I have always thought of myself as a forgetful person. As a child I’d be sent to the local milk bar with a list of things to buy only to return shortly after having forgotten to take the list.
One time I actually got out of the car at our sons daycare, got right up to the door before noticing I’d forgotten him. Luckily my husband was in the car laughing and waiting to see how long it would be before I came back to get him.
Moving overseas forced me to change.
Our first time moving to Italy I was in charge of organizing the house, packing, arranging our wedding, passports, having a garage sale, booking venues, and keeping track of everything.
Having moved from Australia to Italy twice now I thought I’d share a few unforeseen things I wish I had put on my Move to Italy Checklist before boarding that plane.
Leaving aging Parents
Leaving for Italy also meant leaving behind my Mum who is now in her eighties. Even though close friends advised me to talk with her about power of attorney I kept putting off the conversation, just the idea had me tied up in knots.
I knew it was something that needed to be organized before we left but it was the one conversation I ended up not having and later deeply regretting.
A short while after arriving in Italy my Mum had to go to hospital, she ended up in a rehabilitation center. She seemed to be in rehab for such a long time, she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to go home.
Conversations with my other family members finally got heated and I ended up calling the social worker at the hospital and having to fly home (four months after arriving in Italy) for a court hearing to decide on guardianship of my Mum.
I never saw that coming.
If only I had approached the conversation of power of attorney before we left this awful situation would have been averted.
If you are leaving aging parents behind think about what would happen to them once you leave the country, have those difficult conversations with family members before you leave and get everything in place legally before departing.
Starting at a new School
We arrived in Italy in late March, the school term started in June.
As we didn’t have a residential address we couldn’t book our children into school. We were commuting back and forth between our accommodation and the house we had bought (yes doing renovations before moving in). Turned out we couldn’t book schools even though we had bought the house unless we were living in the house. Who Knew?
So the kids ended up missing the June starting date and eventually began a new school year in September which is the start of the school year here in Italy.
They were very happy, we were not quite as happy.
Unforseen Circumstances
One funny thing that I didn’t anticipate was organizing a passport photo for our son Luca.
At the time he was just turning eight, we had to go to our local post office to have the paperwork finalized and get passport photos taken.
Our son Luca has high functioning autism and no matter how many times the lady took his photo she couldn’t get him to NOT smile.
Every time she pointed the camera at him he gave her a huge beaming smile, we ended up having to return twice before getting a photo that she thought would be accepted.
I still have all the photos the Post Office rejected, they always make me laugh.
So our advise would be:
To take a deep breath, let go of all the worries and stress and create your Move to Italy Checklist, put it on paper and be kind to yourself.
Moving Country doesn’t need to be stressful.
We did most of the things on our checklist including moving from Queensland to Melbourne, putting our house up for sale, oh and we organized our wedding, Luca’s christening and a going away party as well.
