That drove me nuts. Well, now the key is to layer with natural fibers like a cotton underclothing and then maybe wool. So I highly recommend that. But we’re going to really conserve on heating this winter because you know electric and gas, they can be pretty high.

Now, why don’t you go over some of the costs? We have a note here from our previous video where we talked about; in depth about the cost of living in Sicily. Now if you’re planning on moving, that’s one of the biggest considerations you have to think about is what it’s going to cost. What kind of a budget can you plan on? Now for us, we lived on less than $1,500 a month for a couple, and we didn’t skimp.

We didn’t scrimp or anything. We went out to eat, we went to shows, we went to concerts, we went around, we toured and took tours and things. Not a lot because I was still working, but we didn’t scrimp on anything, and we ate really well.

And we spent like $1,400 and some odd dollars for the month. So I would suggest for a couple $1,500 and most people can do that. You know, most couples can do that on Social Security. If there are two of you that have worked and have paid into social security, you can probably afford that. So that’s really good news. They can adjust to their budget.

Yes, and we even — we paid $600 for our rent. Three bedroom. Yes, three bedroom, two bath, the top floor of a big villa. It was about 1,500 square feet. But you can definitely rent for less than that in town or go down to a one bedroom, two bedroom for much less than 600. Oh, yes.

There are nice places and fully furnished. And I’ve heard some channels say that, oh, it’s rare to find, you know, a kitchen in an apartment in Italy, and they can, they, you know, to be furnished or to rent an apartment. Usually, it doesn’t come with a kitchen. That does happen. That absolutely happens. When people move house, they move their kitchen with them, the countertops, the cupboards, the appliances and everything.

But there are plenty of places that leave the kitchen, and you can rent with just the kitchen and then everything’s empty, and then fully furnished. Yes, and that applies to mostly to the local people. They have their own kitchen, and they move from one apartment to the new address. Yes, and they take with them. Yes, when they find it empty, and they purchase it for that space and then they move then they take it with them. But yeah, there are plenty of rentals. But thank you for that question.

When applying for ERV, you said apply six months before. Is there a certain amount of time once you receive the visa that you have to be in Italy? Good question.

And the answer is I do not know for sure. Check with the consulate in your area. But I know that residency, the first time we applied, it took nine months for all the paperwork to arrive and everything to go through. Nine months. So it’s pretty long. And then we never did get a visit. You know how you hear how the police comes and checks on you just make sure you’re at the residence that you applied for? They never showed up. They never showed up for us. Now, did they the first time? Did they the other time we lived in Italy? No, they never did.

Yeah, we haven’t experienced that, and we’re told that that’s going to happen. I think they just cover their bases. They just cover their bases, you know.

But let’s see. All right. In a previous video, you mentioned that you had been in contact with Alfred in Catania. Can you lay out who you have sought advice from? U.S. lawyer, accountant, Sicilian? Yes.

Thank you for the question, Doug. Alfred Zappala is in the Catania area, and he has been living there over 20 years. And I would recommend getting in touch with him and go on the website youmeandsicily.com. They have a channel. They have lots of subscribers.

They were very inspirational to us several years back, and I met with him a couple years ago as well, but he’s very knowledgeable. He’s an American, but he’s Sicilian descent. He’s an Italian citizen. He’s been living in Sicily for many years. He has a law firm in Catania, and he has a partner who speaks Italian and they have translation services and everything. So he’s very good to contact, and he’s a great guy.

He’s real personable, down to earth and very, very helpful, and he was really helpful to us. So get in touch with Alfred Zappala and the contact information is on the website youmeandsicily.com.

Let’s see if I have any other questions here. No, we have not been to Ortigia yet. I think I got that one.

What is the water situation in Sicily and is it possible to take showers daily? How often do they stop the water flow? Good question. We were going to cover the question about water.

In the summertime, it’s more prevalent, correct? When there’s more drought, and it’s hot and the sun — it is, but they have — most of the houses, they have a big container there. They keep the water full most of the time, and you can take a shower any time of the day.

Yeah, and is that rainwater? Is that rainwater or what’s the source of that? They get it filled by a company? By the local area. Okay. Yes, there are cisterns that folks — a lot of folks, you see those big blue barrels, and they’re huge.

I don’t even know how many gallon they would hold or liters. But a lot of homes have that, and you see sometimes when you see a roof, the roof skyline, and you see flat roofs and you see terraces, you’ll see a lot of these big water cisterns on top. That’s what people do.

How often it happens? The last time we lived there, it happened twice, I think. I think twice, and we pretty much know when it’s going to happen. We didn’t have the cistern where we were, and we just had buckets to be able to flush the toilet.

I know it’s not ideal. It was terrible, but it did not last long. How long? A few like several hours? Yeah, a couple hours. Yes, a few hours. So it’s doable. It’s not what we’re used to but that’s Sicily and that, I think, is going to be fine.

They’re going to — they have some things working right now to try to combat the problem. Technology and even some students, Alfred and Ezther on You, Me, and Sicily were talking about this. Students were coming up with ideas to help Sicily and combat some of the issues, socioeconomic problems, all kinds of problems. And I think that was on the list if I’m not mistaken. But that’s a great question.

Oh, our favorite part of Sicily. Oh, we had a great time. Oh, that’s from Aria. Awesome. Thank you for the question, Aria. We really had fun at Trapani. That windmill and then the museum inside. And then we had a lovely dinner at sunset after we toured the salt flats. And I bought coarse salt. I bought salt from Trapani and then used it in cooking and gave away some as gifts. That was a highlight for me.

We love the fresh seafood. Local seafood. That’s for sure. You would say that. Yeah. Croce grew up, his dad was a fishmonger when he grew up. So Croce, his dad would wake up at four in the morning and go to the ports and ride his bike sometimes, right? Yes. Or he would walk, and he would buy up the fresh seafood coming off the boats at what, three, four in the morning? Take them back and clean everything and get everything on a cart. And he would go through the byways of the town selling fish.

And he would always put aside the best for his family. So he would be done with work at noon, go home, and they would cook this big seafood feast and his family would eat; that’s how Croce grew up. Great memory.

Yeah. You grew up seven days a week eating great seafood from the Mediterranean or the Tyrrhenian Sea. Right.

But let’s see. There are so many rolling hills on Sicily. If they could pump fresh water up the hills, they would develop so much more agriculture. Isn’t that the truth? Isn’t that the truth? They — I think they’re working on some things, but yeah, I know the farmers have suffered. We’ve been praying for — we’re Christians by the way, and if you’re of faith, let us know in the comments. But we have been praying for the farmers because they really had a tough summer.

I know some were about to quit, and they almost lost everything. Olive groves have been; olive trees have been affected, all of agriculture. Lack of water. Yeah, all the agriculture has.

But anyway, okay, there are, let’s see. I love the seafood markets. Yes, we do too. We love seafood. We get it every single week. And my favorite is fresh swordfish because they’re steaks, and it’s just a clean meat and so delicious.

And people in the United States or other places, maybe just not here, but they think fish is fishy. When fish is fresh, it does not smell fishy at all. It has actually a sweet smell and so good. I think the food is one of the best things, favorite thing. Well, the people. Number one is the people for me, and then the food.

What is the situation with trash pickup in Sicily? I read that the trash is an issue for many. You know, trash pickup for us in Carini, which is a province, in the Province of Palermo, it was not a problem. Not a problem at all. They pick it up puntuale, punctual, all of the different, what do you call it? Recycling.

Recycling, and they would come by every single day at the same time. I believe in five days a week. Yeah. And they were punctual, and they never missed, and they did a good job.

The problem is the littering and the dumping. People go from the country and dump. So they — I don’t know how they get away with not having a trash bill or not being registered with the sanitation department for pickup at their house.

But they take their garbage, and they go dump it somewhere. It’s just irresponsible people. And you have irresponsible people in every country, but unfortunately, the government in Sicily has not allocated — well, they have funds allocated for that. They’re just not spending it, the funds where they should be. So there’s corruption.

And there are other reasons as well. There are many reasons, but it’s pretty sad. That breaks my heart.

And we did a video on seven harsh truths about living in Sicily. Yes, we did. Because people didn’t want the romanticized, sugar-coated view. We had always said how much we love Sicily, and we do. But they wanted to hear a balanced view and some of the negatives and some of the challenges we face so that they can have realistic expectations. And I’m sure you want that too.

So we did that video on the seven harsh truths of living in Sicily and really out of that whole list of minor inconveniences or whatever, really the only thing that actually hurts my heart is the trash issue because it’s real.

Now, and I tell people in the comments that complain that I’m complaining. And you know what? We’re just giving our experience, what we saw, what we experienced over there. And if you don’t want to hear a balanced view, then go to another channel. So I’m not going to apologize for giving the truth, but that’s the only thing that really hurt my heart.

All the other things, it’s a different culture and you just adjust, and you learn to love it. Enjoy the culture and the beauty of the country. Amen. Absolutely. Absolutely. “Better is a dinner where love is.” Yes, Proverbs 15:17. Buon appetito. Thank you for that.

Have we ever been to Caccamo? No, but a very good friend is from there, and we’re going to go. And we’re going to tour the castle. Y’all, I have such a bucket list. I’m so excited.

Yeah, and there’s less than 60 days until the end of the year. Time is flying and then January is just crunch time for us to get everything done to go.

So let me make sure I’m covering everything. If I missed your question, put it again, please, because I don’t want to — oh, what’s the main religion in Sicily? Catholicism is the main religion in Sicily. Thank you, Pam, for that question. Mitzi, what is this — okay, trash pickup.

Yeah, it is an issue as far as litter and the cleanup efforts. Now, they are putting cameras in place. They’re doing a lot to try to combat the issue. But anyway, they’re making some progress with that.

All right, let me get back to my notes so I can cover a few of the things that I had planned before we run out of time here. We have a question from Sharon. Sharon says, have you done any videos about the cost of moving overseas with your belongings?

And we have not done any videos on that because we won’t be experiencing that. Because when we moved to Italy in 2006, when we went over when your father died, we decided to take four big luggages and then mail by USPS a bunch of boxes of like clothing and shoes and books and personal items and mementos and everything. Because we wanted to feel like we were at home. So I mailed tons of boxes. I don’t know how many. I think it was less than 12. I think between 8 and 10. Oh, my word, very expensive.

They arrived two months later, crushed, you know, not broken into or stolen, but very crushed, very bad condition. And when I opened those boxes, there was nothing that I really wanted. So I really regretted going through the effort. And I thought, well, I got to take a piece of home. I don’t want to feel homesick. I don’t want to feel that.

But you know what? In my opinion — and I’m born and raised American. I’m a dual citizen by marriage for Italian citizenship. But the quality of things you can get in Italy is so good, and it’s so special that you might as well just save the money on the shipping and buy over there. Of course, family pictures and stuff, but as far as clothes and anything for your house or whatever, I would not even bother with shipping it, packing a big container with furniture, and moving house. I just can’t even fathom that.

There’s so much good quality stuff in Italy, and it’s a new fresh beginning anyway. So why take your house and the things from America and take it over there? I don’t understand, but you may have reasons you may want to do that. But that’s Sharon’s question.

And is your rental unit furnished or did you purchase everything online? We always will use a furnished place. Even right down to the pots and pans, olive oil sitting on the counter, coffee pot on the counter, everything. Everything is available. Yeah, we have to just go buy groceries. And so we’re really excited.

Now, the next one is from Diana, and on a different post she asked, Do you have your Italian driver’s license? The answer is no and neither does Croce, even though he was born and raised there. Your first driver’s license was here in the U.S. Yes. So our Italian family have told us that it is difficult to get. It’s a difficult test. So if and when my AAA international driver’s license that I got — I’m going to get for $30 right before we go. Right, for a full year.

For a full year. If that ever becomes not enough or not accepted, because we’ll renew it every time we come back to visit our kids. If that becomes unacceptable, then I’ll join a Facebook group, pay somebody to help me prepare because I don’t speak Italian. I speak Sicilian, and it’s tough. Right, so far it’s not been an issue. It’s not been an issue.

So AAA international license, and I’ve even heard that the U.S. driver’s license is good for a year, but I’m going to get the international. We’re going to go ahead and get the international, pay $30 each. But that was a good question.

And then I love the old Italian furniture. Yes, if you go on the video that we did of our home tour, it’s the cost of living in Sicily, and see our home tour. You’ll see the living room. Oh, my word. I love the salone, the salone. How do you say that? Living room. Well, the living room, but the parlor. Yeah, I couldn’t think of it in English. Salone is like a parlor, and it was beautiful. Oh, my. And then marble floors. I just enjoy it so much.

But we mostly spent time in the other room where it was more comfy and cozy and just — yes, snuggle up with a blanket in the winter. Anyway, okay. So Equi-training asked at a different time, will you do a video of your rental when you get there? Absolutely. We’re going to do a home tour. And Croce will be retired. I’m going to keep on working. Those are our plans and we have a beautiful view from the veranda. I can’t wait.

I’m going to go fishing. Oh, we have to get equipment. Oh, my goodness. That’s going to be fun. Let’s go fishing. Fisherwoman. Yeah, when we lived in Pensacola, Florida, well, we were there 21 years, and we had tackle, we had fishing rods. And we’d go fishing and Croce caught many a shark. And his father taught him how to make shark soup.

And yes, and you caught a couple birds? Oh my, you’re not supposed to tell that on the live. Yes. One time we were on the bridge fishing, and I wanted to get red snapper or black snapper. They were running at the time. And he calls me the wild fisherwoman because when I cast, I went way back, way back like this.

And we were on the bridge and there were two bridges and my line hooked a pelican on the other bridge across the highway. Oh, my goodness. In mid-air. In mid-air? Oh, it was mid-air. Yeah. Oh, my word. So I was screaming and yelling at the people, help this bird, help this bird. Yes. Oh, my, he got detangled. It didn’t hurt him at all, but it traumatized me.

And then I also caught a dock. One time I caught a dock. I thought it was a stingray because they’re very resistant, and I was pulling and pulling. Anyway, our fishing stories are for another time. We had a good time. We had a great time. Yes.

How was your childhood in Sicily? Emily wants to know. Oh, wonderful. Just wonderful with being in a family of five and our parents take care of us. And be with our uncles and aunts and cousins and get together and growing up in a good home, and a lot of great memories.

Yes. And really enjoy that. Big extended family. Lots of memories playing with your cousins in the alleyways, soccer and stuff. Yeah. Wonderful.

We did — he did a video. He narrated the whole thing. He tells you about his childhood and that video is called — the thumbnail, the picture says Sicily Is Amazing. Yes. And so check that out because Croce shares about his childhood, and he narrates the whole thing. So he doesn’t like to talk much, but he does sometimes. So you can check that out. Yes. Fishing stream. Yeah. We should do that.

Well, guys, if there are no other questions, I’m going to answer one more here. How did you get a transcription job? A lot of people ask me how I can work all over the world, and they’re interested in finding out what I do, what kind of work I do from home. And how they can start it as well. With the development of voice recognition software, AI, and all of that — I just realized we’re not even in the shot very well. Sorry guys.

Anyway, years ago I lost an account. I started with medical transcription to begin with, and I was on the Sacred Heart Emergency Room in Pensacola, and I worked that job. And because of voice recognition software, the doctors totally did away with the transcriptionist, and they started dictating their notes.

So that was amazing way back when. That was a couple decades ago, several decades ago. And then with the development of AI and all of this great software these days, which is great. I use tools like that, but there aren’t a lot of new transcription jobs.

So the folks that have been in it for a long time will pretty much be secure. And even if it goes away completely, and they get to a point where they can decipher every word spoken, every accent, which I doubt will ever happen. But if that were to come to pass, we would be editors. We would probably be editors and clean things up.

But I wouldn’t recommend it. I really wouldn’t recommend it. There are plenty of companies out there that are offering jobs, but they don’t pay anything. And I understand that you have to pay your dues and get your feet wet. And you have to be in it for a while before you expect a lot of money. But I wouldn’t recommend it right now. So that’s that question.

Let me see if there’s anything else that came in. I’m late tuning in. Why did your family move to America? Thanks. Love you two. Thank you, Valerie. That’s so sweet.

We came back for family reasons. There were several reasons. So we wanted to be near our family. We needed to be near our family at that time. And so we came back. But now that Croce is of retirement age, and you know the racket Social Security is, you pay into it for years, and they keep pushing the date back and back and back for you not to be penalized to take it early. Well, he’s 66, and in December, he’ll be full retirement age, so he won’t take a penalty for drawing Social Security.

So we wanted to wait until then to be wise and do things properly. But I’m going to continue to work from home just as I can. And you know, the budget over there, you don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars in your retirement account to be able to live in Sicily.

So we didn’t cover a whole lot today about what it’s like, but I’ll tell you what, the people are warm. It’s beautiful. The landscape is beautiful. That’s nothing you don’t know already. And the food is so wonderful. And what I love is how close everybody is. Everybody takes time to talk to one another. There’s a lot more interaction.

And we’ve said it many times, people work so they can live over there. They don’t live to work. And not everybody is like that in this country, but there’s more of a drive to, you know, keep up with the Joneses and accumulate things. Not rush for anything. Yeah. The culture is different. Totally. Culture, slow pace. Slow pace.

And somebody that’s moving from this country to Italy or a European country, they’re going to find out it’s totally another level of living. Another level. Much less stress. Oh, my word.

Except when you go to an appointment to do something with the bureaucracy. But then you learn to chill. You learn to chill and just, okay, we’re in Sicily. It’s all right. Just go with lower expectations. This is going to take, you know, two months. Oh, it took only two weeks. Great. You know, so just adjust your expectations, and you’ll be good.

But you guys never have to go on vacation. That’s true, Benjamin. Oh, my word. Isn’t that true? Now, we do want to go to Slovenia. We have dear friends that are missionaries to Slovenia, which is a European country right across from Italy. In fact, it borders Italy. Yes. And we’re going to go there, and we’ve already got tickets. We’ve already got credit with Ryanair. So we’re going to use that. And so we’re going to visit them in a different country.

We would love to go to Israel. Right now it’s not possible, but in the future, we want to go to Israel. We do want to visit other European countries, but Sicily, Italy, we haven’t seen a lot. You’ve been to all the major cities. You’ve been to Florence and Turin and Milan and everywhere. Right. And with the European Union, it’s not very expensive to travel.

No, it isn’t. And with a European passport, you can just go freely across all those borders. So it’s really exciting.

But if you have questions, let us know. We will answer them in the comments after the live has finished. It’s been a real joy to see y’all here today.

Okay, Mitzi, let’s see. Are you able to own a vehicle there and keep renewing the AAA license? We already bought a car, Mitzi. We bought, what is it called again? Oh, the Toyota Yaris. And we paid 3,000. And it’s a good little car.

And I’m telling you what that thing runs on diesel. And you could go all month for 70 euros. And even though diesel is more expensive in Italy, because of the longevity, because of the economy, or what do you call, because of the efficiency of the vehicle, you get much more out of it. So it’s actually cheaper to drive in Italy, even though the gas is like triple what we pay here. It’s amazing.

You could — our budget for gas, (we didn’t go over our budget.) Our budget for gas is 30% cheaper in Sicily. We paid 70 euros a month, 70 euros. And car insurance was 75. That’s something we’re going to shop around. We already have your brother thinking about it because we paid $75 a month or 900 for the year. And that was too much. We’re going to shop around. We can get a national company for much less than that.

Cell phone is $16 a month. We have a video guys that talks about how you can keep your U.S. number and get an Italian number. So you can get those two-step authentication. And we want to keep our U.S. number. We just do. So we have a video that shares the full cost of having two U.S. numbers and two Italian numbers, and keeping it all, and easily switching back and forth. So check out that video of the cell phone, how to use your — keep your number and use your cell phone abroad.

But it’s been fun. Thank you so much for joining us. And let us know if you have any comments. And if you haven’t done so, please like and subscribe for more videos. Because we have videos coming out each and every week.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye.