How to Italy

Here's a round-up of the latest job vacancies appearing in Il Sole24 Ore:

Customer Portfolio Manager
Commerzbank, the second-largest German private sector bank, is looking for a customer portfolio manager for its Italian branch located in Milan.

Candidate must be aged 30/32 with a university degree in economics or equivalent and with fluent written and spoken English. German is a plus. Must also have 2/3 years experience within an international bank with focus on credit analysis, knowledge of structured finance and derivative products and excellent financial skills. Applications to be sent to hr.milan@commerzbank.com.

HR Manager
HR Manager needed for the Italian headquarters of a US multinational company that provides added value to financial and retails services companies Europe-wide.

The role requries a solid background in HR management. You should have at least five years' in similar roles in multinational companies and will have a good udnerstanding of recruitment, motivation and management of internal resources. Send application to finanza1@michaelpage.it.

Credit Manager
Credit Manager required for PACCAR Financial Italia, the Italian branch of PACCAR Financial Corporation.

For further information contact banking1@michaelpage.it

Temporary Fiance Director, Direttore di Filiale and Credit Manager
Robert Half International recruitment company are looking for the above profiles for positions in Milan, Rome and, more generally, in Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto. For more details go to www.roberthalf.it.

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and is the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

Well, there's nothing to be done.

The house needs to be pulled down and built from scratch. The other option would be selling the land.

But it's a good plot in a good location and central to all ammenities and the neighbours are all lovely. Let's face it: if the roof of your next-door-neighbour who you haven't met yet, falls through your roof and damages your house and you smile and say you understand and it's one of those things that happens, then they have to be pretty great.

So the new office will be delayed for a bit longer. But I'm taking it all in my new-found Sardinian mentality stride.

However, changing subjects, check out the job adverts in Il Sole 24 Ore from yesterday. There are quite a few in English for positions in multinationals in Rome and Milan.

I'm heading out now but I'll post a couple up here later, along with some facts and figures on immigration in Italy.

Emma Bird runs www.howtoitaly.com and is the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

It should have been a simple matter of knocking down the internal walls of the house so that we could start the renovations on the house we bought in Arzachena back in July of this year. So the 'geometra' gave the go-ahead.

Instead, the internal wall which formed a tiny cupboard turned out to be a supporting wall and when it was removed the roof came crashing down - and into the house of our new neighbours who we hadn't even met.

But worse was to come. We've just found out that we might also have to raze the house to the ground and rebuild from scratch, which means the bargain home I fell in love with on a chance viewing at the beginning of June might not be the bargain we initially thought.

Updates coming soon.

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

The work we were born to do by Nick Williams
First a word of warning: don't buy this book if you are expecting a checklist and lots of quizes to find out the type of work suitable for you. You'll be bitterly disappointed and slating me for recommending this book. This works if you are feeling lost in the direction that you want to go and feel ready for a change but aren't quite sure what. What it isn't going to do is come up with answers for you and you'll hate it if you hate anything that combines spiritual quotes in the same phrase as talking about work. But it is good for inspiration and makes you realise that you can create a career or portfolio of careers that you love.

Living, Studying and Working in Italy by Monica Larner and Travis Neighbor Ward
I've got most books on Italy and in my opinion this is the best there is for all-round information. It's particularly helpful if you're from outside of the EU. It has lots and lots of addresses for reference. The downside is that there aren't many web addresses.


Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese

I get a lot of requests from people about the books about Italy that are helpful to read.

So here are my favourites. Some are serious, some are funny, some are heartwarming and some are simply kick-up-the-arse books to get you moving so that you can move to Italy, set up a business, find work or simply whatever you want to do.

Dark Heart of italy by Tobias Jones.
This book isn't funny and has been accused of being too critical of the Italians but I like it. Jones scratches beneath the surface of the glossy vino-drinking Italy that we all know and love and deals with the bureaucracy, the language and why Italy has rubbish tv. It's a must-read if only to understand a bit more about the real Italy.

Italian Neighbours by Tim Parks
This is one of those expat-in-Italy books but unlike most it doesn't wax lyrical about lingering lunches under olive trees in Tuscany. Parks, who is also an acclaimed novelist, is well-integrated into Italian life in a small town just outside of Verona. Life in the provinces is far different to living in the big towns or Tuscany and Umbria and this really describes the encounters with the locals so vividly you can almost see them. If you are planning to move to the provinces, or southern Italy, then it's well worth reading.

Blogger keeps crashing on me. I'll post the rest of them tomorrow.

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese

Just had the first of our second round of Skype chats, this time on Becoming an Expatreneur in the Bel Paese.

What a productive discussion! It was a good job Mario was on hand to answer all the technical questions.

The result is that we'll be launching a brand new club in 2007 to help those people who don't just talk about their dreams they act on them to turn them into successful businesses in Italy.

But remember that we're still offering a free Skype chat on business building in Italy to everyone who buys Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.


Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

There are some days when you love Italy, some days when you hate it and some days when you're just totally bemused.

That happened to me today when I went to the posta to send Mario's nephew, who has just turned five, his birthday present.

It was just after lunch so it was very quiet - there was only one other customer in the post office apart from me, and only one member of staff serving behind the counter.

Obviously, though, this being Italy it turned out far more complicated than it should have been.

As those of you who have ever queued up in the posta to pay bills or buy stamps will know, you have to form a separate queue depending on what you need to do.

But with only one person serving, I made the mistake of thinking that we could just form one queue. How wrong I was.

'Signora, signora,' the counter assistant said pointing to the other end of the room. 'The queue for posting a parcel is over there.'

'But there's no one there,' I said.

'Yes,' she said. 'I'll be there in just one sec.

So, after scuttling five places down, sitting in her new chair and getting herself settled at her new work station, she served me, though in reality she didn't because the post office had run out of boxes to send parcels in.

By this time the queue was growing longer, and even though the next person waiting to be served was behind me, she scuttled back to her previous work station to serve the girl queued up there.

'He was before me,' she said, pointing to the guy behind me.

'Yes,' came the reply from the employee. 'But I've just served there so I need to be fair and serve here next otherwise people might think I'm being biased'.

I'm sure there's logic somewhere. Italy, don't you just love it?

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

I came across the following this morning. While not related to moving to Italy or starting a business in Italy, it is inspirational and reminds us that we need to go all out if we want to achieve our dream.

Impossible Dream, from the musical Man of La Mancha, about Don Quixote and his magical quest.

To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

If you follow your quest to follow the star, where will it take you?

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.

Nothing like having a day of in the middle of the week and spending it at the beach and swimming in the sea.

No, I wasn't having a duvet day. It was public holiday yesterday in Italy - Ognisanto - and luckily here in Sardinia, it is still beach weather.

Sometimes it's quite difficult to remember that 2007 starts in two months time - in my mind we're still in summer.

Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.