My Experience Moving to Italy
Nobody believes you when you’re in high school and you say, “When I grow up, I’m going to move to Italy.” I know, because nobody believed me.
I ran into another issue with my grandfather’s death certificate. His name, along with his father’s, were spelled incorrectly. I had to amend them both in order to be accepted by Italy’s high bureaucratic standard. And unfortunately, the state of Massachusetts doesn’t make name corrections easy. I was surprised to find out that state documents, like marriage certificates, cannot be amended at all! The death certificate however, had more wiggle room. I was able to go directly to the funeral home and have them submit the request to amend the record. Although they fixed my grandfather’s name, they were unable to fix his father’s name because there was not enough room on the form! Luckily, the comune worker who accepted my application was unbothered by this minor misspelling.
The more time that passed, the more people around me started to voice their doubts about my plans. I realized that nobody actually believed me when I said I was going to move to Italy. It wasn’t just the citizenship process and document collection they found dubious. They asked me questions like: what are you actually going to do once you’re a recognized Italian citizen? Find a local job?
I didn’t sleep at all for two whole months. Finally, when the officially amended laws took effect on May 24, 2025, I knew that I had to get to Italy before the government decided to take the changes any further and forever lock me out from obtaining Italian citizenship by descent. I booked my plane ticket in early June and arrived by mid-June. My head was spinning. My family was shocked and confused. They couldn’t believe I was getting on a plane to go live in a small town in Sicily that I had never even been to before, with only $1800 in my pocket, and a dream.
I arrived in Sicily on June 18, 2025, and was recognized as an Italian citizen on September 10th of that same year. Over a year later, the number one question I get from people is this: Was it worth it?
