Is Sicily, Italy a good place to live, or a bad place to live?

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Don

I lived in Sicily for 13 years and what everybody saying is true, If you where going to retire their then I would say yes but before retirement no, the jobs are few and far between if you can find one then they want you to train for nothing and that can be up to a year and get little to nothing to barely get you back and forth to work.
But I do love the people, the food, and the climate and will never forget it and love to go back for a visit again and see I speak fluently in Italian and have not forgotten any of it at all.

.Laura

The only problem got Sicily is the lack of jobs opportunities...if you dont need to work then is the perfect place....

reatinus

Sicily is one of the poorest places in Italy. It would be really hard to find a job. Other than that it is a very Beautyfull place and the womens are really good looking.
I lived in Sicily and the only good reason to leave that place is that there are no jobs, no money, no incentives.

If i was in your situation I would think about some north Italy small islands. And if not Italy i sugest looking at northern european countries.

Good luck!!!

speedy_biondalez

Sicily is wonderful, but there is hardly no work!

ficie

What people told you is true.
Tolinrome made a lot of good points.
I have never lived in Sicily, but I'm Italian, from a small town in the north. I had to leave it and move abroad because, despite having a BA and an MA I still couldn't find anything better than jobs in factories or shops. The wages are incredibly low, and it has happened to me that they just didn't pay me at all. There are also a lot of "internship" contracts these days, basically they expect you to work for 3 -6 months *knowing* you are not going to get paid. And you are not guaranteed a regular contract after this period.
This is in the north. My friends from the south of Italy tell me the situation is even worse there.
Italy is a lovely country to live in, there are a lot of beautiful places -both in terms of art and nature- but you should move there only if you are sure you're going to have a job there, or if you already have enough money and don't need to look for jobs at all.

tolinrome

Well, I have first hand personal experience in this. I moved to Italy from America not knowing a word of Italian (I married an Italian) and it was very difficult to find work - even if you speak fluent Italian - it's still difficult, even for Italians it's difficult! The economy in the south (Sicily) especially is among the worst. I lived in Rome for 5 years and even there it wasn't easy.

Although I didnt live in Sicily, been there a few times and my inlaws are from Sicily and they left Sicily to go to Rome, and I have a couple of good American friends that still live in Sicily soI know how it is... Sicily is a good place to live for the environment and the weather and the beaches and food and the people are very friendly and hospitable. Go there for yourself for a long vacation and see first if it would be something that you would like, because I guarantee you will go into culture shock and start missing things that you're used to having that they dont have there and the culture there is very different there in Sicily than in the rest of Italy, you have to be able to deal with things that are broken and that don't work and nothing really runs on time and things are very very slow, it will take months to get a phone line installed in your house and you wont find 24hr stores like you do in America And this is about Rome, so you can expect the same, even more in Sicily. I remember when I first moved to Rome it took me ALL DAY just to get a haircut and buy a pair of underwear and t-shirts at a department store, it drove me crazy at first these type of things but after a while I realized it was just another way to live. Reason is because they dont put such an emphasis on sell sell sell and make money as they do here in America and they actually mean it when they say Hello and Good Morning when you walk into a shop, so the life is more human and personal. When I would wait to get my haircut the barbers would take a 15 cafe break every time they would finish with someone and then when they are cutting hair they talk more than they actually cut so I would sit for 3 hours sometimes waiting.

For work, if you go there, what I strongly suggest you do is try one of the international companies (most are in Rome) where they speak English - such as WFP and FAO or IFAD - they pay great wages and speak English and it would be comparable to working in an American environment. Ive worked for one of them for a few years and it was great, but it is difficult to get in since everyone wants to work there, so you have to persist.

Working for an Italian company would be less desirable since the pay is terrible (if they even decide to pay you) and they treat you as if they're doing you a favor just working for them for free.

I worked for an Italian company teaching English for about 4 euros an hour and after about 6 weeks they still didn't pay me (this is very typical in Italy) and they made every excuse in the book as to why. "They couldn't find the key to the drawer for the checks" - "Wait until tomorrow" etc... Finally after I threatened them they payed me. I'm not trying to scare you but just to inform you to be prepared for what you may be up against.

In North Italy it's easier to find work but still can be difficult.

Who knows, maybe it will work out for ya, it does for alot of people but be prepared to fight for it.

dog lover, amo un italiano tanto

My boyfriend is a native italian living in the northern italy. He said when we come to our retirement, we will move to the south or middle of italy. He said cost of living is much lower, better weather and a lot of good food, but not many jobs, so only good for retirement.

I live in the usa.

Anna

When I was little I lived in Sicily! Now I live in Illinois though! Back there are lots of farmland, so it would be hard to find jobs besides working on the farm. But it is not poor, it's just different than like NYC or something. So it is not a poor place. But I also recomend ( IF your rich) to live in Rome, soooooooooooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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