Question Answer For Retiring In Sicily Italy

Croce and Carol Amato share their insights on living and retiring in Sicily. Here, you can ask general questions about moving to, living in, or Retiring in Sicily.

Sicily, with its breathtaking coastlines, rich historical heritage, and inviting climate, might just be your perfect retirement destination. This beautiful island offers an exceptional quality of life at a cost that’s often less than that of many Western countries.

Whether you’re drawn to the vibrant cities or the serene countryside, Sicily promises a lifestyle that’s tranquil and deeply fulfilling, offering a perfect balance for your retirement years.

Join us for a live stream, during which Croce and Carol Amato, seasoned residents in Sicily, will address your questions about making this enchanting island your home.

From understanding the cost of living to adapting to local customs and navigating the slower pace of island life, they’ll share invaluable insights and personal experiences.

Take advantage of this chance to learn firsthand about retiring in Sicily. Tune in, ask your questions, and discover if this stunning island could be the next chapter in your retirement journey.

▶️Video Chapters:
00:00 Retiring In Sicily Italy
01:31 Language and Integration
03:50 Cultural Experiences
08:22 Wildfires in Sicily
10:00 Community Life in Sicily
15:20 Croce’s Retirement Plans
18:07 Mafia in Sicily
18:50 Dinner and Safety Experience
19:04 Learning Italian from a Distance
20:44 Antiquing in Palermo
22:46 YouTube Course and Retirement Plans
24:16 Home Tour and Rental Details
29:14 U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate
30:45 Sicilian vs. Northern Italian Culture
36:19 Resources for Moving to Sicily and Legal Steps for Establishing Residency in Italy
39:19 Networking with Expats in Sicily
40:15 Process for Obtaining Italian Citizenship
43:44 Foreign Tax Exemption for U.S. Citizens in Italy

Retiring In Sicily Italy

All things Sicilian, and Sicily, for living in Sicily, moving to Sicily, and retiring in Sicily. Welcome! Croce and Carol here. Thanks for joining us.

Yes, we are really looking forward to covering topics, Q&A, whatever you all want to talk about. And we are a little nervous, not going to lie, because this is our very first live. That’s right.

But yeah, so anything can happen, you know, you can’t edit and go back and do a replay, so. But we wanted to come out and meet you all and give you a chance to get to know us a little bit better. And topic videos are great, but this is going to be a chance for you to ask questions and get to know us.

And we’re going to share our personal plan. We are going to be retiring in Sicily. Croce is counting down the days.

We lived in Sicily before. We moved in 2022. And well, actually before that, we lived in Sicily when your father died.

We went and took care of your mother. That was in 19 — or 2006. Yeah.

And then that was not — we didn’t stay very long because Croce’s sister was able to care for his mom and stay there. But we moved in 2022 and came back to Texas, to the United States for family reasons. But now Croce is ready to retire.

He’s getting ready to apply for Social Security and full retirement age coming up here in a few months. And so we’re really excited. So let us know your questions, but we wanted to cover a few topics today.

Language and Integration

To start off, we want to talk about language. Now, many of you don’t have the chance to live in an Italian family or be around Italians, but if you do, try to make yourself not speak English. Try to learn the language.

Now, if you’re considering moving, living there or retiring there, you can use Google Translate. Absolutely. It’s a great app and even has the camera feature where you can read a menu, and it’ll tell you what it is in English.

So that is extremely helpful. It is really, really great. But if you want to be a part of the community and get to know the locals, you’re going to have to make an effort to learn the language.

Now, I do not speak Italian. I speak the Sicilian dialect. Yep.

And I remember the last time I went to the dentist, I said, excuse me, in a Sicilian dialect, I was telling the people in the office, the front office, I said, excuse me, I don’t speak Italian (and I’m saying this all in dialect), but I speak the dialect. Is that okay? Are we going to be fine? You’re all going to understand me? And they said, oh, Signora, perfectly fine.

You know, no problem at all. No problem whatsoever. Yes.

And they said, oh, you sound just like a native, so. And I grew up — you know I kind of finished growing up with Croce’s family. Because I was 16 when we met. I befriended his sister, his sister, Maria, and her their two daughters moved to where we were, and I helped tutor them after school.

So a little backstory, we befriended — I befriended his sister first. So I was around the language a lot and picked up a lot. So I was 16, 17 when I got to know the family, your mom and your dad and your sister.

And so I learned to speak Sicilian dialect in the family setting. Of course, out and about in Italy and, you know, proper, the proper language is Italian and that’s what’s written. That’s what the news — you know, the news folks speak on TV. Everybody uses it in the stores when you go shopping.

But if you can only speak dialect, it’s not going to be a problem. All right. So Croce — you learned it pretty well.

I’m telling you. Thank you. Like a Sicilian.

Like a Sicilian. Well, I, yeah, when I was at the dentist, they couldn’t believe it. They kept saying — in fact, the dentist called two of his associates in to listen to me speak because I guess I have the exact accent.
Because the different towns in Sicily have a different accents and sometimes different root words depending on what part of the island you’re from, right? So it was really cool.

And it made me feel so good that my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, and your brothers and sisters taught me so well that I was accepted. And even though I was a straniera, a stranger in their land, an American, I was accepted because I learned the language. So I do want to encourage you all to learn the language. Make an effort.

There’s a lot of apps, Duolingo, all kinds of things you can use to learn the language at the place you’re going to.

But if you’ve just joined us, welcome. We are Croce and Carol Amato. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. We are talking about living, moving, and retiring in Sicily, all things Sicilian.

So leave your questions in the chat, and we’ll do our very best to answer them. Now, one thing I do want to say, we’re not going to cover anything about legal advice or tax information. We can share our personal experience with you, but we’re not going to give advice because we’re not licensed realtors.

We’re not licensed public accountants. No, and you’re not a lawyer, but we can give some recommendations of folks you can get in contact with if you are interested in moving to Sicily. So let us know if you want that information and we will be able to give that to you.

Okay. Welcome, Pam. Thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, there’s Sarah, Three Little Potters. You need to check out her channel.

Ah, that’s something she says, say something for us in the dialect. [Carol speaks Sicilian/Italian.]

Well, that was a little bit of Italian mixed in.

So bear with me. I just said I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve never done a live. [Croce speaks Italian.] Now, that was full Italian.

She wanted the Sicilian example, but that’s okay. When he was little, he came to the United States, and it was a huge difference. Yeah.

Cultural Experiences

Yes. Yes. I was a teenager come over in this country with my dad and my mom.

Definitely ultra shock moving in a big city. Brooklyn, New York. Yeah.

Came from a little town. No traffic light in my own town. Maybe one stop sign on the main road with all the traffic.

Quite a change for me and being in a big city and the tall buildings and being adapted and the culture is totally different. As a teenager, that was quite a change. Yes.

I know it was a shock. Well, that’s a culture shock for you when you came to America. Think about me when I went to Sicily for the first time. It was an incredible experience.

Because your father had just died, and it was a very sad time for the family, but for me to experience a funeral and mourning and family members and just everything in Sicily, it was incredible. The difference, I mean, you could feel, you could actually physically feel the darkness and the sadness and the oppression.

It was terrible. We went — we walked through the streets, little alleyways as a family. And everybody’s in black and no makeup on. And everyone lines the streets to watch the procession go through and then there’s a band playing. It was just incredible.

People were on their balconies to just pay their respects to your dad. He was a very respected person in Carini, Sicily. So that was a really poignant memory for me way back in 20- let’s see 2006.

Wildfires in Sicily

GNTHR has a question. Okay. Let’s see. Gunther has a question. How was the situation with regards to water usage and maybe wildfires? That is a great question. Thank you for that.

Wildfires in the summertime are a pretty regular occurrence in Sicily, and they do a fantastic job of using seaplanes. In fact, we used to sit on our veranda and watch them go to the sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, pick up loads of water and then the planes would dump and put the fires out. But because it’s so dry, to be honest, right now it’s pretty common.

I don’t know if there’s an uptick or not. I know there’s a drought and the farmers are suffering and going through a really difficult time. We’ve been praying for the farmers.

I know some YouTubers that are farming, and they’re having a hard time. So we’re just praying for them. But right now we keep our pulse on it a little bit.

In fact, if you go to the post tab on our channel, go to the home channel, and then when you see the word Posts, click on that and there’s pictures there. And about three or four days ago, I posted a picture of a wildfire in Carini, and I posted a link for a satellite update. So you can check out that link and see where all the wildfires are.

Well, significant fires, not little ones, but significant fires in Sicily and Italy from that link that shows a satellite imagery of Sicily and Italy. So you can keep abreast of that. But thank you for that question.

Sicily by walk. Hello. Y’all need to check out his channel. In fact, tell me your name, put your name in the chat. He’s a Paisano. He’s from Carini, Sicily, and he started a channel a little while ago.

And his viewpoint is he does videos walking and he has some really cool videos. He just did one of the mall, which I love to shop at. I love the stores there.

In fact, as soon as we go, we’re going to the mall and get a surge protector and everything else and monitor for my computer and get all our stuff set up. But please tell me your name. No, no. The situation about water supply is better as it rained today a lot.

Thank you for that update. That’s great news. Oh man, that is really good. Giuseppe. Okay. Nice to meet you. Piacere. Nice to meet you.

And we’re going to have to get together at Bar Battia, right? In Pietro’s bar near the castle. Corso Umberto. Corso Umberto.

We’re going to meet you, Giuseppe. We’ve got a date to meet and then we’re going to look at property and stuff with him. So check out his channel Sicily by walk on YouTube. And it’s great to see you.

All right. Let’s see. Please post the app of the Italian fires. Grazie. Okay.

Community Life in Sicily

Let’s see if I can go do that. Croce, you can — why don’t you cover connecting with the locals and where they can do that, and everything? Well, basically the people, the town, they connect in the main square daily, and they chat what’s going on and daily stuff and in Sicily and around the world and a lot of update as well. And a lot of the shopping going on in the early morning.

They go each individual stores to buy the meat to the meat market or the fruit to the fruit store and so on. And that’s the daily life pretty much. And everybody gathers at the square, nd it’s not as busy as it used to be years gone by, decades in the past, right? Not as much.

But you still find the locals there and you find out the news and what’s going on and how people are doing. It’s amazing. I love that old world way of communicating.

You just meet in the square in the morning and get the low down. I love it. Welcome, Doris.

I put the link for you for the satellite images. Thank you so much. Thank you, Evelyn.

Welcome. Good to see you. If you have any questions, let us know, but we did want to talk about another couple of things.

Let’s see here. Yes, I covered it’s okay to only speak the dialect.

The app is great, but you’re going to need to learn the language because you need to be a part of the community. If you’re thinking about living in Sicily and retiring there or just moving, you need to be a part of the community. And I get it.

You know you’ll be out of your comfort zone, and you want to gravitate towards expat communities with just English speakers. I get it. It’s not wrong to go to an expat community or to meet, you know, for a meal with English speakers.

You need to hear your own language once in a while. Because it gets kind of heavy when you’re constantly doing the work of translating from Italian to English in your brain and then speak, you know, think about what you’re going to say. So it’s a lot of work, and it’s a little bit exhausting. So you need a little bit of a break with the language. And you can go meet up with your English speaking friends wherever they may be from and that’s wonderful.

But as far as living in an expat community, I would suggest you don’t. I would suggest you just immerse yourself into the local communities with Italians, Sicilians. You’ll find they’re very warm, right? Definitely.

Yeah. And people will have you over for a cup of coffee and get to know you and welcome you in. Now, you’ll need to make connections, right? Right.

And it’s a day of life in a small town, small community. There are people who know each other, and they’re very warm and welcome and very friendly. Yes.

Now the dentist that I went to when I had a molar pop off, or a cap popped off of my back molar, and I needed to get into the dentist right away. Well, what did we do? We called your brother, and we said, “Who do you recommend?” You know so if you don’t know anybody at all, you know, you can go online and do searches that way. But it would be good to make some friends at the local coffee shop, which is called a bar. And you probably already know that, but the bar is a cafe, you know, over there.

So go to the local bar and ask for recommendations if you don’t know a soul, and they will be more than glad to give you their favorite people, their favorite doctor or dentist or whatever. But it’s exciting. Now we have a long list of things to do for our retirement.

Croce’s Retirement Plans

And if you’re just joining us, thank you. We’re talking about living in Sicily, moving to Sicily, and retiring in Sicily today. And Croce is getting ready to retire.

So let’s talk about your plans to retire. You’re going to retire the end of December. The end of December. Right. You’ve been working how long? Since how old? Since a teenager. Teenager? Yes.

17 years old. And you started working in Sicily, right? I worked somewhat in Sicily, a few jobs here and there. You worked as a butcher? As a butcher, right.

And where else? I worked as a painter. A painter? Yes. Yes.

And then after I came over to the United States, I wanted to learn how to make pizza. And somebody introduced me to this man that was looking for help. And I told him that I wanted to learn how to make pizza.

He had a small pizza shop in downtown Manhattan, New York. And I didn’t know much English at all. Barely nothing.

And live in Brooklyn and take the train daily. Train to go to downtown Manhattan. And late morning and come home late at night.

And just was a daily thing for me to do that. And that’s where I learned how to make pizza. And I remember one instance when I went home, and I missed the exit.

And I got myself — I got lost completely. Not much English. And instead of being home by nine o’clock, I was arrived by midnight.

That was pretty bad. Oh, my word. Were you scared? I was a little scared.

I mean, pretty much not knowing the language. And in the section, I end up on the train to Coney Island. Pretty bad section.

But thank God I was safe and sound. And I went home. My mom, she was out of her mind (with worry).

I was worried about it. I can imagine. And if y’all want to hear more about our story, you can go to the thesicilianlife.com and click on the About tab.

And you can read about our story and see pictures of us when we were young and in the pizzeria and everything. But if you’d like to know more about us, go into the blog. And I do have all the videos up there too.

And there’s other information there too. So thesicilianlife.com.

Mafia in Sicily

So let’s see what other questions we have. You’re here in Germany. People are always warned about the mafia in Italy when we say we want to move there. Your thoughts? Great question. Well, no doubt the mafia exists.

It’s definitely a real thing. Is it visible to us? Do we see any evidence of it? Absolutely not. None.

I mean, we know it exists. It exists everywhere. And they say Sicily is the original place for the — you know, but they’ve done a lot of anti-mafia campaigns.

Dinner and Safety Experience

And so we don’t see any evidence at all. We feel safe when we’re out and about. We were out late to eat because here — or in the United States, you know, we eat early there.

They don’t even start till 8:30 or so. And it’s spend a couple hours around the table, 10:30 to 11 o’clock. You’re done with dinner and walking back to the car out late at night.

We feel completely safe. So thank you for the question. That’s a good question.

All righty. Where — down, down. Okay.

Learning Italian from a Distance

Right here. Right here. Other than being in speaking Italian with locals, what have you found to be the best way to learn Italian from a distance? Get around somebody that speaks it, and you got to get comfortable with making mistakes.

Right. I mean when we were in Calabria at your sister’s for Christmas last year or the year before, I felt so loved and welcomed. And I made a ton of grammatical mistakes. I speak fluent Sicilian, but I still make grammatical mistakes somewhere in the verb and the adjective, the placement of things.

So I just speak from my heart and use the vocabulary I know, and they get the gist of it. They understand all of it.

But even if I make a mistake on the pronunciation or the verb usage or choose the wrong vocabulary word, they, if they have a desire to understand you, and they’re engaging with you personally, you’re golden. It’s okay. Just get comfortable with making mistakes, get around Italian people and befriend them.

And you can definitely go to a bar. If you’re talking in Sicily, go to a bar and hang out every morning, get an espresso, get a cappuccino, get a cornetto and just hang out and you’ll be able to befriend people. People will want — Sicilians want to learn English too.

So they will swap with you. So it’s a great trade-off to be able to do that. So that’s a great question.

Antiquing in Palermo

Thank you. Top 100 has a question. Top 100. Have you gone antiquing over there? I would imagine there are a ton of great finds. No, and that’s on my bucket list. In Palermo, there’s quite a bit in Palermo.

Palermo? Yeah, there’s a big famous market in Palermo, (Ballarò), but he’s talking about antique finds like thrifting and antiques in Palermo. Yes.

In the main city. Main city. Well, that’s the capital.

It’s about 20 minutes, 25 minutes away. Yes. I want to go because, oh man, the prices are so good.

I’ve even looked online. So thank you for bringing that up. I am going to put that on my bucket list because we definitely want to go. But I did want to cover —

And you — excuse me, and you always bargain with the price? Yes. Yes. Over there, I’m so uncomfortable with that. I think, oh, I don’t want to be a cheapskate.

They’re asking such and such. I don’t want to go lower. But Croce says, if you don’t, it’s wrong.

Like it’s a totally different culture, but here, you know, it’s frowned upon. They put a price. You’re supposed to offer that price and not try to get them down.

But over there it’s natural.

Anyway, but we did want to cover some of the things we have on our to-do list to get ready to go to Sicily because we’re planning to go.

YouTube Course and Retirement Plans

And welcome to those of you who just joined. Hi Peggy. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And we, oh, I did want to mention too, there are several folks in here from Rob and Allie’s community. We took their course. I did.

Croce doesn’t do the technical side of YouTube. I do. He just participates.

But I took YouTube After 40 and there will be a link in the description below. But Rob and Allie are the most wonderful couple. They have all kinds of channels, and I forget their name. I know it’s Retirement Travel Finance. And anyway, I’ll link to them in the description when we’re done here. They are so wonderful.

They’re a couple, and they travel the world. They do slow traveling. Right now they’re in LA. They’re going to be doing a cruise with the members of their community who can go.

We can’t go because we have an upcoming trip to Sicily planned. But yes, thank you guys for supporting me on my very first live from Rob and Allie’s community, YouTube After 40.

Home Tour and Rental Details

Thank you for joining us. But our plans to retire, we already have a place over there, and it’s a wonderful — three bedroom, two bath. And what’s the rent going to be? Around 650.

Okay. 650 euros, three bedrooms, two baths. How many square feet? About 2,200.

Huge. It’s huge. Beautiful finishes, marble floors, everything.

Beautiful terrace. Beautiful terrace with a view of the sea. Guys, we’re going to have an ocean view!

I’m so excited. No, we couldn’t keep the villa we were in because we were here too long. We couldn’t expect them, and we couldn’t pay rent over there for the amount of time that we’ve been here because we’ve been here quite a while.

But yeah, so we couldn’t hold onto that villa. That was beautiful. And I’ll leave a link in the description of the home tour of that villa.

And that was even cheaper. Gorgeous. It was 1,500 square feet, fully furnished, beautiful.

More than 1,500. More than — well, you can see in the description, I’ll put a link for that home tour, but we are going to be doing another home tour when we get there.

We’ve already got a car, we’ve got a place to live, and we’re all set up that way. Now we bought back our original car from 2022, believe it or not, a Toyota Yaris. Great on diesel.

Got diesel engine, semi-automatic, right? Right. So really good for gas mileage. And I think we paid how much? 70 euro per month for diesel? Something like that.

So even though at the time we bought it, gas was $6.40 a gallon, when we bought the Yaris over there, it equaled out to be a lot more expensive. But because it’s so good on gas, the model we, you know, what we got, we ended up spending a lot LESS on our diesel gas budget for the car, for transportation, than the United States. So it was a really, really good deal.

So we’ve got a car. We’ve got a place. And definitely you want to drive a small car in those little alleyways and little streets. And you don’t want to get a big car because you’re going to end up having a big problem. That’s good advice.

Great advice. Yeah. If you’re used to a big SUV or van or whatever, I would not recommend that at all.

In fact, as soon as we drive, I roll down my window and pull in the mirror because they have folding mirrors over there. All of them are, all the cars have folding mirrors for that very reason. And sometimes you go down these antique alleyways and they’re very charming, but it can be a little hair raising to get through there because you might scrape your car.

You see a lot of really nice new cars that are scraped. That’s just the way it is. Yes.

Okay. Awesome. Can tourists rent apartment for three months or is a longer lease required? They do have transitorio.

How do you say that word? Transitorio? Yeah. Seasonal. They have seasonal renters.

Thank you for the question, JCDM. And you can go on casa.it. Casa.it. Casa.it. I’m thinking in Italian. Immobiliare.it. Idealista.it. And what’s the other one? Pretty much so.

Casa.it. Punto is dot. Anyway, go to those websites and look and put in the city and the region. And don’t make the mistake like I did when I was first looking online. I put in Carini, Sicily and no results came up, and I’m thinking there’s nothing available.

Are you kidding me? But I needed to put Carini, Palermo because the region, you need the province rather, that’s the word, province. So put your city and the comma, province on those websites I just listed, and you should be able to find transitorio. How do you spell that? Transitorio.

Transitorio. Is there an N? Yes. Transitorio.

T-R-A-N-S-I-T-O-R-I-O. Transitorio. And then you’ll get seasonal rentals.

Now, usually it’s the summertime, high season, but sometimes in the winter when they’re low they’ll do, you know, three months or you can just check Airbnb, but that’s a good one. But we have a lot to do on our list to get ready to retire in Sicily. Welcome if you’re just joining us.

We’re Croce and Carol Amato going to be retiring in Sicily. You’re done with work the end of December. We’ve got a lot to do.

We’re going to be selling everything. We’re going to just store a few personal items at one of our adult children’s and that’s it. We’re going free, completely done with material goods because the place we rent, we’re going to rent, is fully furnished.

Yes. And even kitchen and just got everything. Pots and pans and everything.

So even a coffee maker and olive oil on the counter. Yes, definitely I need a coffee maker. Absolutely.

The first thing off the plate, well actually in Milan, at the airport the last time, we went, oh my word, I had a cafe. Cafe Milano. Cafe Milanese.

I went — we went to the bar in the airport and we were so tired walking so much. And I got a cafe Milanese, and it was so delicious. I drank it up and I said, Croce, I want another one. But this time, watch how he does it because I want to try to replicate it at home. And you did, and he steamed milk and you know put — so I bought another one, loved it and then I started doing it at home.

Yes, you did. Yeah. Turned out pretty good.

U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate

Yeah, they do. Pam Walton has a question. Awesome.

What’s the U.S. Dollar exchange? Okay. Thank you Pam for the question about the exchange rate. We — right now, I didn’t look today, I haven’t looked in the last couple days, but it’s one euro to about 92 cents. Yeah, the dollar’s down some.

Yeah, dollar’s down some, so one euro equals about 92 cents. You lose about eight cents on the dollar and then if you transfer money, we use WISE. Yes.

And I forget what they used to be. Transferwise, I think Transfer something. But we use WISE to transfer our funds from bank to bank and there’s a little fee with them, so you want to do a good chunk while you’re at it, so. And then there are credit card companies where they don’t have a foreign fee exchange and all that. So you need to plan way ahead and that’s what we’re going to be doing.

Right. Evelyn has a question. All right, let’s see here.

Of course, the dollar fluctuated up and down. It’s a daily thing and that’s one thing I need to get a closer look. Oh, today it’s .89. It went down.

Thank you, Frank, for telling us that. It went down even more, a couple cents. Three more cents down.

Not good, but oh, well. And you can pretty much control how much goes over there. If it’s really low, you can take a little, you know, do a little bit. And then when it’s more to your benefit, you can do a bigger chunk, you know.

Sicilian vs. Northern Italian Culture

Who did you say? LM, what would you compare Sicilians to people in other parts of Italy? For example, northern Italians who I found quite reserved. I haven’t been around a lot. Croce has been to all of the northern cities, Milano, Torino, Venezia, Firenze, Florence, you know, all those cities.

And his sister lives in Calabria, which is southern Italy, the toe of the boot, and they’re very warm and friendly. I don’t have personal knowledge. Usually, it’s common though.

Northern Italy, people are more reserved and more to themselves. And then be more friendly towards the south from Rome all the way down to Sicily. Yes, and rightfully so. They’re more focused on their careers.

Yes. They’re more focused on industry. They’re more like the U.S. up there, I think, you know, kind of career-focused.

And so, yes, so Rome and further down south, they say, everybody says, even Italians say that north and south are drastically different. And definitely, you found that to be true. Yes.

Okay. Yes. Thank you.

Sal Gulino has a question. Awesome. Greetings from Fairless Hills.

You must know Croce’s cousins, Sal and Roy, Rosario Monterosso, who had the pizzeria Amaro’s Pizza. Amato’s Pizza in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. Yeah, you must know them.

Hello, Sal. Okay. I was born in Carini, but raised in Brooklyn. Yes. We’ll be in Carini next fall. Would love to know how Croce ended up in Texas.

Yes. Well, Croce went to Brooklyn when he came. He gave that story earlier about coming as a teenager and visited his sister Maria, who lived in Brooklyn with her family and his parents.

They all came over, and he wanted to stay. They came on vacation, and he wanted to stay. So, he stayed and worked at a pizzeria.

Didn’t even speak English. And our story is on thesicilianlife.com on the about page. So, check that out.

And then you moved to Pennsylvania and decided to open a restaurant with partners. You can read about it on the blog. Yeah.

But then we met in Pennsylvania. So, you can read about that on the blog, too. But from Pennsylvania, we moved to Florida.

And we were in Florida, Pensacola, Florida for how many years? 23 years. 23 years. 21 in Pensacola.

And then we were in Tampa for a couple of years. A couple of years. Right.

Yes. Yes. And so, we have three adult kids, two daughters and a son.

They’re doing very well. And we were in Florida all that time. And our kids, two of them, actually, yeah, two of them or all three at that time.

I forget. At least two were already in Texas. So, two.

It pulled on our heartstrings to move closer to our adult kids and just be able to have holidays together and all of that. So, for family reasons, we ended up in Texas. And we love it.

We love it. We’re very conservative. We’re Christian people.

And so, if you don’t know the Lord, please check out the Hope tab at the very bottom of our blog. There’s a link. It’s called Hope.

And we would love to share that with you, what we believe, and why we believe it. But we’re very conservative and Texas is a conservative state. That’s for sure.

Yep. Governor Abbott does a great job. Anyway, so that’s our story.

Coming here for our adult kids to be close to family. Alrighty. Let’s see here.

Hello. So good to see you. Oh, my word.

Let’s see. I can’t read because of the emoticons. Okay.

Will you be in Sicily for Christmas? We will not. We’re coming right after that. Right after that.

We’re going to spend the holidays with family and let’s see. Yeah. We’re going to tie up this lease here and all of our furnishings, sell everything, get everything cleaned up, pack, organize and be in Sicily for, you know, right after January.

It’s the very first week of February. So we’re not going to be there for Christmas, which will be glorious. I loved spending Christmas and New Year’s.

In fact, the last New Year’s was, we spent in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. We went to a concert and out to eat on New Year’s day. It was so memorable.

I did a video on that and you can — yeah, it’s a long concert. You can skip ahead and just, you know, listen to a little bit of the concert. Because that was just us sharing our personal video that was intended mostly for our kids. Yes.

But we ended up putting it up on the channel just to share it. And so we ended up doing that. But yeah, the meal was fantastic.

We have friends in Palermo, Graziella and Ottavio. They have a pizzeria and a restaurant there. So good.

So good. And the meal was fantastic. I even showed — I think I showed the, even the menu.

And so we spent New Year’s in Palermo the last time, but no, we’re going to miss the holidays this year, but we will be back early February.

Resources for Moving to Sicily and Legal Steps for Establishing Residency in Italy

And then I did want to mention too, that there are two resources I want to share with y’all for getting over to Sicily, over to Italy. One is Chris and Pete from Super Savvy Travelers, shout out to them.

They do a fantastic job. They have a whole network of people in place, professionals. They have notarios or what do you call it? Notary public.

They have lawyers. They have — they are in connection with experts and professional people that help folks get established in Italy, the legal way and the steps that it takes. Because you know you have to get your elective residence. And you can’t get your elective residence without a lease for a rental or you can’t — you know, you have to buy a home or get a lease for an apartment or a house first before you can even get your elective residence. And then you have to get your codici fiscali, your like Social Security number and all that.

And they go through details of how to do that and what steps to take. And in what order, depending on your situation, whether you’re a dual citizen, whether you’re just an American citizen with no, you know, Italian citizenship whatsoever and the different types of visas and all of that. So we can’t give legal advice in that way or talk about taxes, but we can share our personal experience. But Chris and Pete from Super Savvy Travelers.

They’re located in Catania? Yes, they’re right outside of Catania. I think Santa Domenica Talao, I think is their headquarters. I’m not sure, but they live there and they have a network of good folks. Catania area, I believe they are.

No, no, no, not Catania — Catanzaro. They’re in Italy.

They’re not in Sicily. Oh, they’re not in Sicily?

No, you’re talking about Alfred. Yes, I want to mention Alfred too.

Thank you for reminding me. Alfred and Eszter, they have the channel called You, Me, & Sicily. You may be familiar there.

They’ve been on YouTube for a long, long time. Alfred, they’re both from Connecticut. Wonderful couple.

They have really good information. They give tutorials. They do tours all over Sicily, all over the island, East Coast, West Coast, and they are very knowledgeable.

Alfred is a lawyer. In fact, I booked a consultation appointment, and I paid Alfred to give me his expert advice before we moved in 2022. Because I wanted to make sure all my ducks were in a row as far as working in Sicily. As an independent contractor, I do transcription from home, so I work from home.

I pay taxes, and he talked to me all about that, so I wanted to make sure I was doing everything correctly. Alfred Zappola and Eszter, I forget her last name. Anyway, it’s You, Me, & Sicily channel.

Check them out. They’re just a treasure trove of information, and they’re fun to be around too. They do lives, they do informational videos, and it’s a lot of fun to get to know them.

Networking with Expats in Sicily

All right. Oh, Joe and Diana are in the house. Yes, we’re going to get together and meet them.

They have the Sicily Adventure. Right now they’re in Albania, I believe. You can check their videos out.

Oh, I hope I didn’t spoil that for the people watching your videos. Sorry about that. Anyway, you get to know Joe and Diana.

They’re going to be good friends of ours in the future. We know, let’s see, three couples in, let’s see, three U.S. couples that we’re going to get together with. Then Janet is not from the US, but we’re going to get together with her too for coffee when she’s over there.

She goes quite often. Yes. Awesome.

Yes. We’re really looking forward to it. Well, guys, if there aren’t any more questions, we are going to close out here in a few minutes, but if you have anything, we’re willing to stay for a few more minutes.

We just wanted to give you a chance to get to know us a little better and hear from us in a personal way, and then talk about some suggestions about moving and relocating to Sicily. It’s a wonderful place where you can live very inexpensively. In fact, we did a whole video on that, the cost of living in Sicily.

It’s according to your own budget. Everybody’s budget is different. We have two questions.

Yes, but it’s very, very affordable. In fact, we are going to be living on less than what you’re going to be drawing from Social Security. Right.

Anything I make is going to be gravy. That way, if you’re not prepared for retirement, if you don’t have millions saved like the experts say you need, no worries in Sicily. That’s for sure.

Now, depending on where you are, if you’re in a beach town, coastal area, it’s going to be very expensive. Not very expensive, but more so than an inward city or village. If you’re rural, it’s very affordable, a lot cheaper.

Definitely. All right. We have a few.

Process for Obtaining Italian Citizenship

Pamela has a question. Do you need a tax lawyer? Carol, are you an Italian citizen? Oh, thank you, Pam. I appreciate the question.

Yes. Years ago, years ago. Let’s see.

When was it? Before we moved to Sicily in 2006, I did all the paperwork and went through all the hoops to become an Italian citizen by marriage. At that point, I had to send my marriage certificate, my birth certificate, and everything to the state capitol in Florida. We were in Florida at the time.

I had to have the apostille, the stamp. It’s not just an ink stamp. It’s a pressed stamp that is embedded onto the certificate.

It’s like a seal. A seal from the apostille seal for all my documents that they’re true and correct. Yes.

It was like a four or five month process, wasn’t it? Back then. That was years ago. You sent it down in Miami.

Yes. I got citizenship and then I got my Italian passport. Now it’s European with the European Union.

Boy, I still sometimes say — now the monetary system has changed to Euros. Of course, Italy is part of the European Union. I still say lire sometimes.

When did that happen? When did they join the Union? Around the year 2000, I believe. 2000. It’s been decades now.

I still say lire. We still have money, lire, the money is just the token of the past for growing up there.

Another question. Let’s see. Are you still working in the restaurant business? Yes, I do.

Still working as a manager. As a manager, yes. I really enjoy my work.

We had our own restaurants for many, many years. As you know, you’re married to it. When you have your own place, you fill in for everybody.

The cook, the bottle washer, everything. If somebody doesn’t show up, you fill in. Managing is not as bad, right? Yes.

Don’t you like it better? Yeah, I do. I do. Definitely.

Foreign Tax Exemption for U.S. Citizens in Italy

Jennifer asked, do you need a tax lawyer? Do you need a tax lawyer? Well, we don’t have one, so I certainly hope not. If you want to have a lawyer to definitely confirm that you are eligible for a foreign tax exemption, go on the irs.gov and look up the foreign tax exemption.

If you’re American citizen and you’re going to be working as an independent contractor or working over in Italy, you can check out the irs.gov and read about the foreign tax exemption.

Because if we stay 330 days, right? Yes. Our accountant told us they’re going to double check and confirm. It’s NOT been confirmed yet, but if we stay 330 days in the country, and I’m working and earning, that I wouldn’t owe taxes.

If I can show the stamp on my passport that I was there. Anyway, that’s our plan and we’re going to confirm that with the professionals. But anyway, so we don’t have a tax lawyer.

We did consult with Frank — or not Frank, Alfred Zappala from You, Me & Sicily channel. And I think their emails and their contact information would be available there. And let’s see, are you still working? We answered that one.

I think we’ve got everything covered. We really appreciate you all coming to our first live. A little bit nerve wracking, but y’all made it so easy and I really appreciate it.

And we are going to be doing another video on any questions you have. So go ahead and put those suggestions for videos. Also on the sicilianlife.com on the contact page, it’s called Feedback.

Click on the Feedback and right there is a form you can fill out for, you know, if we made a mistake or have typos or any kind of problem that you disagree with in a video or on our website, you can let us know, and we’ll correct it. You can give us video suggestions. You can. Your voice will be heard.

So we really appreciate it. Yes, definitely. And let’s see if there’s any lasting questions here.

Last minute. Yes. All right.

Let’s see here. Thank you for doing this. Very helpful.

Oh, good. Let’s see. Awesome.

I’m glad it was helpful. We appreciate it. And I don’t even actually know how to close it.

So this is, this is cute. So we appreciate you coming and you can bear with us for another minute while I — nope. Thank you for joining us. And ci vediamo più presto.

All righty.