Possible to move to italy?

Question

I am 21 years old. I live in America and have graduated college. I currently work full time and save to pay off school and try to put some money away for a house of my own. My girlfriend is full blown Italian. Her immediate family lives here along with her fathers side of the family. Her mothers side lives in Italy still. To clarify, her mother lives in America.

We discuss about moving to Italy. I am a care free type of person that feels that I am living once and should just give it a shot and move. She worries about the specifics a bit more than me. Obviosly the biggest question that comes to mind is, is it affordable?

We both currently live at home as she is completing college. Again, I work full time. After saving as much money as possible, is it possible for an American couple to move overseas to Italy and find work. Not only find work, but a job that will pay enough to afford a house? We would settle for something really small and are fine with the basics. We would like to make enough to live there and a little extra to save money for the future.

I was briefly reading the forums and noticed there are a few people that live in Italy that are active on these forums. I would greatly appreciate your input. If you have any questions that need to be answered before you can give a full answer, let me know. An example would be if I know the language. I am learning Italian but I am not fluent yet. The girlfriend fully speaks, reads and writes the language.

Answer 1

I personnel wouldn't move to Italy and I lived their for over 13 years and had worked on a American Military base even though her family is Italian the paper work alone will take months and also do you speak Italian?

  If you don't it's harder and wages aren't very good even if you got a education.

  Believe you would have better way of life in the states, but what you need to do is go to Italy for up to 3 months and try but I think you will agree it will a nice place to visit but you couldn't afford to live there.        

Answer 2

The euro has hurt the economy in Italy, and things have gotten  much more expensive than they used to be. The cost of living is higher. The dollar is not worth much. Jobs are hard to find, and housing is expensive. It's a beautiful country, but personally I wouldn't want to try to move there without having a job first.  

Answer 3

hey there!  first of all, are you planning on going JUST on a tourist visa?  i'll assume you are.  so, as an american you can only be there for 3 months, but i've been here, flown in and out for the last 2 years on nothing but my "3 month" tourist visa. (I'm american as well).  I've never had problems being here.  the only issues i've had is flying out of the states if i do not have a return ticket.  i usually say that i'm back-packing around and don't know where i'll end up.  or you can just buy a cheap outgoing ticket to london as you have 6 months there instead of only 3.  as far as a job, you'd probably have trouble finding a well paying job.  i know a lot of americans on only tourist visas (including myself) that work at pubs and teach english, but don't expect to make enough to put aside for a house.  

so this is all i can tell you I'm afraid!  hope it helps a little!