Charm versus Convenience It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life! We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the time in California. In a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year. As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always worth the detour. Step 1: This week let's explore our experience of living in a historical center in Italy — and why we wouldn't do it again. Step 2: We were swept away by the charm of a 15th-century house in the historical center of a town we discovered in Tuscany. Stone walls, wood-beam ceilings, and terra cotta floors gave the home a sense of history that was a world away from our life in California. In other blogs, I recounted how we upgraded the home while keeping its original character — a new kitchen, a second bathroom, an upgraded main bathroom, double-pane windows, and a redone roof. But even with all of that investment, we eventually decided that living in the historical center was not for us. Keep in mind that this blog reflects our personal experience and does not claim to speak for everyone who lives in a historical center. So what were the issues that led us to that decision? Step 3: Parking When we bought the house, we knew we would have to rely on street parking some blocks away — a small price to pay for living in a town that was once a pilgrimage stop under the protection of the Knights Templar, just down the hill from a castle once inhabited by the Medicis. But over time, lugging cases of water, groceries, bags of pellets, and other supplies wore us down. When a festival or market came to town, parking near our place would disappear entirely, and we would end up hiking in from wherever we could find a spot. Parking and hauling goods home became more of a grind as time went on — but it was not the only factor that led us to leave. Step 4: Darkness Most homes in historical centers were built with small windows, and views are often blocked by the building directly across the narrow lane. Ours was no exception. At first, that was part of the charm — think of the history, the people who had lived there, the stories those stones had witnessed. But the reality is that many such homes are simply dark. Buildings packed tightly together mean that direct sunlight rarely reaches inside, and ours was no different. Coming from California, I missed the light more than I had expected. On rainy days especially, the house felt closed in. You might find a home on the edge of a historical center with more open views, but many homes — built surrounded by other historical buildings — live in the shadows. Step 5: Drafts and Heat Our home came with two pellet heaters — one in the main bedroom and one in the kitchen. The kitchen unit took up too much floor space, so we had it removed and replaced with heat-generating electric logs in the fireplace. What we discovered was that no matter how much heat we generated, drafts remained. Many historical homes were never designed to be wind-tight, and we did what we could to address that. Whether the drafts came through the front door area or from some other unknown source, we could never eliminate them entirely. Some neighbors had installed glass wind proof doors over their front entrances, which probably helped — we considered doing the same. We also went to the expense of installing double-pane windows throughout, but the drafts remained. The best we could do was seal off rooms and heat them sufficiently while other areas stayed cold. Step 6: Water Issues Our historic home had a tile roof, and one exterior side of the building was made of exposed stone and mortar — beautiful to look at, but with downsides. Not long after purchasing the home, we had leaks from the roof that sent us into a panic. Our contractor climbed up and found that the tile roof had no sealer or tar paper beneath it — just tiles laid directly on the wood structure. Our realtor told us this was common in historical centers in our area of the Monte Amiata, and that it had generally been sufficient. But with the increasingly heavy wind-driven rains of recent years, such roofs were no longer reliably water-tight. We had the tiles removed, sealed the roof underneath and then replaced them; the roof is now water-tight, but it was a stressful and costly lesson. The stone exterior walls presented a similar issue. The only thing keeping water from seeping through during a driving rainstorm is the mortar between the rocks, which in some cases may be centuries old. We had water dampen interior walls during strong storms, and had to take the necessary steps to resolve it. Step 7: Pellet Heating and Air Quality Nearly all of our neighbors in the historical center relied on pellet heating, as did we. It generates strong heat and is cheaper than most electric or gas options in Italy. But it comes with downsides. The first is practical: keeping a supply of pellet bags on hand means lugging them from the car and finding somewhere to stack them inside. The second issue — for me, the more significant one — is air quality. On cold days, stepping outside sometimes meant walking straight into a cloud of pellet smoke. I have a history of asthma, and the acrid smoke from all those heaters burning at once would irritate my lungs. I learned to carry my inhaler whenever I went out. What seemed like a minor inconvenience at first became a genuine concern: on colder days, clean air in our historical center was simply unavailable. Step 8: Vacant Properties Our historical center, like many others, had a significant number of vacant properties — some listed for sale, others simply abandoned. What we came to understand is that many locals do not want to live in the historical center, for exactly the kinds of reasons I have described here. So properties sit unsold, waiting for a foreign buyer drawn in by the charm. Being surrounded by vacant homes began to concern us. We decided it made more sense to invest somewhere that locals also want to live. Step 9: Delivery Issues Because vehicles cannot enter most of the historical center, getting larger items delivered — appliances, furniture, construction materials — became a real logistical challenge. Our contractor had to hire workers simply for moving materials from the truck to our front door, and for hauling away debris. It is an added cost and complication that comes with the territory. Step 10: Our Solution What it came down to, in the end, was a choice between charm and convenience. We chose convenience. We moved to Santa Fiora, where we live just across the bridge from the historical center in a six-unit, more modern condominium building with a new roof and a restored facade. We are close enough to enjoy all the charm of the centro storico on a daily walk, without actually living inside it. Large windows, lots of light and new electric and plumbing turned out to be the best fit for us. We are grateful for our time in the historical center — we learned a great deal from it. But we are equally grateful to have moved on to something that simply works better for how we live. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer. https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

This is a bonus blog this week! It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I'll post some steps and what we've learned along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life. We live in Tuscany in the fall, then return in the spring, and spend the rest of the year in California (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore different areas, we discover gems worth sharing—some are well-known tourist magnets, others are lesser-known but always worth the visit. Step 1: This week, let's explore how to live in Italy for part of the year (like us!). Step 2: Background When my partner and I first discussed living in Europe after retirement, we assumed our only option was to move there full time—establish residency and cut ties with the US. But obstacles got in the way. We had obligations in California, and my partner wasn't fully sold on the idea of a permanent life abroad. It took us a while to learn about the Schengen Zone and its guiding principle: one can remain in the EU (countries that are part of the zone) for 90 days out of every 180 — we go deeper on the math in The Schengen Shuffle: Revisited. Eventually it became clear that living in Italy part time—twice a year for two to three months—was the best fit for us. I don't claim to be an expert on relocation, but in this blog I'll share some of our experiences. Step 3: Budget The first step in our journey was defining our budget. After accounting for our mortgage, car insurance, and other expenses in California, how much could we actually afford to spend on housing and transportation in Italy? Working through those numbers kept us from wasting time on cities and areas where housing was beyond our reach—and it had an unexpected side benefit. It forced me to take a hard look at unnecessary spending back home. Too many Amazon orders, for one. For anyone considering a part-time life in Italy, getting clear on the budget early makes everything that follows more manageable. Step 4: Housing We found that renting in Italy can be much cheaper than in California, especially outside major cities. We started out in Puglia, where we rented a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment for 2,000 euros a year, plus utilities. In our current area of southern Tuscany, rents typically run 400–500 euros a month. We rented in Puglia for about 18 months before deciding to buy in Tuscany. Our budget put us in the 70,000–80,000 euro range, with a little left over for renovations. We didn't think we could find anything in that range in Tuscany until our friends in Puglia encouraged us to visit the Monte Amiata area, in the southern part of the region, where historical homes could still be found at affordable prices. We planned a trip and realized the area would be a great fit: near the cultural and natural sites Tuscany is famous for, and accessible to miles of hiking trails, ski runs, and mountain biking. Culture and nature together drew us there. On that visit, we found a house, made an offer, and it was accepted. We took a 15th-century home and upgraded it with modern amenities while preserving its character. We've since sold that house and bought another in the same area, which we are renovating now. I've written about that journey in earlier blogs. The lesson in all of this: once you've established a budget, it becomes much easier to decide which areas fit and which to rule out. Our local friends helped steer us toward areas they thought matched what we were looking for, and we ended up with a great realtor team who have since become friends. For anyone ready to begin, the process looks something like this: research on sites such as Casa.it, then reaching out to a local realtor to get a feel for their service and availability, and finally visiting the town in person. There's no other way to get a sense of a place than going there. Step 5: Transportation When we started out in Puglia, we quickly realized that a car was necessary to see the things we came to Italy for. Our local friends told us about a rental service, run by friends of friends, where one could rent used cars — insurance included — starting at 15 euros a day. We used their services the entire time we were in Puglia. The only downside was that the lower-end cars weren't reliable for long trips, so when we drove to the Amalfi coast, for example, we rented a different car. We haven't found a similar service in Tuscany. Our area isn't well served by trains — the closest major station is in Grosseto, about a 50-minute drive — so a car here isn't optional. And for much of Tuscany, that's the reality. Public transportation simply doesn't reach the places that make this region worth living in. I've written more about renting and leasing a car in Italy elsewhere, so I won't repeat all of that here. But no matter how one goes about it, having a car is a major expense — and the options are limited. Registering a car is tied to residency, so purchasing one while maintaining residency elsewhere isn't possible. That leaves leasing (which can be cheaper for stays of two months or more) or renting (daily or long term). We go back and forth between the Renault lease program and the long-term rental option from Sicily By Car. Both have drawbacks, but they're the best options we've found so far. Calculating transportation costs early is essential. It's one of the less glamorous parts of planning a life in Italy, but it shapes daily life more than most people expect. Step 6: Relationships Relationships are what make life flow in Italy. Whether we've been baffled by bureaucratic procedures, cultural differences, or access to services, our local friends and acquaintances have smoothed the way. How do I pay the property taxes? How does recycling work? What's the easiest way to get to Florence? Where can we find tile in our area? Every one of these questions has been answered by someone we know, not by a guidebook. But relationships here go beyond solving problems. We come from a culture of "getting things done," and sometimes we forget to pause and experience the people around us. Living in Italy is helping us slow down, enjoy the moment, make time for friendships, and reconsider what matters most. Taking the time to cultivate those connections has been one of the most important steps in building a life here. Step 7: Experience I'm a retired high school teacher, and my students taught me that experience is the best teacher. When they became glassy-eyed as I explained the glories of the Italian Renaissance, I knew something was wrong. The subject was fascinating to me — so why not to them? Because it was abstract. They had nothing to connect it to. So we organized a tour of Florence in the classroom, setting up seven or eight stations that students would visit in groups and complete a task. One station was Brunelleschi's dome, where students had to figure out how to create a dome with their bodies, using their hands to balance the student on the other side, and then write about the engineering principles at work. At another, they watched a two-minute video on Michelangelo's David and made a quick sketch in their notebooks. The next day, their boredom had turned to interest — because now they had experience to reflect on, not just ideas. Living in Italy has worked on us the same way. For example, our Italian friends tend to be more spontaneous than our American friends, often inviting us to a local festival or a pizza outing only hours beforehand. We learned to stop resisting and say yes. Each invitation became its own kind of lesson — not just about Italian culture, but about ourselves. The more we experienced life here, the more we began to question assumptions we'd carried from home. What we thought was the "right" way to do things turned out to be just one way. That openness has changed how we see other cultures, and it's changed how we see our own. Insights Living in Italy part time didn't happen all at once—it came together in steps, each one building on the last. It started with a practical question: could we afford it? Defining our budget gave us clarity and kept us from chasing places that were out of reach. That single step narrowed the field and made everything that followed more manageable. Housing taught us to be flexible. Renting first gave us time to learn the rhythms of a place without the weight of ownership. When we eventually bought, it was because the right opportunity appeared—not because we forced it. And when we sold, we discovered that a home can be a chapter rather than a final destination. Transportation is one of the less glamorous realities, but it shapes daily life more than people expect. In much of Tuscany, a car isn't optional—it's essential. Building that cost into the budget early saved us from surprises later. Of everything we've learned, relationships have mattered the most. Our local friends have guided us through bureaucracy, connected us with services, and invited us into a way of life we never could have accessed on our own. Investing in those friendships hasn't just made logistics easier—it has changed how we experience Italy. And finally, experience itself has been our greatest teacher. Every step—renting, buying, renovating, selling, starting over—taught us something we couldn't have learned any other way. The willingness to say yes, to be spontaneous, to trust the process, has made this life possible. For anyone considering a part-time life in Italy: start with your budget, rent before you buy, invest in relationships, and trust that each step will teach you what you need for the next one. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer. https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

What we learned bringing a new kitchen into our Italian homes It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: Swapping out a kitchen This week we focus on living in Italy and what we learned about swapping out our kitchen for a new one. Previous kitchen/before photo Step 2: An early lesson in Puglia At the beginning of our Italian adventure, we thought we would settle in Puglia, where many of our friends live and where the lifestyle is similar to that of southern California. So, after renting for a year, we made an offer on a house. Though the offer did not work out, we learned a lot, especially about kitchens in Italy. Step 3: The kitchen that was a wedding present We worked with a realtor in Puglia and crafted the offer to stipulate what we wanted included in the sale, including the kitchen. The kitchen was a bit dated, but we could not afford to install a new one immediately. The seller responded that they would consider our offer but that they would not leave their kitchen. When we asked the realtor why, she said, "It was a wedding present, so they want to take it with them." We were like, "huh?" The realtor went on to explain that it is common practice to remove the kitchen when a house is sold because it often has sentimental value. "But," we objected, "we can't afford 12-15,000 euro for a new kitchen!" The realtor laughed. "Kitchens don't have to cost that much in Italy!" We learned that she was right. Step 4: Kitchen shopping in Tuscany Fast-forward to when we bought our house in Tuscany. At a certain point, we realized that the historical kitchen would not work for us and that we needed to find out what a new kitchen would cost. We consulted with our local friends and realtor, who directed us toward a few large national chain stores; the most well-known is Mondo Convenienza. Our friend told us, "There you can find affordable but nice kitchens that include all the appliances!" But we were more familiar with Ikea kitchens, so we went there first. Step 5: Our Ikea experience in Florence There was something comforting and familiar about walking through the kitchen displays at the Ikea in Florence. They seemed so affordable, with signs displaying things like "950 euro, including appliances," or "All this for 1,500 euro!" We set up the planning appointment at Ikea, provided our measurements, and met with a planner online from our home. She quickly devised a design but did not seem to hear some of our wants. "We want the stove to be between the sink and the dishwasher because there is a window that we don't want the stove in front of," we said. She shook her head. "Oh, we can't do that," she replied, and proceeded anyway. Then she asked if we wanted assembly included and a few other questions about the wood countertop, etc. Previous kitchen Ultimately, we did not get the kitchen design we wanted, and the price was way over what we wanted to spend. What happened to the "All this for 1,500 euro" kitchen? It was not a reality. Step 6: Trying Mondo Convenienza We decided to follow our local friend's advice and headed over to Mondo Convenienza to take a look. This store has kitchens, furniture, lighting, and other household amenities. We found their furniture bulky and lighting fixtures old-fashioned, but their kitchens looked sleek and modern with prices starting at around 1,700 euro. Within 15 minutes, they accommodated us with a designer. Step 7: Design, delivery, and installation We walked through the store and found a kitchen that we liked. After we provided the measurements, the designer developed a great design with all the basics. But the sink was too small, and the faucet was ugly. We upgraded the sink and stove and said that we would provide our own kitchen faucet. Installation? Yes. Do you need a plumber to do the hookups? No, we have our own. New kitchen So, our sleek kitchen, including a dishwasher, oven with induction cooktop, large sink, and modern cabinets with countertops, cost a fraction of what it would have back in the US, even with the upgrades. We ordered the kitchen, and the following month, it was installed with no glitches. Insights When buying a house in the US, having to put in a new kitchen is a big consideration in deciding whether to proceed. This mindset is what we brought with us to Italy, but we discovered that a full kitchen replacement does not have to be as expensive as we thought. Doing the leg work helped us discover that buying and renovating a house and establishing a life in Italy can be less expensive than we had imagined. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer. https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

We finally got the real explanation, from someone who installs these machines for a living It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). Step 1: This week let's revisit the mystery of the Italian washing machine In our first year living in Italy, I wrote a blog about the mystery of the Italian washing machine. It was meant to be lighthearted, aimed at making readers smile rather than explaining all the technical details of the machine. I wrote it because many people who come to Italy face the same mystery: why does washing laundry at home take up to five hours? To solve the mystery, we asked local friends in Puglia to come over and explain the codes and symbols on the washing machine dial. At one point there were four of us, with a fifth person looking over our shoulders, trying to make sense of it. Finally I suggested they show us the shortest cycle, and we would stick to that one. After some investigating, we found it: about thirty minutes. Through trial and error, we discovered we could clean clothes by running this cycle twice — once with detergent and once without. We did not fully understand the Italian washing machine, but we found a solution that worked for us. Then something happened. Step 2: The dishwasher mystery deepens When we first used our new dishwasher, the default "Eco" program ran for three hours before finishing. The next day I found a "short wash" cycle instead, which promptly tripped our electric switch twice. It turned out the mystery was not just about washing machines. Step 3: The technician who finally explained it In previous posts, we talked about our decision to move from Puglia to Tuscany, buy a house, and renovate it. As part of the renovation, we bought a dryer to speed up the laundry process. When it was delivered by our local electronics store, a trained technician came to install it and walk us through it. In Italy, many things run on relationships, so we make a point of supporting our local businesses when we buy large items like appliances. By the time the dryer arrived, we were already friendly with the store's staff and with the delivery technician himself. While he was there, I asked him about the best energy-saving programs for our washer, dryer, and dishwasher. What he told us finally unraveled the mystery of the Italian washing machine — and it turned out the same logic applies to our dryer and dishwasher. Step 4: Why "Eco" means slow Our technician explained why the eco cycle, despite taking so long, is the one to use. "Eco" refers to programs that are more efficient in their electricity use. On a washing machine, clothes are washed at lower temperatures than a standard cycle — and the cycle itself runs much longer. Depending on the machine, an eco program can take up to five hours. The extra time does not mean extra energy use. It is closer to the opposite. Heating water is what actually costs money — by some estimates, roughly ninety percent of a wash cycle's electricity goes toward heating the water alone, not toward spinning or tumbling. So the eco cycle avoids blasting the water hot and fast, and instead lets clothes soak at a lower temperature for long stretches. During those soak stretches, the drum barely moves and the heating element sits mostly idle, so the machine is drawing very little power even while the clock keeps running. It only ramps back up in short bursts for the occasional tumble, rinse, or spin. Step 5: Slow and cheap, not slow and wasteful Eco mode turns out to be the most cost-effective setting on the washer and the dishwasher, since both are heating water the same way. The dryer works a little differently — it heats air, not water — but the trade-off is similar: a lower heat setting run longer uses less power overall than blasting hot air to finish fast. Across all three appliances, eco mode uses closer to the minimum energy needed to get the job done, instead of brute-forcing it with heat and speed. Step 6: Reading the dial The dial on an Italian washing machine can carry a mix of symbols and words — sometimes Italian, sometimes another language entirely, usually paired with an icon. A few rough rules of thumb: The word "Eco" signals a long cycle, three to five hours, that uses less energy. A number with a minute symbol, like 40', usually means a short cycle of about that many minutes. A number with a degree symbol, like 40°, refers to water temperature — the higher the number, the more energy the machine uses heating the water, and often the longer the cycle runs. "Express" or "Rapido" points to a very short cycle, around fifteen to twenty minutes, which we sometimes run twice, once with soap and once without, to get clothes properly clean. Insights We still lean on our local appliance store's staff more than we lean on the dial itself. To keep energy use down, we mostly run Eco cycles at night or before we leave in the morning, and for everything else we keep a visual guide to the standard EU washing-machine symbols nearby. The real fix was not decoding the dial ourselves — it was building the kind of relationship with our local store that meant someone was willing to come explain it in person. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer. https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

Why We Got Close, Then Pulled Back It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life! We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the time in California. In previous blogs, I explained how we landed on a part-time arrangement — but that wasn't always the plan. Step 1: This week let's go back to a question we wrestled with early on: should we become full-time residents of Italy? And the visa that would have made that possible — the Elective Residency Visa. Step 2: We started out thinking it had to be full-time When my partner and I first began seriously discussing a move to Italy, we assumed full-time residency was the only option. That is what most people seem to picture when they think about "moving to Italy" — selling the house in the U.S., shipping the belongings, taking the leap. We began trying to figure out residency, the visa path, healthcare enrollment, dual citizenship timelines, and tax filings — pieces of a puzzle we couldn't see how to fit together. Since I would be retired, the visa piece, at least, had a clear answer: we qualified for the Elective Residency Visa. More on the puzzle later. Step 3: What the Elective Residency Visa actually is The Elective Residency Visa — Visto per Residenza Elettiva — is a National Type D long-stay visa designed for non-EU citizens who want to live in Italy without working. It is sometimes called the Italian Retirement Visa, though you do not have to be retired to apply. You simply have to demonstrate that you can support yourself entirely through passive income — money that comes from sources other than a job. The fit was natural. At the time, I was a few years from retiring from teaching, and my pension and Social Security would form exactly the kind of stable, recurring passive income the ERV requires. That made it the logical path for us, and we began looking into it in earnest. Once granted, you enter Italy on the visa and, within eight working days, apply at the local Questura for a residence permit (Permesso di Soggiorno). The permit is initially issued for one year, renewable annually as long as the original conditions still hold. After five years of continuous residence, ERV holders can apply for permanent residency. After ten years, they become eligible to apply for Italian citizenship. For the full official requirements, the Italian Consulate General in Los Angeles (our region's consulate) keeps a detailed page on this visa: Elective Residency Visa — Consolato Generale d'Italia, Los Angeles. Step 4: The income requirements The working thresholds applied by most consulates for 2026 are roughly €31,000 per year in passive income for a single applicant, and €38,000 to €40,000 per year for a couple. An additional increment is required for each dependent child. Italian law itself doesn't specify a euro figure — consulates settled on the €31,000 number as a working baseline and have applied it ever since. Qualifying sources include pensions, Social Security, rental income, dividends, and royalties. Savings alone do not qualify, no matter how large the balance — the consulate wants to see a recurring flow, not a lump sum. Substantial savings can support an application, but they cannot replace the income requirement. Step 5: You cannot work — and that includes remote work No work. This rule surprises many Americans. The ERV strictly forbids any form of work while you are in Italy on it. That includes working remotely for a U.S. employer, freelance consulting, online business activity, or anything else that generates active income. The Italian government's logic is that this visa is for people who will contribute to the local economy through consumption — buying property, eating in restaurants, paying utilities — rather than for people who are earning a living, regardless of where that work happens. The ban applies even if your work is entirely for a foreign company and your clients never set foot in Italy. Worth noting: Italy offers different visas for different situations. The ERV is for people whose income is fully passive — pensioners, retirees, those living on investments and rentals. People who plan to keep working remotely use the Italian Digital Nomad Visa instead, which has its own income requirements and tax framework. I plan to research and write a future blog on the Digital Nomad Visa, since it has become a popular path for younger international residents who are not yet retired. For us, the no-work rule was not an obstacle in itself — my income would be passive once I retired. But it did shape our timing: we could only realistically pursue the ERV after I left teaching, since active employment income would not have counted. Step 6: Tax residency — the 183-day line Living in Italy under the ERV does not exempt one from paying Italian taxes. If you spend more than 183 days per year in Italy, you are considered an Italian tax resident. Once that line is crossed, Italy taxes your worldwide income, not just what you earn in Italy. The U.S.-Italy tax treaty prevents double taxation in most cases, but it does not eliminate the filing burden. You file in Italy and in the U.S., every year. One detail worth flagging: pensions from government jobs — including most public school teachers — are usually taxed only by the U.S., not by Italy, even once you're an Italian tax resident. That would have applied to my own teaching pension. Social Security works differently: Italy generally taxes it once you live there, treaty or not. The exact rules get technical fast, so treat this as a general guide, not a guarantee for your specific pension. Italy does offer one regime worth knowing about: a 7% flat tax on foreign income for retirees who move to certain southern municipalities. It is a meaningful incentive if you are willing to live in a qualifying town. Given the complexity, this is not a corner to cut: find an Italian accountant — known in Italy as a commercialista — who specifically has experience with U.S.-Italy tax filings, not just Italian tax law in general. That distinction matters. A commercialista who doesn't regularly work with American clients may not know how the treaty, the saving clause, or U.S. reporting requirements interact with your Italian return, and getting it wrong is expensive to unwind. The simplest way to find one is to ask expats already living in Italy who they use. Step 7: Healthcare Health coverage is a requirement of the ERV from start to finish. The form of that coverage can change once you are in Italy. First, for the visa application itself, you must show private health insurance with at least €30,000 of coverage, valid throughout Italy and the Schengen Area, with repatriation coverage included — all of it in place before you enter Italy. That part is non-negotiable. Second, once you arrive and obtain the Permesso di Soggiorno, you have the option to enroll voluntarily in the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale). As of 2026, the annual fee for ERV holders has effectively settled at €2,000, paid in a lump sum and good through December 31 regardless of when in the year you enroll. Higher-income applicants may pay slightly more, but €2,000 is the standard for most retirees. Many expats keep their private policy alongside the SSN — the public system for the broad coverage, the private side for faster appointments and English-speaking doctors. The Italian public health system is genuinely good, particularly in the regions we were looking at. This was one of the most attractive elements of full residency for us. Step 8: We had help We made friends with someone who works in the immigration office in our area — she took a personal interest in our situation and offered to walk us through the process, something she had done for other Americans moving to Italy before us. She showed us what paperwork the consulates expect, what timelines look like, and where people commonly run into trouble. In other words, the institutional obstacles that often discourage people were not what made us pause. We had good guidance, real momentum, and a realistic shot at approval. What made us pull back was something else. Step 9: What made us pull back It came down to three things, layered on top of each other. The first was our obligations in California — responsibilities we cannot free ourselves from, at least not for the foreseeable future. Full-time residency in Italy would have meant trying to manage those obligations from across the Atlantic, and that was never going to work. The second was a slow realization that took us a while to reach: it didn't have to be all or nothing. I have written about this in an earlier blog — the all-or-nothing mindset was, more than anything else, what kept us stuck in the early years in considering a life in Italy. The third followed from the second. Once we accepted that we didn't have to relocate fully, we saw that we could make a life in Italy fit our lifestyle, rather than trying to cram our existing life into a model that wouldn't work for us. That single shift let us sit back, breathe, and welcome the adventure for what it was. Step 10: Where we landed We chose the simpler path: maintaining U.S. residency and spending two stays of about 90 days each in Italy per year, in compliance with the 90/180 Schengen rule. No visa required, no Italian tax residency. We do, however, own our home in Tuscany, pay Italian property taxes, and contribute steadily to the local economy through the months we are there. Some people stretch their time in Europe by doing what is called the Schengen Shuffle — alternating between Schengen and non-Schengen countries to live in Europe full-time without a visa. (I have written a separate blog about how it works.) That isn't us. We are simply part-time residents of Italy, anchored in California. For people whose lives can fully relocate, the ERV is a genuinely good path, and friends of ours have made it work well. But for us, the part-time arrangement is the better fit. We may revisit the question someday. For now, the door is closed, but not locked. Insights The biggest lesson from looking at the ERV was not about the visa itself. It was about the trap we had been living in — the assumption that moving to Italy meant doing it all at once, with no middle ground. Letting go of that assumption changed everything. Once we saw that we could shape a life in Italy around what already worked for us, rather than trying to dismantle our life in California to fit a model designed for someone else, the whole project started to feel like an adventure again rather than a problem to solve. We didn't apply for the visa. But the research was worth it, because it pointed us toward the life that actually fits. More next time. If you enjoy reading about Italian life, you may enjoy my book on southern Italy — where two Californians meet a region shaped as much by its history as by the people living in it now. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — a book of southern Italian life, culture, and history, told through my own experience of the region and the stories behind its towns, its people, and its past. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

A Lesson in Slowing Down It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps we took. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We started our Italian adventure in Puglia, and though we've since made our way north to Tuscany (read more about that move here: Our Italian Adventure: Leaving Puglia), this particular lesson held true in both places — the riposo is alive and well whether you're in the deep south or the hill towns further north. As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: The art itself The riposo, siesta, or afternoon nap in southern Italy is neither an obligation nor a recreational activity. It is an art — one that took us, two lifelong overachievers from California, an embarrassingly long time to learn. We came from a culture where lunch is eaten at a desk, over a keyboard, in under twenty minutes. Puglia had other plans for us. Part of what makes the art possible is architecture. Nearly every window here comes fitted with a tapparella — a rolling shutter that looks and sounds exactly like a garage door, cranked down by hand or a switch on the wall. Pull it shut at one in the afternoon, and a sunlit room goes instantly, completely dark, as if someone flipped a switch on the day itself. It's full-immersion riposo: no eye mask required, no fighting sunlight through the curtains. Italians didn't just adopt a habit of resting at midday — they engineered their houses around it. Step 2: A little history Being Californians, we knew the word "siesta" well enough, and on some rare occasion may even have allowed ourselves a short afternoon nap. So when we first encountered the midday shutdown in Italy, we assumed we were looking at the same thing — after all, siesta is a Spanish word, so surely the practice was Spanish too, whether it came from Spain itself or made its way north to California by way of Mexico. We were half right. The word is Spanish. The practice is much older, and Roman. The Spanish word "siesta" comes from the Latin hora sexta, the sixth hour, counted from dawn. For a Roman who rose with the sun, the sixth hour landed squarely at midday — exactly when the sun was doing its worst. Work stopped. Rich and poor alike retreated indoors to eat, rest, and wait out the heat before the city stirred back to life in the cooler hours of the evening. It was less a luxury than a survival strategy, worked out centuries before anyone had heard of air conditioning. The habit spread from Rome around the Mediterranean and into Latin America, wherever the sun made working straight through the day a bad idea. Which is to say: long before it had a Spanish name, the midday nap had a Latin one — and Rome got there first. Step 3: The benefits None of this would matter much if a nap were just a nap. But numerous studies show that naps can improve mood, physical performance, and mental sharpness — provided you do them correctly. I did not, at first, do them correctly. When I lived in Rome as a student, I turned the riposo into a research project of my own design: long lunches, a glass of wine (sometimes two), followed by naps that ran well past the hour mark. At the time, it felt like I'd discovered the secret to a good life. In retrospect, I'd discovered an excellent way to ruin a semester. I couldn't sleep at night, I was groggy through what daylight hours I had left, and my studies suffered for it. It was then that I discovered that the riposo is an art — and that I had been practicing it like an amateur. I cut the wine from lunch and trimmed the nap to thirty minutes or less. The difference was immediate: I came out sharper, not groggier. It turns out the research backs this up. Naps of ten to twenty minutes are enough to improve performance and lower stress, while anything past thirty minutes risks tipping you into deep sleep — and waking from that brings on sleep inertia, the grogginess that leaves you worse off than if you'd skipped the nap entirely. Set an alarm, and set it for thirty minutes or under. Again: the riposo is an art. Like most art, it rewards discipline more than indulgence. Step 4: Closed doors Mastering your own riposo is one thing. Working around everyone else's is another — and it's the part newcomers to Italy tend to learn the hard way. A friend spent a few weeks traveling around Italy some years ago, seeing all the beautiful sites. When he got home to Los Angeles, we gathered to hear about the trip. Someone asked, "Did you learn any Italian?" "Yes," he said. "One word." We waited. "Chiuso," he said. Chiuso means closed. Apparently he'd seen it more than he'd seen the Colosseum. We didn't understand the joke until we moved here ourselves. Soon after arriving in Puglia, we decided to drive the forty-five minutes to Otranto to see the famous cathedral floors — a mosaic maze of biblical history laid into the stone. We parked, walked across town, dodged the cafés and tourist shops, and arrived at the cathedral door a little after noon, quite pleased with our timing. The door was locked. "What the—?!" I said, or something less printable, staring at a cathedral that had survived Ottoman invasions and eight centuries of history but apparently could not survive lunchtime. We had forgotten the riposo, which in this case had started at noon sharp. We made the same mistake almost immediately after — with our gym, of all places. Being from California, we assumed a gym meant hours running from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., the way the fitness gods intended. We should have read the hours posted at the front desk more carefully when we joined that first week. One day, needing to run errands in the morning, we strolled over after lunch expecting a treadmill and a shower. We found a locked door instead. Apparently, even the weights need a nap. Step 5: What we've learned We've since stopped fighting it. These days we plan around the riposo the way you'd plan around rush hour — not as an inconvenience, but as a fact of the landscape, one with its own logic once you stop resisting it. There's something genuinely human about it: employees go home, eat lunch, spend an hour with their families, rest, and return to finish the day, rather than grinding through eight or nine hours without a real break. Many businesses have abandoned the riposo, and I suspect that trend will continue. Still, it would be a pity to lose it entirely. In a world where value gets measured by how much you produce in the shortest possible time, the art of the riposo points to something else — the idea that a day is meant to be paused and savored, not just gotten through. Insights Life in Italy — Puglia or Tuscany alike — has many lessons, including the art of the riposo. Rather than seeing the afternoon closing of businesses as an inconvenience, we've come to experience it as a small blessing: a pause built into the day, so you arrive at evening refreshed instead of running on empty. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

How we track our days abroad to stay fully within the rules It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: What Is the Schengen Area? This week let's explore a topic that affects every part of our time in Italy: the Schengen Area. This is a zone, currently made up of 29 European countries (as of August 2026), that allows for unrestricted movement of people across internal borders. The countries in this zone follow common rules for controlling their external borders. It takes its name from a small village in Luxembourg, where the original agreement was signed back in 1985. The rules below apply to visa-free visitors like us, not to EU citizens or to people who already hold legal residency somewhere in the Schengen Area. Those two groups can move and stay freely, without the day limits we track. Step 2: Which Countries Belong to the Schengen Zone? The 29 Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Bulgaria and Romania are the newest members, having completed full integration, including land borders, at the start of 2025. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland belong to the zone as well, even though they are not European Union members. Two EU countries, Cyprus and Ireland, sit outside Schengen entirely, so a Schengen visa does not apply there. Cyprus is edging closer, though, with a positive readiness assessment from the European Commission in the summer of 2026 and a Council vote on accession expected later in the year (as of August 2026). Step 3: Rules for Visitors to the Schengen Area For travelers transiting through or intending to stay in the Schengen Area for a short period, the EU has established common visa rules. These apply the same way across every member country. Step 4: Passport Validity Before any of the day-counting rules matter, your passport itself has to meet a basic standard. To enter the Schengen Area, it must be valid for at least six months beyond your entry date. If it is set to expire sooner than that, an airline can deny you boarding before you ever reach passport control, so this is worth checking well ahead of any trip. Step 5: Visa-Free Visitors For visa-free visitors, the duration of stay across the Schengen countries is up to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period. This limit is cumulative across the entire zone. It is not counted separately country by country. The "rolling" part is what trips people up. It is not a calendar window, like January through June. Instead, on any given day, the system looks back exactly 180 days and adds up how many of them you spent inside the Schengen Area. For example, if you entered Italy on May 1 and left on July 29, that is 90 days used. You could not return until late October, once enough of those May and June days had rolled out of the 180-day lookback window. Step 6: Consequences of Overstaying Overstaying the 90-day limit can bring a number of consequences. These include uncomfortable interviews with border officials, fines, deportation, and an entry ban that can affect future travel to the zone. Step 7: Who Does This Affect? If one has not established residency in Italy but is living here for part of the year, following the Schengen guidelines as a non-resident is essential. Otherwise, one risks becoming an unlawful resident, with all the consequences that come with it. Step 8: How to Calculate a Stay This is often called the 90/180 rule, but it is a little more nuanced than a simple count. Since we always want to be sure we are in compliance, we rely on this calculator to check our days: https://www.visa-calculator.com. Since April 10, 2026, this has become less of an honor system. The EU activated the Entry/Exit System (EES), which records entries and exits at Schengen borders digitally and biometrically. Our day count is no longer something a border agent estimates from a stamp; it is tracked automatically and shared across the entire zone. That makes keeping our own accurate count even more important, since there is no longer any room for a miscalculation to go unnoticed. Step 9: Full Residency as an Alternative Some choose to establish full-time residency in Italy instead. The advantages include being able to live in the country year-round, purchase a car, and share in the rights and obligations of EU residency. For us, because of ongoing obligations in California, we can only live in this wonderful place for part of the year. That makes it all the more important to stay current on any changes to Schengen guidelines. Step 10: For More Information For further reading, the EU's official overview of the Schengen Area is a good starting point: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/schengen-area/. Insights Living in Italy in compliance with Schengen guidelines is one of our top priorities. Dividing our time between two countries can get complicated without a clear understanding of how all the moving parts fit together. It is also worth keeping an eye on ETIAS, a new EU travel-authorization system for visa-free visitors. As of August 2026, its launch has been delayed several times and does not yet have a confirmed date. It is not in effect yet, but it is expected to add a step to future travel to the zone, and we will report back once it does. More next time. For further reading The Schengen Shuffle The Schengen Shuffle: Revisited If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

A field guide for public restrooms that leave you standing It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: This week, let's explore why toilet seats are missing in some public restrooms in Italy Have you ever found yourself in this situation? You are traveling, or away from your lodging in Italy, and you really need to find a bathroom. You rush in, check for toilet paper (what a relief!), and then turn to sit down, only to discover there is no toilet seat. How do you react? (No swearing, please.) Step 2: Experience Today, I walked into the bathroom at our gym in Tuscany and noticed, once again, the absence of a toilet seat. I decided to ask the manager about it. I also spoke with some locals about the shortage of toilet seats, and at times toilet paper. Here is what I discovered. Step 3: Why? The first reason for the lack of toilet seats is breakage. Our gym manager explained it this way: "It's not a matter of cultural differences; it's about usage. I've replaced the toilet seat six times, and each time it was broken. People come in, and because they don't want to touch the seat, they squat on it, or even stand on it! Naturally, this causes the seat to break, so I just stopped replacing them." The second reason, as locals have told me, is that there is no "one size fits all" toilet seat in Italy. The U.S. has a handful of standard sizes, but Italy has many different types of toilets and seats, which makes finding a replacement for an older one surprisingly difficult. Our gym manager also mentioned a toilet paper dilemma: "Every time I put toilet paper in the bathroom, someone steals it. When I put hand sanitizer there, it disappears too. I have no idea why, so I stopped providing it." A local also pointed out that it is hard to find staff willing to clean public restrooms. The dirtier a restroom gets, the less willing people are to sit on the seat, which pushes them toward standing or squatting instead. By the way, I cannot imagine how anyone aside from an acrobat could actually stand on top of a toilet seat and use it. Step 4: Dealing with it Instead of complaining about the mystery of the missing toilet seat, it is more practical to have a plan. Here is what I carry: Disinfectant wipes My own toilet paper or tissues Something to cover the rim before sitting down Wipe the rim first, then place your covering down, sit, relax, and enjoy. Clean up with your own paper or wipes, then wash your hands. Now face the world with confidence. Insights With a little planning, the mystery of the missing toilet seat does not have to ruin an outing. Instead, it can become one more memory that brings a smile, if you are prepared. More next time. If a small mystery like this one makes you smile, there are more where it came from. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy — the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer. https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

What we learned sorting rifiuti in Puglia and Tuscany It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: This week, let's stay close to home and sort our trash together We believed we were recycling well in California by putting our plastic and glass in one bin and everything else in another. When we got to Italy, we realized our recycling practices had been fairly basic. Step 2: How trash is differentiated in Italy Italy separates trash into several categories: paper, organic materials, plastic, glass, metals, and non-recyclable waste. Some municipalities group certain categories together, such as plastic and metal, so it is worth checking how your specific area sorts things before assuming the rules are the same everywhere. Step 3: Is it the same everywhere in Italy? How you recycle depends a lot on where you live. The Italian government works hard to maintain its reputation as a leader in sustainability. According to Expatica, citing the Circular Economy Network, Italy recycled 72 percent of its trash in 2020, compared to an EU average of 53 percent. That commitment is part of why the country continues to expand its waste management systems and services, and why municipalities (comuni) will fine residents who do not comply. Step 4: Trash pickup, at home or down the street In our town in Puglia, trash was picked up every week on designated days. We had to remember which day each type of recycling or trash was collected and put it out the night before. We frequently had to check our chart, because we could never remember on our own. If we were away for a few days or more, the accumulated trash would have to sit until we returned. We no longer live in the historical center of our town in Tuscany, but even where we are now, just outside it, we do not have trash pickup at the house. Instead, we walk it down to large color-coded bins a few blocks away. We prefer this method, since we do not have to wait until a specific day to dispose of a particular type of trash. These bins are locked but can be opened with a magnetic card obtained at the local government office by showing proof of home ownership. If someone is renting a place, the owner supplies this card. Step 5: Color coding of trash bins Trash bins are color-coded: blue for paper, brown for organic, yellow for plastic, gray for non-recyclable. Some areas also use green for glass and turquoise for metals. Step 6: The challenge of multiple containers in the kitchen Having multiple trash containers in the kitchen can be a hassle in a small space, and I will be honest that it took some adjusting. In our kitchen in Puglia, we were fortunate to have a larger space, so we could place all of our containers along one side of the kitchen. We had to look at them all the time, but at least we did not trip over them. We also had an outdoor storage area at the bottom of our stairs, which let us move trash and recyclables out of the kitchen and keep them there until trash day. In Tuscany, we have a soggiorno, a main room that serves as kitchen, living room, and dining room all at once. Because space is limited, we wanted to avoid trash containers cluttering the floor. We found some stackable units shortly before we returned to California and set them up in our pantry. We had to get smaller trash cans so everything would fit. Smaller cans mean more trips to the bins, but it is worth it. I dislike clutter, and I would rather drop off recycling every morning on the way to the gym than look at trash containers in our main room. Insights Italy's recycling program takes some getting used to, but it is an excellent step for the environment. The US is behind on this, though we are heading in the same direction. In fact, our local trash disposal company in California recently issued color-coded bins as part of a voluntary recycling program modeled on the EU. Learning this more differentiated system in Italy has been good practice for us, and once we got past the learning curve, it became second nature. More next time. If you have enjoyed reading about our life in Italy, my memoir goes deeper into where it began. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy is the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

Understanding the 90/180 rule, and how some travelers stretch their time in Europe It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. Step 1: This week, let's explore the Schengen Shuffle Some of the most resourceful people we have met while researching life in Italy are not the ones who moved here permanently. They are the ones who found a way to stay for months at a time without ever applying for residency. Their solution has a name: the Schengen Shuffle. Step 2: Our story When our dream of living in Italy began to take shape, we realized we needed to determine what would work best for us. Initially, we thought our only options were to either live there full-time or not at all. We explored dual citizenship, residency requirements, and visa regulations. We learned that we could stay in Italy for only 90 days without a visa, and that an elective visa was the best option for us if we wanted a more permanent stay. However, our commitments in California would prevent us from living in Europe full-time. We felt stuck and could not see beyond the constraints we had imposed on ourselves. In a previous blog post, I reflected on how we moved past that all-or-nothing mindset and began to recognize that a life in Italy could fit within the realities of our situation. Ultimately, we decided that our best solution would be to maintain our residency in the U.S. and live in Italy for two to three months at a time, twice a year, in compliance with Schengen Area regulations. Along the way, we have met many people living in Italy, and no two of their stories look alike. Some have gone all in: they obtained residency, sold their homes in the U.S., and became full-time expats while keeping their American citizenship. Others live more like us, splitting their year between their home country and Italy in stretches of 90 days or less. And a few have built their year entirely around the Schengen Shuffle, moving between Italy and a non-Schengen country to stay in Europe far longer than either of us has ever considered. Step 3: What is the Schengen Area? In a previous blog, I explained what the Schengen Area is, but to summarize: The Schengen Area allows free movement for over 450 million EU citizens and for non-EU nationals who already hold legal residency somewhere in the EU. For these two groups, there is no time limit. They can travel, work, and live in any Schengen country without special permits, and they cross internal borders without so much as a passport check. Non-EU visitors face a different set of rules, capped at 90 days within any 180-day period. The Schengen Area consists of 29 countries, including most EU nations except Cyprus and Ireland. Bulgaria and Romania became members on January 1, 2025, joining non-EU countries Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Cyprus is edging closer to joining as well — the European Commission gave a positive assessment of its readiness in the summer of 2026, with a Council vote on accession expected later in the year — but as of this writing, no membership date has been confirmed. Step 4: A little history The Schengen Area is one of the significant achievements of the European Union. Five countries — France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg — initiated it in 1985. It has since grown to become the largest free travel area in the world. Named after a village in Luxembourg where the original agreements were signed, the Schengen Area allows member countries to eliminate checks at internal borders, except during specific security threats. Instead, standardized controls are implemented at their external borders based on clear criteria. Step 5: Passport requirements To enter the Schengen Area, your passport must be valid for at least six months from the date of your entry. If your passport is set to expire within that six-month period, airlines may deny you boarding on your flight to Europe. Step 6: The 90/180 rule For travelers from non-EU countries, such as the U.S., visiting Schengen countries without a visa is allowed for a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period. Overstay that window, even by a day, and you risk fines, deportation, or a ban on reentering the Schengen Area for a set period. If you frequently travel to these countries, keeping precise track of your stays is essential. For travelers who cut it close, a Schengen visa calculator, such as the one at visa-calculator.com, is a useful way to track exact days and avoid crossing the limit by accident. Step 7: What is the Schengen Shuffle? The Schengen Shuffle is a strategy that travelers use to manage their time in and out of the Schengen Area, ensuring they do not exceed the 90-day limit. This often involves moving between Schengen and non-Schengen countries, resetting the clock each time they leave. Step 10 walks through exactly how that works. We know a couple who lives in Italy for 90 days at a time. After that period, they move to Turkey, where they rent a house for another 90 days. They have been doing this for years, and it works well for them. We have written about specific pairings like this in more depth elsewhere on the blog, including Italy and Turkey and Italy and Albania, with an Italy and Montenegro post coming soon. Step 8: Schengen countries Here are all 29 countries where the rules from Step 3 apply: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Step 9: Non-Schengen European countries Several European countries are not part of the Schengen Area, and each has its own border regulations: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Ireland, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. Step 10: How to do the Shuffle Doing the Schengen Shuffle means living in non-Schengen countries between stays in Schengen countries. For instance, you can spend 90 days in Spain and then travel to Montenegro or Albania, which are outside the Schengen Area. After your stay in one of these non-Schengen countries, you can return to the Schengen Area and continue traveling without needing a visa. Step 11: Who does the Schengen Shuffle, and why? Maintaining residency in one's country of origin while living full-time in Europe through the Schengen Shuffle can be an effective strategy for those not seeking European residency. There are various reasons someone might choose this path: a sabbatical year in Europe, work or family obligations that require keeping residency at home, financial or medical reasons, or simply a desire to experience different cultures and countries throughout the year without making drastic residency changes. Some assume this is about avoiding taxes. It rarely is. Most people we have met doing this are simply building a life that does not fit inside one country's calendar. Step 12: A few things we have learned from those who do this As mentioned in Step 6, tracking days precisely matters, and it matters even more once you are shuffling repeatedly rather than making a single trip. The people we know who do this keep a running count of their time in and out of the Schengen Area rather than trying to do the math themselves. Planning ahead saves a lot of last-minute stress. The couples and individuals we have talked to book their off-period travel and lodging well before they get anywhere near their Schengen limit, and they check visa requirements for whatever non-Schengen country they are headed to next, since those rules vary from place to place. Track your days. Use an app like a Schengen calculator to track your time inside and outside the Schengen Area — even one extra day can lead to fines or a travel ban. Plan ahead. Book your off-period travel and lodging before you reach your Schengen limit, so you are not scrambling at the last minute. Understand visa requirements. Some non-Schengen countries have their own visa rules, so check these and apply for anything you need well in advance. Mix up your locations. Spend your Schengen days in the popular spots that draw you most, and use your off-period to seek out somewhere quieter. Embrace slow travel. Ninety days in one or two Schengen countries is enough time to settle in and experience a place beyond a tourist's first impression. Insights What strikes us most about the Schengen Shuffle is how many different lives it can support. The couple we know who splits their year between Italy and Turkey are not chasing loopholes. They built a rhythm that lets them live abroad on their own terms, without giving up the residency and obligations that anchor them elsewhere. That is really what this comes down to: knowing the rules well enough to build a life around them, rather than letting the rules decide what your life looks like. More next time. For further reading The Schengen Shuffle in Italy Managing the Schengen Shuffle Mastering the Schengen Shuffle If you have wondered whether a life split between two countries could work for you, our own path through indecision to a workable rhythm might resonate. Stories from Puglia: Two Californians in Southern Italy is the memoir of finding our way through the towns, food, and people of the deep south — the trip that started all of this. "This book elevated my trip. Well written and fun." — Amazon reviewer https://a.co/d/0340l3Ak

Why is the washing machine still going? It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is our life! We live in Tuscany in the Fall, then back again in the Spring, and in California for the rest of the time (in a previous blog, I explained why we live in Italy only part of the year). As we explore areas in Italy, we discover some gems worth sharing. Some are well-known tourist magnets, and others are lesser-known but always amazing. This week, we finally get to the bottom of the Italian washing machine mystery. But first, a tour of everywhere else we have had to improvise: hotel sinks, laundromats we could not use, and one particularly resourceful bidet. Step 1: Planning ahead When traveling or living in Italy, I always try to stay in an Airbnb with a washing machine, so I do not have to worry about running out of clothes. But sometimes I have stayed in a hotel while traveling around the country and sought other laundry solutions. I will share some of my experiences. Step 2: The full-service laundromat conundrum Our trip to the Italian Dolomites a few years ago was incredible. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in a stunning area for a week. We hiked, picnicked, hiked again, took the gondola up the mountain, then hiked some more. With all that hiking, we got sweaty and ended up showering a few times a day, and quickly ran out of clean clothes. Our sinks could not keep up, so we bagged the whole pile and went looking for a laundromat in town. We found one, eventually. "You can't do it yourselves," the woman behind the counter told us, "but we can wash it for you." Fair enough, we thought, until she came back with a price. It turned out the cost depended on the weight of the pile, and ours weighed enough to run us over $60. We picked out what we could still manage in the sinks, left the rest with her, and paid $40 for what remained. That was years ago, so I have no idea what it would cost today. But we learned our lesson: pack for the hiking, not just the trip. Step 3: The self-service laundromat When I go to Rome and stay in my favorite neighborhood, Campo dei Fiori, I know exactly where the self-service laundromat is. If I am staying somewhere without a washing machine, which is rare, I just wash my clothes there. Simple. Other European cities are not always so obliging. A few years ago in Vienna, we had too many clothes to wash in the sink. I found a self-service laundromat online: a thirty-minute bus ride away, down streets neither of us knew, for an activity that could eat half a day we could have spent seeing Vienna. My partner looked at the map, then at me. "I don't want to waste our precious time here doing that," he said. He had a point, especially since there was an H&M two blocks from our lodging. We walked over, bought a few cheap new pieces, and were back out exploring within the hour. Lesson learned: when there is a fast-fashion store closer than the laundromat, do not fight it. Step 4: Washing in my room I have to confess that I have never used a bidet for its designed purpose, but I have found that it is the perfect shape and size for soaking and washing socks and underwear, after sanitizing it, of course. The plus is hassle-free washing using minimal time. The minus is that the clothes are refreshed but not truly cleaned, and finding a place to dry them can be a hassle. Enough said about that. Step 5: The Italian washing machine mystery My first experience of the mystery of the Italian washing machine was while staying with a friend in Rome. After a few days I needed to do laundry, so I threw some clothes in, poured in some detergent, and set it to the "cotton" cycle. When I left the apartment and returned about four hours later, the wash cycle was still churning. There were three of us in the apartment, and at this rate we could only do two small laundry loads a day. We all studied the illustrated dial on the washing machine, which looked like something off the Voyager spacecraft, the kind of symbol some other civilization was supposed to be able to decipher. Even my friend, who owned the apartment and had lived there for years, stared at it as baffled as we were. He had never really thought about it, he admitted; living there alone, he just threw a load in before leaving for work and dealt with it whenever he got home. We could not figure it out, so we started doing laundry before bed, another load when one of us first got up, and another during the day. So there we have it: the mystery of the Italian washing machine. Why such long cycles in the first place? A local friend told us it comes down to water and energy conservation. She also explained the real mechanical difference: a typical American washing machine hooks up to both the hot and cold lines and simply draws pre-heated water from the house's own water heater. An Italian washing machine, by contrast, usually connects to cold water only. Whatever heat the wash needs, the machine has to generate itself, one degree at a time, which is a big part of why the cycle stretches out so long. Now that we live in Puglia, we have not so much cracked this mystery as learned to work around it. We found a fifteen-minute cycle on the dial, and we run it twice, at 30 degrees Celsius, which is about room temperature. Our local friends protested, telling us our clothes would never get clean on such a short cycle. Well, they seem clean to us. Step 6: Dryer luxuries We went to Naples with local friends last year and wandered through the incredible streets, taking in the history, the architecture, and the laundry. When we happened upon someone's clothes drying rack on the street, chained to a pole, I remarked, "But don't they have dryers here?" Our Italian friends stopped in the street, looked at each other, and burst out laughing. They still tell this story to their friends; one of them said it reminds them of the line attributed to Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat cake." Since Italy has to import all of its gas and most of its energy, having a dryer is something of a luxury, since dryers take a lot of energy to run. So the American assumption that an Italian home or family has a dryer makes our Italian friends laugh. And rightly so. Step 7: The washer-dryer combination "Wow, this is so cool! We have a washer that also dries our clothes!" I said to my partner the moment we checked into our Airbnb in Seville, Spain. Combined washer-dryers are common enough in Europe, though almost unheard of in the US, and we were thrilled with the new convenience. The excitement lasted until my partner came down with the flu on that same trip, feverish and sweating through his clothes, and we actually needed to use it. "Good thing we have this washer-dryer combo," I said, cheerfully opening the door to load it up. The clothes would not go in. I tried stuffing them in as one bundle, gave up, and knelt down to get a proper look inside. That is when I saw the problem: the machinery packed into that thing left almost no room for an actual wash basin. We could fit in a handful of items at a time, and what took one load in California took three loads here. Each of those loads took five hours or more, wash and dry combined. Three loads meant the better part of a day standing guard over a machine the size of a nightstand, and by the end of it, my partner's clothes were still damp. We have not used a washer-dryer combo since. Step 8: Drying clothes Without a dryer, clothes need to be hung out to dry. When we are here in Puglia in the summer, it is a simple task to carry the clothes to our terrace, hang them on the clothesline, and bring them down a few hours later. In the winter, the challenge is finding a spot where clothes will dry as quickly as possible. Like most Italian households, we have an indoor folding clothesline, which we set up in front of our radiator. When we run out of space, we lay socks or other small items directly on the radiator itself, only when we are in the house, but please do not tell anyone about that. Insights I have not read a scientific study on the topic, but our local friends claim that their system of washing, front-loading machines and longer cycles, gets clothes cleaner and is more water- and energy-efficient. They also say front-loading machines are easier on your clothes. The cleaner-clothes part makes sense to me: a longer cycle means washing more of the dirt out. I was less sure at the time how running a machine for hours could use less energy than the short cycles we were used to in California, but this was the mystery that later sent me looking for a proper answer — one I found in a follow-up post. Here in Puglia, our clothes smell and look clean. We use the quick wash cycle and have figured out how to dry our clothes in both summer and winter. If any of that changes, I will need to write another blog. More next time. If unraveling one small mystery of Italian daily life made you smile, there is a whole book of them. She Seduced Me: A Love Affair with Rome takes you through Roman life, culture, and history — the people, the streets, the history hiding behind the everyday. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/She-Seduced-Me-Love-Affair/dp/B0D9L7CJ8R

A Foreigner's Confession It might be interesting to share how we pulled off living in Italy for part of the year. I will post some steps and what we are learning along the way. We love every minute of it, and what was once a dream is now our life! We live in Tuscany in the fall, return again in the spring, and spend the rest of the time in California. Step 1: Today's mystery In a previous blog I wrote about the mystery of the Italian washing machine, and in another I tackled the mystery of the missing toilet seat. Today the subject is the bidet, that low porcelain basin you will find in nearly every Italian bathroom, sitting next to the toilet and leaving most foreign visitors scratching their heads — or scratching something else. Step 2: The first encounter The first time I saw a bidet, I was a young traveler with a light suitcase, cheap accommodations, and no easy way to do laundry. I walked into a small Italian bathroom and there it was, a low porcelain basin next to the toilet, with running water and what seemed to be just the right height for washing things. To me the purpose was obvious. This was for washing out my socks and underwear, and it was much better than using the bathroom sink, since I did not have to share with the toothbrushes. I scrubbed my laundry, wrung it out, hung it on the radiator, and went to bed pleased with my discovery. Step 3: The Rome years Later I lived in a student dormitory/apartment in Rome, and for the first time I had my own bathroom with my own bidet. I continued the practice I had worked out as a traveler, washing my socks, T-shirts, and the occasional handwashable item in the bidet whenever I needed to. This went on for quite a while, and I had no reason to question what I was doing. Step 4: The colleague's revelation Then one day an Italian colleague, in the course of a casual conversation, explained what the bidet was actually for. I looked at him incredulously, and he looked at me incredulously, and there was a long pause while we both reconsidered everything we thought we knew about each other. I asked him, "Why not just jump in the shower?" He asked me, "Why not just use the bidet?" It was a stalemate. Step 5: But still, why? I have to admit that though I now have some understanding of the concept of the bidet, I still don't quite get it. If I need to wash something, I jump in the shower, because that is what showers are for, and they wash everything in one go. Why install a second appliance specifically for one small region of the anatomy? My colleague's answer was that the shower is for the whole body, while the bidet is for the targeted region multiple times a day, without having to commit to a full shower each time. I understand the logic, but I still do not do it. The shower remains my one-stop solution. Step 6: Another cultural viewpoint To be fair, I should give the Italians and other cultures their due, because for them this is not a mystery — it is basic hygiene, as ordinary as brushing your teeth. The bafflement from their side runs the other direction: how does the rest of the world manage without one? And Italy is not the only country where the bidet is still common. It remains in regular use in Portugal, Spain, Greece, parts of the Balkans, Turkey, Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, and much of the Middle East. The bidet is required by law in Italy. A Ministerial Decree issued on July 5, 1975, Article 7, states that every Italian home must contain at least one bathroom equipped with a toilet, a bidet, a bathtub or shower, and a sink. This is not a recommendation. The Certificato di Agibilità, the document that certifies a home is fit for occupancy, depends on it. No bidet means no certificate, and no certificate means the home cannot easily be sold. The custom predates the law, and the custom made the law possible. A friend here explained the logic to me, and it's hard to argue with: why go to the trouble of a full shower every time, when a quicker clean-up will do? The bidet handles that in between — fast, targeted, no water heater required. It also uses far less water overall. On a hot summer afternoon, when standing under the water again would be overkill, a quick visit to the bidet does the job without burning through half an hour and a tank of hot water. What surprises most people is that the bidet was not invented in Italy. It was invented in France in the early 1700s, originally for the personal hygiene of the aristocracy. The word "bidet" is old French for "pony," because to use one you would straddle it. The French passed it along to Italy through aristocratic households, and over the centuries the two countries quietly swapped roles: France gradually drifted away from the bidet, while Italy doubled down. Today Italian bidets are an export industry. Still, Italy stands apart. It is the only country in the world where more than three-quarters of bathrooms have a bidet. And looked at globally, the bidet-free bathroom, standard in the United States and most of the English-speaking world, is the unusual case rather than the norm. Insights Since I learned what the bidet is actually for, I have not been able to bring myself to wash my socks in it again. But the whole bidet question opens up something larger. The fact that different cultures approach the same things differently does not mean that one way is better or worse, right or wrong. It just means that cultures evolve differently, and over time they arrive at different answers to the same everyday questions. And those differences, even when they leave me scratching my head, are part of what makes living overseas an adventure. More next time. If you enjoy this kind of look at Italian life, you may enjoy my book — which finds the same magic in Rome and beyond, through the people who live there and the ones who lived there long ago. She Seduced Me: A Love Affair with Rome — a book of Italian life, culture, and history, told through my own experience of the city, interviews with Romans and street performers, and the stories of figures like Caravaggio and the senators of ancient Rome. "Brings the city lying behind the tourist façade to life." — LibraryThing review https://www.amazon.com/She-Seduced-Me-Love-Affair/dp/B0D9L7CJ8R