30 January, 2022
This house will be our new home in Italy. It started out as a small stone cottage and was purchased by a British woman (Pamela) who had always wanted to live in the Cotswolds but couldn't afford it. So she went to Italy and found this property. For over six years, she lovingly restored and enlarged the house. With rising health issues, her family back in England wanted her to return so they could help care for her (and have her babysit the grandchildren). But she just couldn't sell the house. So she posted it for rent on Facebook, where I immediately messaged her. After many emails, consults with our How to Move to Italy advisor Samantha Wilson, and a virtual tour of the house, in August 2021 Mike and I signed a 4+4 lease to begin 1 November. That means we have a 4-year lease which is renewable for another 4 years.
We had scheduled an interview with the Italian consulate in Chicago for 30 September, hoping to be able to move the first of November. But we didn't get approval from them until 27 December. We had changed our flight to Rome twice already and now we had to change it again.
This is because we had hit a big bump in the road when, on 11 December, Mike had a heart attack. We knew our move date would be pushed back, but picked up our passports with our visas anyway. Mike's doctors said that moving to Italy should be no problem as health care in Italy is really good. But we wanted to be sure he was stable enough and well into cardio rehab, so we postponed our move until 2 March. Fortunately Pamela was agreeable to that. We insisted on paying rent.
Then we hit another big bump in the road. Our insurance (Cigna Global) dropped us. And having private health insurance is a requirement for obtaining residency. We must have a year of paid private health insurance in order to get what's called Permesso di Sogiorno (permit to stay). Of course, once we get that, we are eligible to sign up for the Italian health care system.
Comments