Bologna: Residency Recon

Our days visiting family in İzmir tend to be busy anyway. They have been especially packed since making the decision to pursue being expats in Italy by applying for an ERV (Elective Residence Visa).

We’ve been looking into what it all means, and it’s given us a bit of confidence that things might actually work out.

🇮🇹 We better understand the tax stuff … the good news is that the tax treaty between the USA and Italy helps soften the blow.

🇮🇹 We’ve got a list of what we need to do to get an ERV … and it looks like we’re well-qualified for meeting those requirements.

🇮🇹 We’ve picked Bologna as our home base.

Why Bologna? Why not! Can you imagine eating as much tagliatelle al ragù as you want? Or mortadella? Or ricotta and fig gelato? And so much more. All specialties of what some call “Italy’s most delicious city!”

Seriously, though. We want to be in the north of the country. We want somewhere less crowded and less touristy than Rome, Venice, or Florence. We want a spot that’s easy to get around … that is a good transportation hub. We want a place that has a good mix of culture and history. And we want it to have easy access to all the services necessary for setting up residency. Bologna fits the bill.

But! And it’s a big but … we’ve never been to Bologna! We don’t know the city firsthand. Our knowledge comes only from what we’ve read about it in our research.

So, to rectify the situation, we are leaving today for a three-week recon trip to Bologna.

Most of our time will be spent ‘working’, so to speak. But we’re expecting to have fun too as we get to know the city we’re hoping will be our home for a while.Read more